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What were you taught in science class?
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What were you taught in science class?
Nothing but discoveries which scientists have arrived at.
8%
 8%  [ 3 ]
We also learned about how a scientist arrives at those discoveries.
80%
 80%  [ 29 ]
I don't know. I have forgotten as much as I could.
5%
 5%  [ 2 ]
Other (please specify).
5%
 5%  [ 2 ]
Total Votes : 36

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tomato



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:56 pm    Post subject: What were you taught in science class? Reply with quote

Just curious.
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laogaiguk



Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This should also include if there was a lab component. That would be a major factor. No one could have done a lab properly without knowing how you were to get that information.
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VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

High school science classes were very poorly designed and taught. Very little history and NO sense of mystery: just learn the facts and theories. Too college prep oriented. For instance, Biology was a joke all about memorizing body parts, latin names and more names. Dissecting a frog was just to add a kinetic experience to the memorizing process. No real sense of discovery. Also, Chemistry was like math: learn how to operate formulas. No attempt at learning how to analyse a substance to identify it. However, Physics was taught from observation through experimentation to hypothesis building and testing, very fun and requiring one to actually think.

Science education before high school was largely about memorizing timelines and names and dates, basically a typical (bad) history lesson.

This all from the provincially-mandated curriculum of B.C. in Canada in the eighties.
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RACETRAITOR



Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The classes I had a problem with were chemistry classes. They taught us an outdated atomic theory which has since been dismissed by real scientists. They even told us this, but that the curriculum hadn't changed, and I guess this theory had all the basic skills we needed to learn.

It always makes me wonder why wackos are protesting the theory of evolution rather than the theory of the atom. I think what we find out about atoms has far more serious repercussions about existence and the state of the universe.
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Green Tea



Joined: 04 Nov 2006

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Science class?

We had "science class" from grade 6 to grade 10, then we could choose Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. I took Biology and Physics and skipped Chemistry because it conflicted with Electronics class.

It was mostly experiments and hands on learning.
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ED209



Joined: 17 Oct 2006

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I slept through science class so can't tell you a whole lot.

TV taught me a lot more. In the UK we have something called the Royal Christmas Lectures which were really cool. The one by Dawkins made me really think about evolution(back then I knew I was related to a monkey but that was it). There was another lecture called 'The Cosmic Onion' all about how the universe is constructed. These were really good lectures for kids and would last one hour a day for the two weeks over xmas. I wish I could find them on DVD.

Although I must add there is a lot of pseudo science on the telly now so I would be wary of using it to teach kids .
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Wrench



Joined: 07 Apr 2005

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I loved science one of my best subjects in school
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atlhockey



Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Jeonju City

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I went to a science and math school, we had full labs once a week in every science class -- I mean, we replicated DNA in genetics. So yeah, we learned how scientists reached their discoveries. But I doubt I would've had the same at my first high school.
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seoulunitarian



Joined: 06 Jul 2004

PostPosted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 11:17 pm    Post subject: re: Reply with quote

Having attended Pensacola Christian Academy from pre-kindie through 12th grade, I was taught creationism and other pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo. They even made it look like Einstein was a creationist. Of course, I only needed to do a bit of extra-curricular reading to discover the farce that is private Christian education.

Peace
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jajdude



Joined: 18 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Physics was the only hard science I took in high school. Before that I think science was just a general subject everybody did, and it wasn't as focused or specific as the big three is high school (Physics, biology, chemistry).

I kind of liked physics. We had a very smart teacher. Some of the topics were interesting, like optics and gravity. It was harder in university, only did first year there.
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merlot



Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Location: I tried to contain myself but I escaped.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I took oceanography and earth science in university. 4.0 in science and it's my weakest subject (second to math, which nearly cost me my degree).

Anyway, I learned that it's the US government�s fault that the whales and such animals beach themselves-- something about underwater tests and submarines. They can't stand the "sound environments" these various things produce and it confuses their natural mindsets.

Bastards�
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laogaiguk



Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea

PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

merlot wrote:
I took oceanography and earth science in university. 4.0 in science and it's my weakest subject (second to math, which nearly cost me my degree).

Anyway, I learned that it's the US government�s fault that the whales and such animals beach themselves-- something about underwater tests and submarines. They can't stand the "sound environments" these various things produce and it confuses their natural mindsets.

Bastards�


Wow, are you sure you meant to post that here? I do see the link, but wow!
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Hans Blix



Joined: 31 Mar 2005

PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

to a fairly limited extent i was taught how these theories were arrived at. mostly it was demonstration of their applications.
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Privateer



Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

RACETRAITOR wrote:
The classes I had a problem with were chemistry classes. They taught us an outdated atomic theory which has since been dismissed by real scientists. They even told us this, but that the curriculum hadn't changed, and I guess this theory had all the basic skills we needed to learn.

It always makes me wonder why wackos are protesting the theory of evolution rather than the theory of the atom. I think what we find out about atoms has far more serious repercussions about existence and the state of the universe.


Yeah, but atomic theory is far simpler to teach, still of great practical use, and will help you understand the latest theories better too when you get to a more advanced level.

Same goes for Newtonian physics. It's a base, not gospel.

The problem I had with chemistry class was my experiments rarely turned out the way theory said they should. The really cool demonstrations like sodium reacting with water, or magnesium burning, of course went perfectly but the teacher always did those. Can't remember much of what we did except it involved titration and bunsen burners and writing up reports afterwards, often faking the results.
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butlerian



Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Location: Korea

PostPosted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Privateer wrote:
RACETRAITOR wrote:
The classes I had a problem with were chemistry classes. They taught us an outdated atomic theory which has since been dismissed by real scientists. They even told us this, but that the curriculum hadn't changed, and I guess this theory had all the basic skills we needed to learn.

It always makes me wonder why wackos are protesting the theory of evolution rather than the theory of the atom. I think what we find out about atoms has far more serious repercussions about existence and the state of the universe.


Yeah, but atomic theory is far simpler to teach, still of great practical use, and will help you understand the latest theories better too when you get to a more advanced level.

Same goes for Newtonian physics. It's a base, not gospel.

The problem I had with chemistry class was my experiments rarely turned out the way theory said they should. The really cool demonstrations like sodium reacting with water, or magnesium burning, of course went perfectly but the teacher always did those. Can't remember much of what we did except it involved titration and bunsen burners and writing up reports afterwards, often faking the results.


Your problems were probably due to a lack of cleanliness.
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