"Dirk Van de moortel" wrote in message ...
"Patrick Reany" wrote in message om...
If science education had done its job right, you'd all be able to
correctly define the following terms: (physical) theory, (physical)
law, (physical) hypothesis, (physical) model, scientific method. So,
those of you that are so smug that you KNOW what the hell science is
really all about can define these terms for us here and now.

I can not remember one time in any class I've taken in science and
even in physics (I took the entire undergraduate core of physics
classes at a major university) in which any of these terms were
defined clearly, if they were defined at all! If your experience was
different, let us know what are those definitions you read. Please
give the references too.

In my first year at the university we had a philosophy course
which focused on both the history and on the philosophy of
science. All the science students at our university got this same
course. It was given by the most interesting man I ever met:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22et...%22&lr=lang_en
(search restricted to articles in English).
It was no doubt also the most interesting course I ever had,
and knowing your standards, I'm sure you would feel the same.
After that, no science professor ever had to explain anything
anymore about the terms you listed in your post: we knew all
about it.
So I guess we were very lucky.

Unbelievably lucky! Luckier that I was. I had to teach myself.


But anyway, "If science education had done its job right,"
... then i.m.o. this place would still have the same number
of crackpots, kooks, trolls and morons.

This I really doubt. I lay MOST of the blame for the existence of
their mindsets on the lousy way the educational system in the West
taught them science.

I think this is more
related to how this lot was -if at all- educated by their
parents at a much younger age... educated to become the
kind of people who, for the rest of their lives, resent being
educated any further.

Dirk Vdm

Dirk, what are grade school and high school students supposed to do to
understand the THEORY of evolution or Charles's Law if they have no
idea what a theory or law is? Are they supposed to wait until they get
this great course in college that you had? I assure you that most
students don't even get these terms defined for them in college or
university. You've seen it yourself on these NGs. We've had posters
tell us that relativity is ONLY a theory, not a LAW, as if a theory is
just an inferior form of a law, which it ain't. It's the educational
system itself that is to blame for these misconceptions that YOU seem
to be content to allow to continue into the distant future. An ounce
of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

How the hell are students supposed to understand science, and NOT just
develop even more misconceptions than they typically have going into
schools, if these fundamental terms are not defined properly for them
in a timely manner? Do we really want students to understand science,
or do we just want to force feed them a bunch of mindless crap to be
regurgitated back at test time?

Educators should have their own form of the Hypocratic Oath: Above all
else do no harm -- in context meaning, introduce no misconceptions
into the minds of the students. It's perhaps an impossible goal, but a
good one to strive for anyway. Why do we always set our standards so
low?

Patrick