[meteorite-list] I can't believe it!

From: tett <tett_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:46:24 2004
Message-ID: <3B033C14.1F889EFE_at_bmts.com>

So much for our Canadian education system.

In Ontario all grade 6 students are now taking five days of standardized
tests with my son, Alex, being one of them. In total there are hundreds of
thousands of kids taking these tests now.

Today the grade sixes were given a story to read and then asked to answer
questions. This story involved a young boy who witnessed a meteorite
fall. Here the boy sees the meteorite fall into a pool of water. The
water evaporates once the meteorite splashes in it. The boy then splashes
mud on the meteorite which in turn sizzles.

One of the questions asked was:

"What have you learned about meteorites"

Fortunately, Alex was able to answer that he learned nothing as this could
not happen. Alex knew that meteorites are very cold when then touch down
and that the person that wrote this story was ignorant of this fact.

The sad part is that thousands upon thousands of young kids will now
believe that meteorites land extremely hot, perpetuating the myth that one
should not touch a freshly fallen meteorite so as not to get burned.

I can't believe it!

tett
Received on Wed 16 May 2001 10:48:52 PM PDT