Front Page London Times

Astronomy is on the front page of the Times this morning, but not the way you would prefer. As my wife said when she brought the paper in and handed it to me, "You'll love this!"

The story is about the dumbing down of science exams in schools. The picture of V838 Mon is nice, but the question, stated in very small print to be from Edexcel, is:
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Q
Chei and Jas visit an observatory with their class. The astronomers who work there show them some instruments they use to find out about many different types of stars

Many people observe the stars using

A a telescope
B a microscope
C an X-ray tube
D a synthesiser
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As an astronomer and observatory director who organises observatory school tours and who gives some of the tours himself, all I can say is that Edexcel has a negative view of the intelligence of today's youngsters completely at odds with the impression I get.

Comments?

--
Mike Dworetsky

(Remove pants sp*mbl*ck to reply)

.

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