Kendall Giles

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a comprehensive review of U.S. state science standards, the first since 2000. State science class standards lay out the course work and expectations for students in each grade - from kindergarten through high school.

For Virginians, the report gave some good news, as Virginia received an 'A', which shows that Virginia is serious about teaching science and educating their public school students. Other states that received 'A' grades are: California, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Indiana, New York, and New Mexico.

However, the report had more bad news than good, especially for other states and for the U.S. as a whole. Though the majority of states have reworked, often from scratch, their science standards since 2000, they have little to show for it. Also, it seems that the No Child Left Behind law has actually hindered quality education and has directed attention away from science. More bad news: there are more 'F' states than 'A' states. States that received an 'F' grade include: Alabama, Oregon, Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Idaho, Texas, Wisconsin, Alaska, and Kansas. Of these, Kansas in particular it appears has actually worked very hard over the last several years to hurt public school education (witness the shenanigans of the previous School Board that was recently voted out), and their 'hard work' is reflected in their grade - amazingly, but not surprisingly, Kansas did the worst of any state with an 'F-'.

I find it very troublesome that so many states do such a poor job in educating children and with so much money wasted. On the other hand, I am sure that other countries, such as India and China, are very happy that the U.S. is not serious about science education - since those countries do seem to invest in quality education, future science and technology jobs will likely be filled quite readily by their workers if folks in the U.S. are not up to the task.

Technorati Tags: academia, culture, science, virginia

A while back I noted the new Voltaic solar backpack I purchased. Well, after eight months of using and testing this pack, I have concluded that it does not work for me.

I really tried hard to like this pack. The solar panel itself is well-done, and the panel did a very good job of keeping my MP3 player and cell phone charged while I was on the go. It also promotes effective use of technology, which is always a good thing. I also appreciated the wiring of the adapters throughout the pack (down the shoulder strap, for example).

However, there are a few shortcomings that make this system not usable:

• the rechargeable battery is not firmly attached to the pack, and it falls off.
• the backpack zippers on the sides often open by themselves, which is a security risk in that things in those compartments can get lost if the zippers open spontaneously.
• the backpack zippers easily jam when opening and closing; moreover, when zipped, the teeth can easily open with just a little pressure (like when you actually carry something in the bag), causing almost total backpack failure
• the zipper closures are weak and can easily break (like when trying to unjam the zipper, as noted above).
• the shoulder straps can bite into your shoulder.

So, Voltaic had a good idea, but they implemented it on a weak/cheap backpack, that defeats the whole system.

Technorati Tags: review, technology