Coronavirus Lockdown Chat

That looks a lot like part of Edward de Bono's "thinking" course. I've read a lot of that stuff hoping for inspiration - but concluded it might be is BS.
 
New lockdown, new exercise regime: keep the chocolate biscuits in another room (on a different floor if you can manage it).
 
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Is it just me, or does the Bitesize Science (currently on Red Button) aimed at 13-14 year olds seem rather basic? And the 11-12 year olds' stuff seems like primary school.

I dread to think what the maths section will be like (I don't think I'll bother). I'm pretty sure I was doing trig by the time I was 13.

...and misinformation! (11-12 year olds) Science Museum demonstration of hydrogen being "highly explosive" (wrong, it's highly flammable) is to ignite a toy balloon filled with hydrogen using a candle on a stick. Big bang, big flame - except the bang came from bursting the balloon. If they had filled the balloon with the appropriate mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, there really would have been a big bang!
 
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I really can't remember what maths I was doing when I was 13. I know I struggled a bit with some of the A level maths. (I started off doing double maths A level - but couldn't cope!)
 
Maths has certainly been dumbed down since out time. It was a real problem getting kids up to speed when teaching in uni before I retired. Trig at 13 seems about right, and loads of euclidean geometry. We did calculus for O level, differential and integral. Many kids hit uni with no calculus these days. How on earth you do physics without that I have no idea.

It is compounded by them doing different maths A levels too, so some know Stats, others Discrete, and there is little common ground. You have to run remedial courses to get them all to the same level of knowledge.

PS Can't remember chemical equations figuring anywhere in GCSE, and none of them actually do experiments, do they? Bonding and atomic shells figure in there, though.
 
I gained an AO level in Navigation. (It sat between O and A level difficulty at the time - C1968.) Part of it involved spherical trigonometry (for astro-nav).
I suspect these days it would only be found in degree level courses.
 
Scrat said:
and none of them actually do experiments, do they?
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:rolling:
Just think of the risk assessment hoops the teachers would need to jump through before the little ***** would be allowed to handle anything reactive.
I doubt they even do cooking ... sorry, domestic science ... any more because - hot!

And all that time wasted waiting for things to happen - sheesh, let's see what's on facetwit instead.
 
I distinctly remember being introduced to algebra in the final year of primary school and trig at 13. I enjoyed calculus and went on to Pure and Applied at A level but left school after the first year as a job was offered and money was very tight.
My daughter studied Applied Geology and was the only student on the course with a chemistry A level and found it hard waiting for others to be taught the basics.
 
Scrat said:
Many kids hit uni with no calculus these days. How on earth you do physics without that I have no idea.
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I remember our Physics O-Level teacher had to do a crash course in basic calculus before he could teach the physics course. Being a maths smart-alec I was already two years ahead of the game (what let me down later on the physics A-Level course was my poor eyesight which meant I just could not see what I was supposed to see on any of the experiments involving optics -unless they contained whisky :D).

Similar experience at uni where some of the first year maths courses were shared with engineering students which meant the pace was painfully slow for us maths guys.
 
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Scrat said:
and none of them actually do experiments,
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MikeSh said:
Just think of the risk assessment hoops the teachers would need to jump through before the little ***** would be allowed to handle anything reactive
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Ah. A level chemistry. Blocked sink with who knows what in it and some fool drops (I think) lithium or sodium in it. Nice bang. Woke everybody up. No damage. Wouldn't be able to do that now.
 
Gas supply and Bunsen burners on every bench...

Why has risk been legislated out of everyday life?* No wonder people are not able to take responsibility for their own actions when they have never been exposed to risk, or imagine Covid is a hoax because they live completely sheltered lives where there has been no such thing as contagious life-threatening disease within their (or their parents') memory.

* That's rhetorical - I know why: blame culture and ambulance-chasing lawyers. "If you've suffered an accident that was not your fault, you could be owed thousands...". I have news: somebody's misadventure is not necessarily somebody else's criminal negligence.
 
I have vivid memories of issue 42 and the differential equation on p329. That would be in my 4th year at grammar school, so we had already covered calculus then. I remember trying to solve the DE by "inventing" an integrating factor, only to fail, and assuming it was a bad method. 4 years later, I was learning this method at Uni.🤣🤣🤣
 
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