Fabricating data

No, this post is not about climate scientists fabricating data to make it look like the earth is warming because they’re not and the earth really is warming. This post is about Daniel’s science homework. He had to perform an experiment which involved observing the difference between evaporation in a sunny spot and evaporation in a shady spot. It seemed to me like a dumb time of year to perform this experiment as nothing much is evaporating outside at all just now. Then there’s the problem of finding some sunlight as the sun goes down not long after we get home from school.

Last week I was stressing about how we were going to do this since we had the weekend trip to Aviemore planned. I wasn’t keen to take science homework with us on our weekend away. So I did a very bad thing and fabricated the results! I explained to Daniel what would happen and told him what to draw and write. Yes, I’m a bad parent. Then I told him not to tell his teacher.

Today he came home with the science book and his teacher has written in it, “Daniel, you were supposed to do the wobbly jelly activity”. Damn! At what age do kids start taking responsibility for their own homework?

Posted

February 3, 2015

education

Rachel M

Tags:

education, homework, Kids, school, science

Comments

22 responses to “Fabricating data”

Shub Niggurath

February 3, 2015

You did what climate scientists do – write stuff up under the expectation of what you know should happen.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  February 3, 2015
  
  No, that’s not what climate scientists do.
  
  Reply
  1. …and Then There’s Physics
    
    February 3, 2015
    
    I think Shub was just illustrating what you were describing in your post, by making stuff up (he’s very good at that, you know) 😀
  2. Shub Niggurath
    
    February 3, 2015
    
    That’s what they do. Why do you assume I am implying this is wrong?
    
    There are several statistical methods of filling in data when none, or only some data are available. Scientists, and others use them. Some of it involves putting in values you expect to be found.
  3. …and Then There’s Physics
    
    February 3, 2015
    
    Shub,
    Sorry, are you really expecting me to engage in some kind of discussion? Don’t be ridiculous. That would be a complete and utter waste of my time.
cindy knoke

February 3, 2015

I’m not liking the sound of the wobbly jelly experiment.
I think it violates your religious beliefs about conducting experiments on jelly, wobbly or not.
When my daughter was in middle school. she had this crazy teacher who assigned these weekly maps where you had to locate and place themost obscure geographical features in the world county by country. None of the kids could complete these behemouth maps which took 10 or so hours each to do. So the parents started taking it over when the kids could go no further.
My friend from Brazil was incensed when she got a B- on her map of Brazil. I was royally po’d when I got a B on Africa. I wanted to go challenge the grade and argue, “I was a 4.0 student at UCSD, why are you giving me a B?
But sadly, I could not.
Oh, the injustice!
It still rankles……

Reply
1. Victor Venema
  
  February 3, 2015
  
  The daughter of a colleague of mine used to get very difficult math problems over the Christmas holidays. I wonder how parents who are not natural scientists or mathematicians solve these problems.
  
  Reply
  1. Rachel M
    
    February 4, 2015
    
    Difficult math problems over the Christmas holidays! That’s so mean. Why would they do that?
  2. Victor Venema (@VariabilityBlog)
    
    February 4, 2015
    
    If you are a scientist, they are really fun to solve, especially if you limit yourself to the methods these children have learned. Like page of Christmas crossword puzzles is some newspapers.
    
    But I would see it as hindering social mobility, expecting teenagers to solve such puzzles is somewhat optimistic.
2. Rachel M
  
  February 4, 2015
  
  Haha, that’s so funny. What’s the point of homework if the parents end up doing it?
  
  Reply
3. guthrie
  
  February 4, 2015
  
  Experimenting on wobbly jelly can be dangerous, unless you take appropriate safety precautions.
  
  Like a large sheet of plastic and easily washable clothes.
  
  Reply
perlavitablu

February 3, 2015

Zuhahahahahahaha 🙂

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  February 4, 2015
  
  I’m glad you liked it 🙂
  
  Reply
  1. perlavitablu
    
    February 4, 2015
    
    Of course I do 😛
scifihammy

February 4, 2015

hahaha Oh well, you were only trying to help Daniel. 🙂 Teachers can give the most difficult hw that takes soooo long! I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from school!

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  February 4, 2015
  
  I’ve got ages to go. One of them only just started school this year 😦
  
  Reply
  1. scifihammy
    
    February 4, 2015
    
    I know 🙂 But this young age sets them off on the right track, so well worth all the effort 🙂
fossilcyclist

February 4, 2015

That’ll learn you?

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  February 4, 2015
  
  Yes, that’s the last time I’m faking my son’s homework.
  
  Reply
BBD

February 4, 2015

Damn! At what age do kids start taking responsibility for their own homework?

Mid-thirties onwards, if in managerial roles.

Reply
1. Rachel M
  
  February 4, 2015
  
  Double damn!
  
  Reply
Shub Niggurath

February 5, 2015

Sorry ATTP, my earlier reply was not to you.

Harmless though it may be, isn’t what you did wrong? Maybe you should apologize to the science teacher.

Reply