PZ Myers. 2005 Nov 21. Take the Kansas science exam. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/take_the_kansas_science_exam/>. Accessed 2008 Nov 20.
Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Monday, November 21, 2005
Take the Kansas science exam
The Minneapolis Star Tribune sometimes has exactly the right attitude towards creationism. This weekend, they posted sample questions for the new Kansas science exams. I've put the whole thing below the fold. How well will you do?
(Via PowerLiberal)
Beginning in 2008, public school students in Kansas will be tested under that state's new science standards, which open the door to criticism of evolution. Here are sample questions -- some new, some adapted from current biology exams -- to help them get ready.
1. Some sources suggest the earth is approximately 4.55 billion years old. Others estimate the earth is 6,012 years old. Without favoring one estimate over the other, calculate the likely age of God. Show your work.
2. The presidency of George W. Bush is an example of:
a. Heredity
b. Parasitism
c. Survival of the fittest
d. Predestination
e. Judicial activism
f. Divine intervention
3. If male zebra finches are raised by foster parents of another species, the Bengalese finch, they will court female Bengalese finches instead of females of their own kind. Which statement best explains their behavior?
a. Birds are animals!
b. Imprinting
c. Gold-digging
d. What happens in Bengal stays in Bengal
e. Co-habituation
f. If you'd ever had the chance to court a Bengalese finch, you wouldn't have to ask
4. The fossil record contains:
a. Fossils
b. Gaps
c. Skips
d. A couple of hits, but mostly B-sides
e. An elaborately, not to say intelligently, designed hoax consisting of pre-aged rocks arranged in the shapes of bones, teeth, footprints and eggs
5. Evolutionists claim that some moths have changed color to blend in with their background. This is an example of:
a. Assimilation
b. Tokenism
c. Natural selection
d. Hate speech
e. Social climbing
f. Mistaken identity
6. After a population of laboratory animals has been allowed to breed randomly for a number of generations, 49 percent display a recessive trait (bb), the same percentage as at the beginning of the breeding program. The rest of the animals show the dominant phenotype, with heterozygotes indistinguishable from the homozygous dominants. Question: Um ... if you were writing a really hard test for the Kansas School Board, what might you ask about this? (Extra credit if your question gives a hint about what that "homo" thing means.)
7. Men are to apes as:
a. Gingerbread men are to ginger snaps
b. Cats are to kittens
c. Rock is to rap
d. Schnauzers are to snails
e. "Planet of the Apes," the original film starring the incomparable Charlton Heston, is to "Planet of the Apes," the remake, starring nobody
8. The bones of a human arm are homologous (another homo word) to structures in all of the following except:
a. A frog's extra leg
b. A spiral galaxy's arm
c. A camouflaged moth's wing
d. A right whale's flipper
e. A child's left behind
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Hope you're feeling better PZ, but you could answer all these questions with just the right hand side of the keyboard.
#: Posted by on 11/21 at 03:35 PM
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Personally, I find this article offensive, and I fear it's just the beginning of a whole new round of offensive material directed at the innocent victims of the evil people who hold a slim majority on the Board of Education.
Creationist idiots may think they are only doing people favors when they pull shit like this, but the result is everyone mocking normal, rational, intelligent people. Everyone in the state is going to end up paying for the crimes of just a few, and that is a damn shame.
I'd almost feel like suing the creationist idiots if I ever find my employment chances compromised by people viewing my childhood education as less valuable now (despite the fact that it was perfectly good and I learned education in school like everyone else).
Also insulting, completely separate from the patronizing tone of the piece, is how the writer harps on "homo" as if to imply that people from Kansas are somehow backwards hicks who think gay people ought to be burned, or something.
Please. Repeating that sort of thing over and over again just makes the stereotyping worse for those who have to live with it.#: Posted by on 11/21 at 04:16 PM - I've never done so poorly on a test before in my life! LOL
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I loved this commentary and figured you would spy it--but where's the question about the bacterial flagellum? Where are those flippin' flagella?
9. The significance of bacteria flagella is:
a. Creationists flogged themselves with them during the Black Plague.
b. Creationists flogged themselves with them during the Dover Trial.
c. They made Bush's dad sick in Japan.
d. They are evidence of "design," like seeing the face of Jesus on a cut-off tree branch in Texas.
e. They help the bacteria catch northerns during the fishing opener.#: Posted by Kristine Harley on 11/21 at 04:32 PM -
To LehningerStryer, keep in mind those "evil people" were elected by the people of Kansas. Let's wait to see if those voters toss the evil people out of office and replace them with members who will reverse these idiotic policies. Until then, they will be ridiculed because of the direct results of their electoral decisions. Don't want to be mocked? Then don't elect these evil people to the Education Board. It's sad that "we all can't just get along," but I have no pity for the people of Kansas right now.
#: Posted by on 11/21 at 04:57 PM
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For someone who prides himself on being right-thinking, you sure aren't acting very bright right now.
For one thing, you're gleefully mocking the many people who did *not* vote for the evil people in office, you're mocking those who *did* work to get them thrown out last time they did this, and you're condemning people for not paying extra special attention to an off year election, despite the fact that you yourself probably did not pay any attention to the local BoE race where you live.
Your conception of how democracy works is flawed, and worse, your sense of compassion for those suffering is lacking.#: Posted by on 11/21 at 05:09 PM -
Apologies. I noticed that it wasn't an off year election, but it was a minor election with no big campaign banners. Most people got blindsided by the creationists last year.
#: Posted by on 11/21 at 05:14 PM
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This is not mocking the people of Kansas, but the elected gang of know-nothings who will be responsible for the science standards.
Here's what I think of Kansas. -
LehningerStryer:
Hey... misery doesn't love company, it demands it. I have to travel abroad and listen to co-workers lecture me on how dumb Americans are for electing Bush.#: Posted by on 11/21 at 11:18 PM -
Also insulting, completely separate from the patronizing tone of the piece, is how the writer harps on "homo" as if to imply that people from Kansas are somehow backwards hicks who think gay people ought to be burned, or something.
Well, it is the state of Fred Phelps.
No, that's unfair - I know that Kansas is doing a lot to keep him down, but it is understandable why people can get a less than favorable impression of Kansas given teh fact that they hear about Phelps and see that the people from Kansas elect Creastionists to their schoolboards again.
Apologies. I noticed that it wasn't an off year election, but it was a minor election with no big campaign banners. Most people got blindsided by the creationists last year.
Do the people of Kansas really get blindsided by the Creationists so often? It's not like that bunch (though probably not the individuals) haven't been elected in Kansas before. When are the people of Kansas going to wake up, and put a stop to this each and every time it's attempted?#: Posted by on 11/22 at 01:47 AM -
Gives a whole new added signifigance, for people out of state, to Dorothies line to Toto about "not being in Kansas" anymore.
Apologies to intelligent and honest residents of Kansas, but I wouldn`t want my intellect to be a resident of Kansas anymore than i would want it to be a resident of Saudi Arabia.#: Posted by on 11/22 at 03:29 AM -
FWIW: Half the Kansas B of E is up for election every 2 years. The next election is in 2006.
#: Posted by on 11/22 at 11:37 AM
- Regarding question 6: I'd like to know why the recessives make up fully half of the population, and not a quarter.
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Do the people of Kansas really get blindsided by the Creationists so often? It's not like that bunch (though probably not the individuals) haven't been elected in Kansas before. When are the people of Kansas going to wake up, and put a stop to this each and every time it's attempted?
It's easy to see how any populace could get hoodwinked by stealth candidates in school board/Board of Education elections. They aren't very high profile in the first place, and when they essentially lie about their agenda, they can easily sneak by. The people of Kansas tossed the last batch of yahoos out, and I'm confident they will again.
That said, one of the school board members who voted against this travesty said this will make Kansas' educational system a laughingstock, and clearly it has. It's a natural consequence, and I hope the people of Kansas *are* embarrassed by this, just as I am embarrassed daily by the president I didn't vote for. It should be a motivator to fix the problem.
Still, I interpreted this snark as a slam on the decision to ravage the curriculum, not on the population of Kansas. I did an informal survey of friends and asked, in as nonleading a way as possible, how they interpreted it, and they all said it was a parody of the system. I feel your pain, LehningerStryer, but it's not as bad as you think. We are all surrounded by enough nitwits to make the rest of us embarrassed. My state once gave a primary win to Pat Robertson, and I live in the home of the Discovery Institute. Yuck.#: Posted by on 11/22 at 12:33 PM -
For one thing, you're gleefully mocking the many people who did *not* vote for the evil people in office, you're mocking those who *did* work to get them thrown out last time they did this, and you're condemning people for not paying extra special attention to an off year election, despite the fact that you yourself probably did not pay any attention to the local BoE race where you live.
I think that's unlikely--surely this blog would make any reader hyper-paranoid of their local BoE. I know I spent quite a lot of time researching mine, and I would be very surprised if Dr. Myers didn't do likewise.
Regarding question 6: I'd like to know why the recessives make up fully half of the population, and not a quarter.
Presumably because the recessive allele is present in much higher frequency than the dominant--its frequency would be 70%, assuming Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. You only get 1/4 recessive phenotype if the two alleles have equal frequencies. I'm going to attempt to mindread and say you're thinking of the classic F1 hybrid cross--where the parents of the entire population are both heterozygotes, so the alleles have equal frequencies automatically. But in the more general case, under H-W equilibrium, whatever frequencies the alleles start at, they stay at.#: Posted by on 11/22 at 01:22 PM - Is everyone from Kansas such a pussy? I'm from Mississippi. People make fun of my state. *I* make fun of my state. Big deal.