Show Me The Evidence, Please

[BPSDB]I previously wrote here on the Times OnLine’s slightly inaccurate description of the effect of ‘Health & Safety’ on school science practicals and illustrated my point with examples of supposedly banned experiments still performed at my school. One commenter pointed out that this was really just anecdotal evidence and countered with an anecdote of her own to the effect that practical work had decreased at the school attended by her daughters.

The Times Gets It Slightly Wrong About Science Education

[BPSDB]Sometimes I think that the Press and I live in parallel universes. What else can explain the fact that they publish stuff as news that I know to be false? They even claim that stuff I do on a regular basis as part of my job as a school lab technician never actually happens.

Simple Sums Stump Daily Mail Hacks

[BPSDB]
In their eagerness to bash public sector workers here, both the journalist and the sub-editor neglected to do some simple arithmetic that would have shown they were writing nonsense.

Unclean, Unclean!

[BPSDB]
The H1N1 pandemic seems to have caused over-reaction in some quarters. A colleague on a training course was greeted with all the enthusiasm one would expect for a leper turning up at a society wedding.

An Inspector Calls

During the course of this Bad Science thread I took the initiator to task for trotting out what I called “the tired old canard” about health and safety issues restricting science teaching. While there is no truth to the urban myths about the Health and Safety Executive banning all kinds of things, I sometimes wonder if the bureaucracy and over-interpretation of legislation is contributing to the view that science (and technology for that matter) are too much hassle.

Just What Schools Need – More Paperwork

I found a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) full disclosure form in my pigeon-hole today. According to the covering memo, since April 2008 schools have been required to do CRB checks on their staff every three years.

Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Worse

[BPSDP] If you thought the Durham fish-oil saga was bad enough, according to this in the Times Education Supplement, someone has found an even more unethical way to cash in. Thanks to Paul Thompson for pointing this out to me.

The Latest Message From Planet Durham

[BPSDB] I thought that I had written the last about the Durham fish oil saga but there has been another bizarre emission from Durham County Council.

Bad Science – The Book

[BPSDB]Book reviews are a new departure for me but since I’ve tapped Fourth Estate for a freebie copy of Ben Goldacre’s book, I’d better keep my side of the bargain and review it.

Final Instalment of the Fish Oil Saga

I have had a final response from the Information Commissioner on my attempts to find out what brought about the decision to procede with the fish oil trial initiative.