TARC

Greatl appreciated!

Hmmmm, How about 8 regional winners and 8 runners up competing at a big place like........Canaveral.......Wallop's Island........Black Rock........Blaine MN.........Argonia KS ;-) ........OR at NSL, regardless of where it is

That's a real problem - when the school's relationship with the government is dependent on the students' test scores in such a high-stakes manner, letting them reflect the natural outcome of the actual educational process starts to be seen as an "unacceptable risk" to the administration, which appears to be more interested in "being seen to have done well" than in an actual measurement of teaching performance (to the extent that the test even provides that).

-dave w

How about an HP-41 emulator for Windows or Palm???

I've posted this before, but it bears repeating: a few years back, our kids elementary school canceled the Science Fair for the year. As someone who did 'rocket presentations' at this school, and was involved in FSEA, I was bit put off, and asked the principal why. Her response: "The faculty will be taking a course in how not to do 'social promotion', and besides, we don't have any teachers who understand science anyway..." (that's as close to a quote as my memory can provide)

David Erbas-White

Half this thread is going in my "tell Arnold" file.

TARC may be a work in progress but progress could use more work.

As far as I knew it was up to the team to submit the attempt not the senior NAR member. So...

I guess I just don't agree. We saw allot of crashing & burning. Mostly because the upperstage APCP motor would not light.

Thanks for that also.

Did somebody outlaw Thermalite or something?

Or fail to notice its existence?

For kids without LEUPs, yes they did.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Thermalite is a traditional model rocket igniter.

Thermalite is a propellant and exempt under 27 CFR 555.141-a-8.

Thermalite can be used even if you CLAIM it is a LEUP item if ANY LEUP holder is present on site.

So with 3 hard excuse killers, what is your excuse now?

Just to clarify this a bit... Most of this testing is "low stakes" for the students and they know it. Many do not put forth an honest effort because it has no effect on thier grades or graduation, so that the testing process ss of little value in assessing performance. Some states require students to pass a "high stakes" test to graduate an students seem to put forth an honest effort on those tests. There are many factors that effect the testing. Young students taking thier first battery of standardized test try really hard to earn approval from adults. As they get older, they get more apathetic and cynical. Testing on the first day, or in the morning seems to help, but after five days of testing, thier brains have been turned to mush. Many just fill in the dots without even reading the questions, or they write insults to the test scorers, or diatribes against the testing and school system instesd of actualy doing the test. So if you want to boost math scores schedule that test first. Of courst that means the ther test subjects will fare worse. And more testing, normal class tests, older state tests, newer "Bush" tests, "high stakes" graduation tests, international tests... all has a cumulative counterproductive effect on the overtested students, and it takes away from education time as well.

Can I get a job with them? I don't have a teaching certificate, but I am a math whiz, and I am familiar with standardized tests and testing. For that kind of money I'd even be willing to compromise my principles and just teach to the test. I'm sure certrtifed teachers feel that way too. :(

I'm not so sure about that. If you go to a high school graduation ceremony from a good scool, you may find over half the kids graduate with honors of some sort, and have high GPAs to prove it. OTOH, college freshmen (and even graduates) seem to be so much worse that when I went to college. :(

Asking the right questions is the first step to finding a solution. You are definately part of the solution and not part of the problem.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience tying to help TARC participation in your school district. Thanks for sharing.

Alan

Jerry Irvine wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

???

Thermalite is a propellant?

len.

Fuel and oxidizer. Burns underwater.

Here you would think it was a pep rally for a football game in the weeks leading up to the tests. When it's time for the assessment tests the kids are tutored not just in their studies, but told what to eat, when to go to sleep.....it's talked up, it's our school against those other schools out there. But when a school district went on strike last month the first thing bantered about was the state rankings of each school in the district, the district rankings....etc etc...it has become quite a tool to award public school teachers higher salaries than many professors. Something's askew......give me the dedicated teacher who doesn't choose a school district based on pay. They start looking for a teaching job down the street at the highest paying school district in the state, we're third on their list........I talked to a recently graduated couple (I've known her for 8 years) who stayed at their parent's home until one of them got the $55,000 to start job instead of both teaching at a school district (they had both jobs in hand and turned them down) where they both would have started at $40,000.........I guess math wasn't their strong suit, He got the job she's managing a milk store. I do not want someone like that teaching my kids

They have ways of keeping you out. ;-)

If everything is measured on the bell curve, mediocrity allows for someone to be the absolute best of average. I had to settle an arguement in New Jersey one time, two kids asked me if I could help them out. The exchange went like this

kid A----can you settle a discussion for us?

Me----I'll try

kidA---what is the name of that ocean out there?

Me---(holding a straight face) Why, it's the Atlantic ocean

Kid B---see I told you, that Pacific ocean doen't start till Cape May (southern Jersey)

Me---

Now I doubt these two were on the leading edge of the bell curve, but the point is their understanding of the basics of where they are, history, and other necessary items to compete in a small way in this world is missing. They are taught theory with no real way to interpolate it's relationship to real life. Nothing turns young minds off than to have to study something which cannot show it's worth in this world. Teach the math, show the real world reason for it, teach more math, show a higher form of how it benefits science or life. Build on not just theory, but practical too. TARC, or simply showing a rocket and using the Barrowman equation is a practical application of mathematical theory.

WOW! I know how seriously they take football. It is great to see so much interest and enthusiasm for accademic excellence.

That is just capitalism and free enterprise at work. Soon you'll be paying NFL like salaries for top draft picks and free agents. In Iowa, teachers a little less greedy and more dedicated. But let's say you have bad school. So the superintendant decides to bolster that school by reassigning top teachers from the best schools to the bad school, and he throws in a modest raise. The good teachers will not want to work there, so they quit and go work somewhere else, probably out of state. The troubled school still has to hire whatever dregs they can get, and the district has lost some of their best teachers. It's a difficult problem, and penalizing under performing schools just compounds the problem.

Alan

expense

flyoffs.

at a big

Alas, the Blaine sod farm was eaten by developer trolls. They're building 4300 housing units on 670 acres (that's on the order of a BILLION dollars worth of housing!)

--tc

well, it could have been worse

it could have "used to be" a rainforest

- iz

Ted Cochran wrote: