Obama to Appear on TV Science Show "Mythbusters"

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Obama to appear on TV science show "Mythbusters"
Mon Oct 18, 2010 3:29pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said Monday he is appearing on "Mythbusters," a television series that uses science to separate fact from fiction.

Obama's appearance on the popular Discovery Channel show is part of a White House effort to highlight the importance of science, math and engineering as experts warn that low interest in these subjects among U.S. students could hurt the economy.

It is one of several non-traditional appearances by the president, who joined an MTV "town hall" meeting last week and was interviewed on the daytime talk show "The View" ...

- snip -

The Obama episode, to air on December 8, reprises an earlier debunking of the 2,000-year-old story that Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes set fire to an invading Roman fleet using a system of mirrors to focus the sun's rays.

Read more: http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69H3GH20101018?ca=rdt

[CreekDog]

1. They are going to prove he's not Muslim

Thank God!

[sakabatou]

3. "Do you pray to Allah?"

"No."
"Myth busted!"

[awoke_in_2003]

13. or are the gonna prove...

he is not kenyan?

[truthisfreedom]

15. You must mean Muslin.

Birther spelling.

[Jkid]

2. Why there is low interest?

Obama's appearance on the popular Discovery Channel show is part of a White House effort to highlight the importance of science, math and engineering as experts warn that low interest in these subjects among U.S. students could hurt the economy.

The real reason is that many middle schoolers and high schoolers are more focus on the teach to the test mentality from NCLB.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. "are more focus on the teach..."

Not to change the subject, but I've seen this grammatical error a LOT in the last several days, where a past-tense "ed" is dropped from the word in an otherwise grammatically correct sentence.

"are more focused"

Is this a result of twitter, causing people to drop seemingly superfluous letters to fit the 140 character restrictions? Or is it people simply writing what they hear, and they are not hearing the 'ed' in reference to past-tense speech?

[snooper2]

19. I think it's a result of our shitty education system

And laziness...

When was the first video game console introduced again?

[no limit]

10. I think the problem is with shitty teaching agendas

reading from a book and being asked to memorize useless things really doesn't do much to motivate young people about science.

I didn't care about math or science in anyway during high school, I got interested in it long after. If the teaching curriculum would have been different I think that I would have been much more interested in things like physics at the time. Then again maybe I'm just looking for excuses as to why I was such a bum during high school.

[Bette Noir]

17. "Science" published a study last wee, iirc, demonstrating that

the biggest factor in whether students choose to major in science, math, and engineering, is how good their first teacher in the subject was.

We need to start attracting talented teachers to elementary and secondary schools. Good luck with that-- I've known some mighty talented teacher who wanted to teach early grades, but gave up after abuse by lousy principals.

edited to add:

No link. It's subscription only.

[Igel]

18. I watched the 1st grade teachers at my kid's school dance.

They said that they were currently teaching the concept "mass". They started to say it was "weight," backed off (because mass isn't "weight", it's mass). One teacher spoke over the others and said she just taught mass was weight.

Then she put her hands on her hips and glared at them, waiting for somebody to say she exactly in what way she was a buffoon. The teachers couldn't explain the difference to each other. (Resisting the temptation to explain to the buffoon exactly how she was a fool didn't cross my mind: I was in in shock that they'd have the hubris to undertake teaching this.)

No way of getting to "mass" by means of inertia or momentum. No way to get at "mass" by looking at weight, i.e., mass x acceleration. Many of the kids simply didn't get it, from what I can observe. They think they did; what they say is what their teachers said. 'Nuff said about that particular boil on the body of science.

Then, without batting an eye, they said the next unit would be on "energy" and how heat, motion, etc., etc. were all energy and that energy could be freely converted from one form to another. They don't understand springs, batteries, motors, have no clue about anything practical, but the kids are being taught Big Abstractions. Poorly. (Or not at all, but told they've been taught them.)

Lunacy. Utter lunacy.

[Posteritatis]

20. I can see that to a point

My first history teacher was a trainwreck of ineptitude and left me hating the subject until I lucked into a fantastic one several years later. What's now my favorite subject I hated for most of my K-12 career.

[CreekDog]

4. Poor Obama

he'd get less abuse if he was doing Buster's job.

:hide:

[Blue Owl]

5. I'll tell you one myth that needs busting:

That GWB was actually elected -- TWICE.

Or that electronic voting is accurate -- now there's a myth I'd like to see busted.

[theoldman]

6. Next thing Obama will try to do is convince us the earth is not the center of the universe.

This will prove that he is a Muslim and not a Christian. After all, the Muslims were way ahead of Christians in science and mathematics a thousand years ago.

[awoke_in_2003]

14. Too bad they regressed...

and we are heading that direction, also.

[Drale]

8. Maybe they'll but the myth

that the Tea Party is a major power?

[AtheistCrusader]

9. I'm hoping for the absolute masterstroke: birth cert.

Bonus points if he shows it to the crew, they agree it's real, but he doesn't show it to the cameras, so 'birthers' across the nation have their heads explode with rage.

[Politicalboi]

12. LOL!

I like that. :popcorn:

[AnnieBW]

11. Insert Birth Certificate Joke Here...

Or the myth that Obama is a socialist, communist, fascist Muslin.

[Bette Noir]

16. Squeeee!!! I love my nerdy, brainiac POTUS!