Author: Robert Coontz (Administrator)

Ask the GAPAs

Rosanne and Robert are in the question-and-answer business, after all. So go ahead–fling your questions their way. They promise to answer honestly and/or entertainingly, or not at all.

Rosanne and Robert are in the question-and-answer business, after all. So go ahead–fling your questions their way. They promise to answer honestly and/or entertainingly, or not at all.

(Thanks to Em for this brilliant idea for a thread.)
(And to randomrohanfreak, who proposed the idea back before R&R were ready to step into the spotlight.)

15 States Flunk School Science

How does your state measure up?

Last month the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a nonprofit education-research group in Washington, D. C., gave letter grades to public school science standards and curricula in 49 of the 50 U.S. states*. Here’s how they stacked up. (You can read the full report here.)

A: California, New Mexico, Indiana, Virginia, South Carolina, New York, Massachusetts
B: Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia
C: Washington, Utah, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island
D: Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Maine
F: Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, New Hampshire

* They skipped Iowa because it doesn’t publish school science standards.

MuseBlog RPG*, version 2006.1

*Role-playing game. To keep it interesting, the administrators are laying down a few rules and restrictions:

*Role-playing game. To keep it interesting, the administrators are laying down a few rules and restrictions. Characters may include

  • the Muses (from Muse magazine or ancient Greek mythology);
  • people or animals featured in the magazine (for example, tenrecs);
  • Muse editors and other staff members;
  • famous real people, living or dead; and
  • fictional characters first created before the year 1900.

Within the above restrictions, the choice of locations and adventures is up to you. This may require a little research, but we’re sure you can handle it. Fair enough?

Poem for December 30

In case you missed it, Nancy Kangas (inventor of Ble and NOTscape, among many other Musish delights) left this on the poetry thread:

In case you missed it, Nancy Kangas (inventor of Ble and NOTscape, among many other Musish delights) left this on the poetry thread:

December 30th
when the library’s still open
when the mail still comes
when it’s not really a holiday
but feels like one.

December 30th
when there’s still no school
when you have a few free days left
when the creeping crush of undone work
swells up slow but surely.