German schoolboy, 13, corrects NASA Asteroid figures

[comic_relief]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080415/sc_afp/spaceastronomygermany_080415214429

All you doomsayers better get ready!

comic_relief

 

[DJDamage]

Man every year I keep losing respect for NASA.

a 13 year old kid figured this out?! are you kidding me?! someone who is not yet in highscool figured some thing crucial that someone who had a Phd had miscalculated?!

Is this the reason why we don't go to Mars (or at least try to colonize the moon) and instead we try to determined the effect space has on the lives of ants?!

unbelievable.

 

[Al Moh.]

Yeah, we Germans are just great

Just kidding, I guess this will happen to the best scientists. They just forgot about the satellites and the boy didn't.
BTW, there is no highschool in Germany

 

[SmoothTalker]

I guess that's the nail in the coffin for Americans that want to say they have a good education system for math and science..

Seriously though stuff like this does happen, everyone makes mistakes - though when you release figures publicly perhaps somebody should double check.

Good for the kid though.

And a bit scary for us, 1/450 are not very long odds for this sort of thing.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Someone get in touch with that kid and have him check this:

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=51916

 

[spider_007]

LOL
4 years later - and it's still funny

 

[Latinoman]

I guess that's the nail in the coffin for Americans that want to say they have a good education system for math and science..

Seriously though stuff like this does happen, everyone makes mistakes - though when you release figures publicly perhaps somebody should double check.

Good for the kid though.

And a bit scary for us, 1/450 are not very long odds for this sort of thing.

Actually...at the graduate level...the U.S. has the best education in engineering, math and science. To the point that the vast majority studying there are Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanies, Europeans...and a few Americans.

 

[Latinoman]

It could actually be a mispelling/mis-quoted number. They probably had it correct in the actual calculation, but when they put it in print, they probably cut the last 3 "zeros". Or it was perhaps a miscalculation as most things in the field is done by computers and they probably forgot to multiply by a 1,000 or combined meters with kilometers or whatever.

Whichever the case, it is unexcusable to write a paper and post it without fool proofing it.

 

[SmoothTalker]

Latinoman, I know its good at the graduate level. But as you point out, most of the people that reach that level aren't American (same thing's going on in Canada), because up to high school and possibly even undergrad, its worthless.

I was more saying, a German kid knew enough math to figure this out when he's 13, even though this is pretty advanced stuff.

Its just worrisome when statistics say Canadian high schools are globally competitive, and then at the University level you start seeing all these foreign students that learned first and second year university math back when they were 15. We baby young people way too much in high school, if we want to compete in the world it's time we seriously taught some things.

There is a lot of focus on new teaching methods and pandering to different learning styles and all that jazz, but the bottom line is, extremely effective teaching isn't useful if there's no real material being taught.

 

[comic_relief]

Someone get in touch with that kid and have him check this:

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=51916

I remember when that post was first made. Ah, that takes me back.

comic_relief

 

[backbreaker]

The Avg European is smarter... WAY smarter.. than the avg american. I'm talking about the guy who didn't go to college and is working at Best Buy.

Once in college, education is GREAT. outside of it, it's pathetic.

there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and that gap is education.

 

[Papermoon]

1. This is one boy. There are child geniuses everywhere, so let's not get carried away.
2. The kid got help from an university profesor.
3. While it is always fun to talk about stupid Americans, don't underestimate your country. In germany, e.g., there is a system of 3 different kinds of highschool, only one leads to university. If you compare pupils from this school type, they will score higher then pupils from an average american highschool. But they will also score higher than the pupils from the other German types of schools.

 

[ChrizZ]

3. While it is always fun to talk about stupid Americans, don't underestimate your country. In germany, e.g., there is a system of 3 different kinds of highschool, only one leads to university. If you compare pupils from this school type, they will score higher then pupils from an average american highschool. But they will also score higher than the pupils from the other German types of schools.

We actually have 4 different kind of high schools.

Gymnasium

Real Schule

Gesamtschule

Hauptschule

You can get your A levels at two of those after 13 years of school and then go to university.

The reason why Germany always does bad in the PISA study is because of the huge amount of foreign people like turks and russians that hardly speak German and go to the easiest of the four high schools, the Hauptschule.

Gymnasium is the toughest and pretty much like college once you pass 10th grade. The thing I hate about the German school system is that you can hardly choose any of your classes.

ps: link is not working anymore...

 

[Deep Dish]

No, the 13 year old boy did not correct NASA. The story is fake.

(It did, after all, appear first in the tabloids)(Also note how Yahoo took down the story)

 

[djtdot]

Latinoman, I know its good at the graduate level. But as you point out, most of the people that reach that level aren't American (same thing's going on in Canada), because up to high school and possibly even undergrad, its worthless.

I was more saying, a German kid knew enough math to figure this out when he's 13, even though this is pretty advanced stuff.

Its just worrisome when statistics say Canadian high schools are globally competitive, and then at the University level you start seeing all these foreign students that learned first and second year university math back when they were 15. We baby young people way too much in high school, if we want to compete in the world it's time we seriously taught some things.

There is a lot of focus on new teaching methods and pandering to different learning styles and all that jazz, but the bottom line is, extremely effective teaching isn't useful if there's no real material being taught.

And to think they have eliminated calculus in Ontario :crazy:. I wish the high school system was a bit tougher here. I find it stupid that parents here are up in arms because their kid has to spend an extra 15 minutes a day on homework. What's the big deal?

 

[SmoothTalker]

Honestly, the curriculum is already separated into University prep and College prep courses. Future university students had better get used to doing A LOT more homework anyway, so I don't see how anyone with the proper perspective (ie, not high school students) can disagree that the university prep students should be learning more. Instead of cutting out calculus and geometry, they need more of those for students planning to go into engineering/math/science programs.

I was talking to a math prof that's currently trying to adjust first year math courses to deal with students going through this new curriculum, and he's worried. There are going to be kids showing up that not only have never heard of integration, now they won't even know what a derivative is, will probably never have done a real rigorous proof, and won't know what a vector is unless they took physics.


The funny (sad?) thing is that from what I've heard from family friends with young kids, apparently primary school kids are now getting swamped with tons of homework. They have it all wrong, kids at that age aren't ready to learn a lot, especially not on their own at home. By high school you should be able and ready if you plan on pursuing higher education.


PS: But it's okay, when half the class fails first year courses, we just Bell curve till it looks like people know what they're doing.

 

[comic_relief]

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/91346/wednesdays-buzz-you-missed

comic_relief

 

[Papermoon]

Yes, I forgot the Gesamtschule. But isn't that just until 10th Grade and then you can switch to Gymnasium, if you want your a-levels?

As for how many classes you can chose...it depends heavily on your federal state (as is the case with everything in Germany). I could basically chose everything as long as I had all the categories covered: science, languages etc. Loved it!

the boy is a fraud! Haha! No wonder, the Bild was having an article about him as well. Couldn't be real! :crackup: