Biology teacher - adequate teacher for general science???

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Well, my scientific interests are based around Astronomy and Physics, and this year as a general science teacher (3 more years until I can choose the more specific scientific studies ) and she knows nothing (LIMITED, Nothing is slight over exaggeration) about Astronomy. She does not even know the Drake Equation!! !!

She openly admits that I am more knowledgable in terms of Astronomy, but I expect a general science teacher to know the fundamental laws of Astromomy!! !

Please, post any comments/questions involving this thread.

A dazzling knowledge of astronomy will not necessarily get you through a general science exam. If you have a strong interest in anything one soon learns the best teacher is yourself and I bet your teacher knows about the Drake equation now!
General science is as the name suggests - general it involves the fundamentals you need to study further into more specialized discipline I would say the fundamentals of astronomy include - electro-magnetism, Chemistry, Optics & mathematics all of which can be as equally applied to biology.

The important thing about all learning is learning something new.

I suppose....

Unless she is supposed to be teaching you Astronomy, then her knowledge or otherwise of the subject is largely irrelevant.

Astronomy shouldn't be hard for her to learn. How proficient is she at the physical and chemical parts of the syllabus? If she makes no great effort and can't make you score then only should she be fired.

I agree with this. And even if astronomy is on your course, you don't need to be an expert on something to teach it at high school level. Enthusiasm helps, but the curriculum and text books cover all the facts.

The Drake Equation should be called the Dreck Equation. There is no way to empirically determine most of the factors.

ruveyn

[/quote]The Drake Equation should be called the Dreck Equation. There is no way to empirically determine most of the factors.

ruveyn[/quote]

Yes, well I thought she would know about it as it does not take non-Carbon based lifeforms into account, making a gross asumption.

Given that you understand that the Drake equation is pure science fiction, why would you think a "general science teacher" would necessarily be interested in SF?

Now... if she were not knowledgeable of Maxwell's equations, or had no idea what quaternions or flups were - that would certainly be a case for dismissal.

A "general science teacher" in a public school setting is responsible for teaching a very broad, introductory level of science. I would not expect one to be familiar with much physics except perhaps for basic classical mechanics. Astronomy is a bit of a niche area, and I don't see why a general science teacher needs to know a lot about it.

I apologise for omitting to state that I was being sarcastic.

In fact, I was only being partially sarcastic, as I regard Maxwell's equations as more important for their mathematical nature, rather than their specific relevance to physics. By comparison, the Drake equation is just a bit of fairly idle speculation, and does nothing other than to multiply a selection of numbers together. Mathematical expertise? - hardly any. Physics? - none. Astronomy? - written down by an astronomer.

Actually, I go to a Public School!

The Drake Equation really isn't astronomy... or science.

Indeed, in fact I kind of have sympathy for her. As a general science teacher she will have a good l broad based knowledge of science, she will have checked out the curriculum to make sure that she can teach it, what she doesn't know or is rusty on she will learn before hand. On top of this she has to deal with an obsessed member of her class who is on the Autism spectrum, who by the sound of it is making life quite difficult for her without any good reason.

Reading from your post it seems to me that you are undermining her ability to teach the rest of the class, and quite possibly distracting the them from learning. People on this site quite often have a go at 'nt's' for not taking 'aspies' into consideration, maybe in some cases that is true. The converse is also true, many on this site do not take their own behavior into consideration when discussing their interaction with others.