Science texts not making the grade
Study shows major publishers’ books
riddled with errors
By lindsey siegle
Staff Writer

Don’t blame your school district if it’s using a middle school, physical science textbook riddled with errors; apparently, it doesn’t have a choice.

A recent study, coordinated by Dr. John Hubisz, a visiting professor of physics at North Carolina State University, looked at 14 books or series available for use in middle school science courses and found numerous serious errors in each.

The textbook regarded as the best in the study, Glenco/McGraw-Hill’s Glencoe Physical Science by Charles W. McLaughlin and Marilyn Thompson (1999), is used in Little Silver, but the assessment by the physics educators who did the review could not be called an endorsement.

In their review, errors noted include:

"On page 71 the text says yellow, magenta and cyan are the primary pigment colors, not red, yellow and blue [as implied by ‘Uncovering Preconceptions,’ a chapter from the textbook]."

"The equator is drawn incorrectly on page 603."

"The errors continue in the areas of electricity and magnetism. … A battery is not a ‘charge pump.’ The circuits with bulbs are drawn incorrectly. Lamps do not supply voltage."

Despite those errors and many others, the reviewers concluded:

"If one were forced to choose a book to use in middle school, it is a sorry state of affairs that among the most used books in the country, this one would have to be it. Our reviews go downhill from here."

That textbook is being used in Little Silver for its eighth grade. Pamela Albert, the district’s curriculum supervisor, said, "I don’t think there is a textbook out there at any grade level that’s error-free. When we’ve found errors and contacted the publishers, they’ve been very good about correcting them."

One thing that she, and other area district curriculum supervisors contacted, said was that problems with the textbooks may not be as serious for them as for some other districts because they have teachers with science backgrounds conducting the courses, and they are good at spotting the errors and making sure students are not misinformed.

According to Bob Minehardt, assistant to the superintendent and a sixth-grade science teacher in Shrewsbury, the district does not use any textbook reviewed for the study. As with Little Silver, the physical science course is taught in the eighth grade, but for borough students, the textbook is produced by Silver, Burdette and Merrill.

Other textbooks from Silver, Burdette and Merrill were reviewed, and among errors found were:

"The ‘Cause and Effect’ statements seem a little careless. Example: Cause: ‘Fiberglass and plastic are good insulators.’ Effect: ‘Coolers are made of fiberglass and plastic.’ This is not a direct cause/effect relationship."

" ‘Sound travels faster through warm air than through cold air,’ and [on another page] ‘... but sound travels faster in colder air.’ "

And, in one textbook, "The caption on the figure confuses Newton’s Second and Third laws."

In their conclusion on one textbook, the reviewers write:

"The book in general does not do a good job of explaining what is likely to happen in a lot of the demonstrations and experiments that it describes. Most teachers will not have performed a lot of these demonstrations and experiments and may have no idea what to expect, and they will have no idea whether or not they are doing it correctly. However, the level at which this book was written would be more appropriate as a resource for teachers, and this is what we found most teachers using it for. The problems can be fixed."

According to Minehardt, the district is using the book more as a resource.

"For me, it’s not as big a problem as some papers are making of it," Minehardt said. "We’re aware of it, and we looked at our own program, and it hasn’t caused a problem for us. Our staff is professional enough that it doesn’t pose that much of a problem for us, and I think that’s true for other schools in the area as well. I’m glad they did the study. I think it will improve textbooks, but it’s not a big problem."

Tinton Falls uses the Science Explorer series produced by Prentice Hall. Red Bank uses an older series produced by the company and plans to replace it in the near future.

The Prentice-Hall books were some of the most seriously criticized, and the publisher came in for particularly harsh criticism for failing to correct errors in subsequent editions or on its Web site. Parents in Millcreek, Pa., have been unsuccessfully attempting to get errors they found in the books corrected for more than five years, according to the study.

The Rumson district uses Addison-Wesley’s Science Insights: Exploring Matter and Energy, by M. DiSpezio, M. Linner-Luebe, M. Lisowski, G. Skoog and B. Sparks, (1996).

Superintendent Richard Noonan said he had not yet seen the study, which found many errors in the text. But if the book is seriously flawed, he will seek to have it replaced as soon as possible, he said.

Officials in Oceanport, Fair Haven and Sea Bright could not be reached or did not respond to phone calls seeking information on the textbooks used in those districts. The full report prepared by Hubisz is available online at: www.prsc-online.org.