Why am I not surprised? Six big ones is hard to pass up, especially when they have budgeted it into their working capital. Still, I am sadly disappointed with them for their lack of integrity.

If GeeDubya is "the calcium in the spine of America," it didn't translate to a stiffening of the spine of the spine of the NSTA.

Would these science teachers be so receptive to the disingenuous arguments of the "Intelligent Design" crowd which use nonsense to "teach" science? If they would, God help us all and our nation's future leadership in the sciences.

It is analogous to the question asked of the young lady, by an old man, if she would be willing to spend the evening with him for $1000. After she responded affirmatively he suggested an hour for $100. Incredulous, she replied, "Sir, what kind of a woman do you think I am?" He suggested that had already been determined and now they were just negotiating price.
Until we are willing to stand on principle we are all pretty much whores are we not?

Huh?
WHAT A SNOW JOB!!!
First off, Gore is merely "playing" at Friend to the Environment--he wants hybrid cars, though Consumer Reports says that the mileage figures are grossly distorted (these cars merely save the gas that would have been used while the engine is idling)(entirely electric cars are another matter--even without a quickly swapable battery pack, one "lover" of such really wonderful cars actually successfully sued the automakers to keep them from canceling his lease). And Gore wants more nuclear power plants, though the US Dep't of Energy says that 15x the current WORLD electricity needs could be met with off-shore wind farms...
So..., what if, just as it would certainly appear, they're all in bed together (along with the media)...?
At any rate, it is difficult to understand how all these teachers could take money from Exxon--with the understanding that they're going to lie to their students.
Are we supposed to understand here that these teachers will be party to disinformation in order to keep their jobs; after all, wouldn't it be better to not teach anything at all than to teach B.S.
I guess it's gone unstated here how school principals are being paid off too. Are they completely in the dark?, or do they unwittingly kowtow to the oil companies without actually being aware of it? Perhaps they too are on board out of some kind of mindless conviction regarding the status quo...
Some real scary SOBs, yes?

With everybody screaming out for more science in the face of the bombastic Bush administration, doesn't this frighten you just a bit?
Never having been very much of a science buff I also never met many science teachers that I liked. There were maybe one or two.
One that stands out in memory, though maybe he should not, opposed abortion and used his biology class to speak out against it.
On the other hand there were in my college years science instructors who spoke out against atomic energy.
It is likely that Gore's film would have a better shot at being shown in college classrooms than in high school's.

HUH?
This posting doesn't make any sense at all.
We're supposed to believe that teachers "take money" from Exxon and then deliberately lie to their students?
Why?--there're no strings attached... How would Exxon "agents" even know what's going on inside any classroom?
Although..., perhaps, just as so many scientists have comfortably arranged themselves on the corporate anti-environment bandwagon, science teachers generally tend to display the same like-mindlessness dedication to industry mega-profits...
Then and again, where certainly Gore likes to gush about the hybrids, Consumer Reports states that the Prius gets 44 MPG, the Civic Hybrid 37 MPG--it appears that Gore is in bed with big oil... Because, entirely electric cars are the best bet here.
Gore "plays" at "friend to the Environment," but, where a MoJo article stated that we could expect enough bio-fuel to run only 5% of America's cars (in Brazil the success with bio-fuels was only in the southern province, which is one of the world's major sugarcane growing areas), isn't Gore fawning over the mega-farmers...?
No, apparently neither Gore, the science teachers, nor Exxon (!!!) are interested in Zero Emission Vehicles (electric), and, in fact, according to the automakers--no one else is either! So..., how is it that one "lover" of electric cars (they get 180 miles per charge) sued the automaker to keep his lease from being canceled...?
Now let us ask "Teach," or Captain America--opps, I mean Mr. Former Vice-President Gore...--why these cars don't come with a battery pack that can be quickly swapped out for a fresh one?
Hey!, know what does make a lot of sense here--Gore and Co. are all involved in some kind of end run around the real truth...

a teacher here: please don't confuse the monetary decision of NSTA, which I am not making excuses for, with the beliefs and practices of most elementary teachers who teach science within
their classrooms. Those of us whom I have me tend to be notoriously "liberal" (ooh... that word.), with a passion for
teaching our students to be better stewards and inhabitants of
our world. It would be kind of like blaming all U.S. citizens
for the decisions and viewpoints of our leaders. There is a
strong disconnect between the two.

Write your displeasure to the NSTA at www.ntsa.org/feedback. I did.

Consumer Reports is full of shit. They test hybrid cars just like they test gasoline engine cars... on a track. That completely misses the benefits of a hybrid car. In fact, I have been meaning to write to CR about this, because they simply could not be more wrong. The mpg of a hybrid is HIGHLY dependent on how its driven.

I own a hybrid car that is rated at 40mpg highway and 39 city. In practice, the numbers vary widely. For example, at traffic lights, the gasoline engine turns off completely. That measurement of gallons per hour is hard to reproduce in CR's tests. They don't account for it. When I set the cruise in my neighborhood at 25mph, the gas engine turns off. When I set my cruise on the highway, I get 50 mpg. When I accellerate, I get 20mpg. IF I am very careful to drive smoothly, I STILL only get 30mpg. To get the great mileage on the highway, you have to turn the cruise on.

Since the mpg was so variable, I couldn't really get a good handle on how much the car was saving me. I couldn't compare apple to apples. When I had my old car, a minivan, it got 20 mpg over a tank of gas. I filled it once a week and it has a 17.9 gallon tank that would be on fumes by the end of the week. I have a very regular driving schedule. The hybrid has the same sized fuel tank. So I thought, "Let me see how long I go between fillups."

Last year, my weekly routine was 10 trips to the school (2x/day, 5 days) plus 1 trip to the music lesson, plus on trip uptown. This year, I do 15 trips to school (3x/day, 5 days -- pre-K-er goes at mid-day) plus 1 trip to the music lesson and 1 trip uptown. Last year, my regular weekly routine in the minivan took 1 tank of gas. This year, with a routine that involves more driving, I fill up once every THREE WEEKS.

The hybrid does THREE TIMES as much driving as the minivan before it needs a fill up. And while the minivan is on fumes, the hybrid still has miles in it.

So yeah, my hybrid may only get 33mpg on CR's track, but in practice, it gets 60mpg. Because a car that got 20mpg drank as much gas in a week as it does in 3 doing the same schedule of driving. It gets three times as much use for the amount of gas. CR needs a better methodology. the one they are using is not representative of reality.

Incidentally, one of my comments about hybrid car was a featured comment a few months ago. I said if the industry would make a hybrid car that fit my family, I'd buy it. Well, I did. I have never looked back... I love my hybrid. Instead of buying and burning 71.6 gallons each month, I burn 25.6 gallons a savings of something like 60%.

Tell me that hybrids don't get all the great gas mileage. Quite CR at me. I am laughing all the way to the bank while you're crying at the pump.

dej

Everybody should pressure the NSTA directly. Add a message to this discussion on the NSTA discussion board: www.nsta.org/main/forum/showthread.php?t=1867. You can also register a complaint at www.nsta.org/feedback.

I'm with Dejah on this one. I have an Accord hybrid. MPG varies depending on driving, but with mixed driving I avg. between 30-35 mpg which is much better than most cars on the road today.