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8-Year-Olds Publish Scientific Bee Study
flintmecha writes "A group of British schoolchildren may be the youngest scientists ever to have their work published in a peer-reviewed journal. In a new paper in Biology Letters, children from Blackawton Primary School report that buff-tailed bumblebees can learn to recognize nourishing flowers based on colors and patterns. The paper itself is well worth reading. It's written entirely in the kids' voices, complete with sound effects (part of the Methods section is subtitled, ''the puzzle'duh duh duuuhhh') and figures drawn by hand in colored pencil."
That's 'adorabee.'
*ba-dum, ching*
...that's how it is in these publish or perish primary schools.
... but sadly isn't, all too often. That said, it's good to know that there are teachers out there who care to run such projects, as well as lucky bright kids to take part in them.
This is why we are losing the Science advancement in the world. How can we compete when British children have evolved from worry about "eating your meat" to discovering how bees eat in 30 years. The US is doomed.
This story has been tagged "idle" by Slashdot. That's an insult! What's wrong with our culture that even the geeks and nerds among us don't see education as important? These 8-10 year olds just had a better science lesson than most anything kids get today.
The best science class I ever had was in high school. My lab partner and I were given 2 test tubes with 2 types of bacteria. This was out of a possible 10 types. We were given 2 weeks to identify them and write a report on our methods. This was when I was 16! Not only did I learn a lot but that was just such a fucking cool assignment that I would consider it a much MUCH better experience than YEARS of mediocre science classes combined! Science was actually exciting, and I pray to Christ and the Buddha that these teachers get some respect soon before stupid takes over.
Or it would have been considered illegal.
... when British children have evolved from worry about "eating your meat" ...
That kind of evolution really happens when you REALLY want your pudding.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Glad the journal didn't bounce the work because the figures were not done in Excel or Powerpoint. I'm ashamed I never used crayon for any of mine. Crayons are at least open source and DRM free.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
...but what's their Erds number?
- In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
Very nice to find that there are kids who are being taught about science. Before them, Emily Rosa was the youngest to publish a peer-reviewed paper. Her paper was an amazing experiment to refute terapeutic touch in a very well conducted study. Kudos to them
Kudos to the school here, and Beau Lotto too. They managed to achieve something absolutely amazing, educational and potentially inspirational for the kids in this class. It was a fantastic idea, and hopefully will advance the cause of science education in schools.
Sounds like it was hard to published it on its merits alone. The last line of the paper is a bit cryptic.
"The project was funded privately by Lottolab Studio, as the referees argued that young people cannot do real science."
What does the funding source have to do with the referees' prejudices? Was some extra funding needed to resolve their concerns?
Personally, I am going to look for an excuse to cite their paper.
Brilliant work and pure science for the sake of science. It is not earth shattering news, but is exactly what science is meant to bring to the human experience. The life of the children involved is forever changed. Now some of them will go on to discover more things that are right under our nose and write about it intelligently. Few will care but, in the end, we all benefit.
We win together or suffer without.
By other 8 year olds?
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
Oh Gosh! I am shamed by these 8 year olds that I will have to dust off all my data and prepare manuscripts to send in for publishing!
I think it's great that these students are excited about science and were able to participate in a learning experience like this, but after reading the paper it's clear to me this was published only because the children are 8; the true value of this paper is for educators in the sciences looking to motivate children through unique projects.
I hate to be a Negative Nancey, but if the current paper (with more formal language of course) were submitted for by a college graduate it would be rejected outright. The paper begins by asserting that the ability to problem solve is a sign of extreme intelligence, and further conflates pattern recognition and intelligence. The methods seem sound (control, rigorous data taking) but there is no statistical analysis of the data to show correlations, just a statement of "more did this therefore..." Further they make the claim that no one has ever done this particular experiment, yet a quick search yield over 50,000 articles pertaining to pattern recognition in bees. Yet nothing like this was ever conducted? Seriously? Given this prior research, it is their obligation to show how their research is unique and different, and further why it is important. I realize the paper states that the students couldn't do this since the language in the literature is far above their level, but it's just another reason showing this paper was published because of their age, not because of the work.
Again, good on the students for having fun and enjoying science, but I'm a firm believer that results should stand on their own irrespective of the experimenter's ages.
I notice that the town, the school, and the first author are all named Blackawton. When I looked that up on wikipedia all I can find is the town itself, no information on where the name derives from. I was wondering how they decided who would get first-author rights on the paper (very important in the biological sciences)?
And one little thing I noticed on the paper itself when I read the full text (free in html or pdf through the web site) - they didn't cite any sources. Few publications would allow that these days, I would have expected that their corresponding (last) author would have added in some sources to establish the background at the least.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Having not RTFA, I don't know whether to congratulate the kids or to condemn the journal.
Peer reviewed? So then, it was reviewed by 8 year olds? How hard is that?
My 8 y.o boy shoots rubber darts at my LCD TV.
I've got 101 mod points and you can't have them!
I was skeptical as well but according to the reviewers:
"What is novel in the experiment presented here is that bees learned colour and pattern cues in a spatially complex scene composed of two-coloured local and global patterns. Coloured patterns at small and large spatial scales have been little studied, and hence our knowledge of how colourful patterns and scenes are perceived by insects is still scarce."
I am assuming that the above statements are true and the paper is novel. There are citations in the reviewers' comments indicating that the reviewers referred previous work in this area but still found the kids' research to be novel. Finally, even though the reviewers appreciate dthe fact that the paper was written by children and lacked advanced analysis, they didn't seem too biased. All this has made me less skeptical now.
That's great, but it's the researcher's job to state this, and not the reviewer's. If I had reviewed this paper, I would have told the authors the same, and sent it back. With the added changes yeah, it would probably make a great paper to accept, but certainly not in its current form. The comments you linked are closer to what the paper should have been.
...that's how it is in these publish or perish primary schools.
I think you mean 'and' as in the primary school published and the journal's scientific reputation perished.
no message. I'm out of my element.
--- There is a man in a smiling bag.
If only...
"
Sorry Mrs. Frizzle,
The paper failed the peer review process on the grounds that it appears to have been written by 8 year-olds.
--Scientific American
"
http://www.theonion.com/articles/fifthgrade-science-paper-doesnt-stand-up-to-peer-r,1320/
Had a read of the paper and there seem to be two big flaws that are not addressed and would've prevented a paper passing 'regular' peer review.
1: They never address the possibility the bees are just smelling the sugared water. They clean the 'stems' to ensure the bees don't attract other bees through smells (although that itself is also questionable, presumably the smell a bee releases would be released all over) but don't do anything about the sugar/salt water itself.
2: There's no evidence the bees can see colours (assuming point 1 is moot). Namely because of the choice of patterns. They use bright colours alongside dark ones. The bees could just be seeing light and dark. There's only one low contrast pattern (the green and blue one) which would've been great for testing this but they chose to put it alongside one with mixed bright and dark colours. Also, without an even spread of light and dark areas, the bees may not even be recognising patterns, they may just be going "this area is darker than the other one, the other one has the sugar water". Spoilsport I know but they shouldn't pretend this is anything other than a cute bit of PR.
...could they manage to redefine the peer review process, a la Phil Jones of Anglia CRU?
An important part of this discussion is John Horgan's The End of Science. His basic theme is "all the cool stuff has been done". So discussions of "novel" start to get pretty hard for new aspiring scientists.
I'd rather have a paper with decent data but no conclusions because then someone else can do the stats on top of it. Call it "Open Source Science". Contrast that with the dubious studies we have seen where the conclusions are highly dubious followed by a trumpeted headline.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
If only they had mentioned using an iPhone somewhere, slashdotters would be all over this.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
In my opinion, we need to get rid of all the dark sarcasm that exists in the classroom...
I hate to be a Negative Nancey, but if the current paper (with more formal language of course) were submitted for by a college graduate it would be rejected outright.
You realize how idiotic that sounds, don't you? You are so big, strong, and smart because you beat up an 8-year-old.
The kids' paper was published because it was exceptional given their age.
Science is awesome and if you don't agree, you can f#ck off. Even when this case may have some flaws in the experiments done, it's great that kids get the chance to think and learn while having fun.
Research into application into cost savings.
Is there ANYTHING in the world that is not measured by money?
Everyone is ok with this coming from 8 year olds, and actively promote 14 year olds doing DNA research (for example). They don't care that these come from those without a portfolio of degrees and 20 characters behind their name. But if a 40 year old does the same after finding something interesting and studying it, they are extremely dismissive of the "amateur" doing what "professionals" should do.
When will Slashdot get skilled editors?
This story is about a public relations gimmick by Blackawton Primary School, Blackawton, Devon, UK. The children did NOT originate or write the study; they only participated, obviously.
The first author of the paper is listed as "P.S. Blackawton", which appears to mean Blackawton Primary School. The school web site lists no person named "P.S. Blackawton". This is a paper with a fake first author, apparently.
I've met a lot of 8 year olds. Indeed, I've tutored a lot of them on science fair projects. I've also seen a *lot* of examples where motivated teachers and parents, ahem, "encourage" them a bit more than is strictly in accordance with the rules.
well you know what they say, publish or perish :D
and well done for being published kids, makes ya proud
This is how all scientific and academic literature should be composed.
Brilliant work kids