Sunday, December 03, 2006

Examiners pass polar bear howler

A new science textbook for schools claims that polar bears eat penguins, even though they live in separate hemispheres.

The book, authorised by one of England's three exam boards, contains other errors, including that African elephants get drunk on rotten fruit, a theory dismissed by academics.

The howlers were found in GCSE books and computer resources produced by the educational publishers Nelson Thornes and endorsed by the AQA board. Teaching packs cost schools £1,700 each.

Peter Cotgreave, the chairman of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, a pressure group lobbying to improve science standards, said: "It is inevitable that mistakes are going to creep in but to say that polar bears and penguins live together is astonishing. It reflects a loss of respect for science."

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