There is a joke among the more serious and concerned science teachers (so, a serious joke?) that the more proactive students can complete some parts of a practical report even before actually doing the experiment. They of course can write the title and the aim of the experiment as printed in the book. And, they can even write the last sentence, that is, 'Hence the hypothesis is accepted'!Why is it so? I suppose the situation, the content, the marking schemes of the course work (PEKA) and the examination (Paper 3) are all set in such a way that give the impression that every time a student embarks in a scientific investigation, he will discover something; every time he forms a hypothesis and carry out an experiment to prove it, it will be proven to be true. Whenever he finds a point that does not fit into the graph, he may be tempted to erase it and draw one that exactly sits on the line of the graph. Whenever the result is not accurate, he may blame all sorts of things except for the fact that not getting an accurate result is the utter reality.
If this goes on, I am worried that students will not appreciate that doing science is not that easy. A single success may be the consequence of hundreds of failures. Students may not be trained to have the patience needed in a scientific endeavour, the integrity to do real science and the commitment to put aside glamour or quick fix and really go into something solid for the sake of the advancement of the country even if it means doing rocket science.
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