I'm almost at a loss for words. I know teachers are only human and that they make mistakes too. But, I think this went beyond one teacher's mistake.
My stepson participated in his school's Geography Bee last week. The contest came down between two kids, my stepson and another boy. The event apparently exceeded the time allotted for it, so the match off was held Wednesday. I did not attend but my husband did and here is what happened...
"The second to last question asked was: "What is the name of the area of the earth between the crust and the core?"
Son's answer was "mantle"
Other's answer was "lithosphere"
The initial determination was that lithosphere was wrong. My assumption is that the judges had the answers written down on a question sheet and made this initial determination. However... someone decided to intervene, and declare that the lithosphere is also a correct answer.
This was a mistake. The lithosphere is a wrong answer.
Per the National geographic website:
The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of the Earth. The Earth consists of three main layers: the core, or the inner layer; the mantle, in the middle; and the crust, which includes the continents and ocean floor. The lithosphere, which is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) deep in most places, includes the brittle upper portion of the mantle and the crust.
Because the question was asked as what is the region between the crust and the core, lithosphere can not be correct. The lithosphere is the outermost sphere of the planet. It consists of the crust and the little sliver of mantle that interfaces with the crust. Using the word "between" would exclude the region being used to define a boundary."
Son stated to his father afterwards, that he knew he was right and the other boy was wrong, and so husband decided to go check for himself. Husband also thinks that is why he missed the next question, because he was still working through his head the possibilities of the last question.
"He has resigned himself to submit to the decision of the judges... However I also feel there must be a way to remedy all of this properly, via the guidelines set forth by National Geographic."
After my husband contacted the school about this, I was a bit stunned to see the response received from the school. They told my husband that they attempted to get in touch with the National Geography Bee people but did not hear back from them. Therefore, they were going to let the decision of the judges rule.
This is a school. A Catholic school. Their job is to teach and to, hopefully, teach correctly. In my opinion, someone was basically saying that the question had two correct answers. If that were the case, then, wouldn't the judges have had both as the correct answer on their sheets of questions? And if so, would have told the boys that they were both correct as opposed to that one was wrong? Why did someone have to step in and "intervene".
It just smells too fishy for me.
Go kick their asses!
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