David and Lucile Packard Foundation - Brief Article

Reason, April, 2001 by Charles Oliver

* Twelve of the most widely used middle-school science textbooks are riddled with errors, according to a study funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. In one text, a map showed the equator passing through the southern U.S. In another, a photo of singer Linda Ronstadt was labeled as a silicon crystal.

"The books have a very large number of errors, many irrelevant photographs, complicated illustrations, experiments that could not possibly work, and drawings that represented impossible situations," said one researcher. About 85 percent of U.S. students use at least one of the books.