I set up howscience.co.uk a couple of weeks ago to encourage people to take part in the QCA’s (poorly advertised) consultation on new criteria for GCSE Science. Thanks to a post on the Guardian Science Blog and a plug from Ben Goldacre, contributions to the site have been coming in slowly but steadily.

A woman at the QCA promised “to look” at the responses I collect at howscience.co.uk… but I was given the clear impression that she would not be paying any serious attention to anything but responses to the consultation which came through via the QCA official site. So, what’s the point of my howscience.co.uk? Well, I was hoping that it would provide a forum for teachers to engage in discussion and debate and generate some kind of “critical mass” of material that would force the QCA to pay attention to teachers who did not necessarily fill in their questionnaire – it’s not clear to me that this lengthy questionnaire (which requires the reading of lengthy, difficult to read documents) is the best (or even a very good) way to really engage with teachers on this important issue.

I’m meeting with a couple of Members of Parliament in a week or so to see if I can get them to help make sure howscience.co.uk is not a waste of time. Please get in touch if you have any other ideas.