davesenesac
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Post by davesenesac on Sept 11, 2015 8:56:54 GMT -8
In the news today a rather easy science test that most Americans have not been scoring well on. Am always fascinated by these kind of public educational surveys that show how dismal the knowledge level in many fellow citizens is. Recall a survey a few years ago on this board that showed large percentages of people that have never read a single non-fiction book after their school years. www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_28789225/take-science-quiz-that-average-american-got-cI grew up in outer suburbia California before many of you were born. With my dad moving too much working for technology companies, I went to 11 schools through high school and my schools were heavily ethnically Caucasian with few minorities that was common in that era. And there were fair numbers of smart kids in my classes each year such that I didn't particularly feel that special until I went into the Air Force finding myself in a real balanced demographic of Americans. Was that a shock. And as an adult in this era of incredible communication and media the differences between people is depressingly stark and shows during elections when regardless of how ridiculous some ballot measures are and how much they have been condemned in the media, one can be sure no side of measures will receive less than 10% to 20% of votes. Be sure to verify your selections are correct before moving on to following questions because any sensed unanswered questions are tagged as incorrect and there may be a bug on the site. I ran through the test 3 times and found it missed one of my selections on the first two cycles. The second time was sure I carefully selected an answer for each question but it still didn't register one of my answers possibly for Internet traffic issues? The one question that is most likely to trip people up is probably the lens diagram question but was easy for this old student of photography. David
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2015 9:09:18 GMT -8
Well, I got 12 out of 12 correct, or 100%.
The results say I did better than 94% of others taking the quiz. Not surprised.
Thanks for the link.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Sept 11, 2015 9:15:16 GMT -8
Well, I got 12 out of 12 correct, or 100%. The results say I did better than 94% of others taking the quiz. Not surprised. Thanks for the link. I had already stumbled on this in my news consumption. What I found most interesting were the demographics on each question, and the nature of the questions that even the most educated people did poorly on. Pretty sad.
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walkswithblackflies
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Sept 11, 2015 9:34:39 GMT -8
Interesting that men did much better than women, and young typically did better than old (except for the nuclear and polio questions).
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johnnyray
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Post by johnnyray on Sept 11, 2015 9:37:19 GMT -8
12 for 12 not very hard, not surprised but disappointed at the overall trend. 6% says a lot about the USA.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2015 9:43:00 GMT -8
nature of the questions that even the most educated people did poorly on. Like the boiling point of water versus altitude? Only 34% got that question right. With the most educated participants getting a mean average of only 9.5 correct, I'm guessing that question must have been one they had trouble with. Puzzling.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Sept 11, 2015 9:53:37 GMT -8
nature of the questions that even the most educated people did poorly on. Like the boiling point of water versus altitude? Only 34% got that question right. With the most educated participants getting a mean average of only 9.5 correct, I'm guessing that question must have been one they had trouble with. Puzzling. The optics one was another big loser. If Galileo or Isaac Newton were around today, they'd probably be accused of sorcery.
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amaruq
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Post by amaruq on Sept 11, 2015 9:54:31 GMT -8
I wouldn't have known who developed the Polio vaccine if I hadn't already known who Einstein, Curie, and Newton were.
Some of these I can understand the population at large not getting as they touch on topics that, although taught in grade school, are quickly forgotten once out of day-to-day use. Wave amplitude would be an example of that. And then there are other questions people might know from a completely unscientific source, for instance the water boiling at altitude question was answered quicker by my backpacking knowledge than my scientific knowledge. As was light through a magnifying glass, because I used to fry things by focusing sunlight through one.
All considered though, nobody should be failing that test.
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reuben
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Post by reuben on Sept 11, 2015 11:31:17 GMT -8
I agree with amaruq. Most people have no idea who created the polio vaccine, they just know that they (hopefully) got a shot for it when they were little. So some results don't surprise me.
Similarly for wavelength/amplitude/frequency. If you're a carpenter or a bank teller, it's not really important in your day-to-day life.
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zeke
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Post by zeke on Sept 11, 2015 11:41:56 GMT -8
12/12 How can anyone not know water boils at a lower temp at elevation? It was one of the basic scientific ways of finding out what elevation an explorer was camped. Maybe we, as BP'ers, just have that knowledge in our heads because of other experiences, but I first learned that while reading about the exploration of Africa and the search for the headwaters of the Nile.
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Post by red dog on Sept 11, 2015 11:55:21 GMT -8
12/12 I thought the poor response to the water boiling question was interesting too. I'll be 100% of us got that one right.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on Sept 11, 2015 11:56:39 GMT -8
"You answered 12 of 12 questions correctly".
How did know my sex and age and level of education? I got a perfect score and the quiz included those questions.
#ScaryBigBrother
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Sept 11, 2015 18:32:32 GMT -8
If Galileo or Isaac Newton were around today, they'd probably be accused of sorcery. Not at all. People with their heads buried in Sports and Entertainment "news" wouldn't even notice their presence -- or care! That is also quite likely.
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Sept 11, 2015 18:52:15 GMT -8
not really Big Brother. They are trying to gather some useful data, so asking about age, education, etc. seems essential. My husband ran through about 6 or 7 of those questions with the 7th and 9th graders staying with us right now. It was interesting to see a) at what point in school they study things (some that the 9th graders answered instantly and their younger brother didn't know), b) that none of them, or their mother, knew about water and altitude, though with a LOT of leading the older ones were able to reason their way to the right answer, and c) their varying abilities/patience for reasoning. My husband is a science educator, so this was of particular interest to him. For the record, I got 100% I did have to think a bit about the light through the magnifying glass. Then I did a face-palm, thinking about the non-reading things I know to do with one (I don't want to give away answers).
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Sept 11, 2015 20:34:25 GMT -8
I agree with amaruq. Most people have no idea who created the polio vaccine, they just know that they (hopefully) got a shot for it when they were little. So some results don't surprise me. I was lucky enough to have a teacher who explained the vaccine to her class, with details, mostly because a lot of kids (and probably parents too) were, at the time, fearful of getting polio from the vaccine. The Sabin oral didn't come out until much later. I read recently that they're having some "minor" problems with the oral vaccine in countries which have been "under-immunized" and suffer from poor sanitation: the vaccine is a weakened, but live, form of the virus, as I'm sure most know, so it survives the digestive tract and exists (exits?) in feces. It can then, in the worst case, continue to travel from person to person in a form that does not cause paralysis, but it is still possible, given continued transmission, for it to mutate to something less benign - in about 12 months. Thus it is still necessary under these conditions to get as close to universal immunization as possible to stop the transmission path. I had a relative who had polio, so I paid close attention - I saw the results of the disease firsthand. Fat lady hasn't sung on this one yet, amazingly. Similarly for wavelength/amplitude/frequency. If you're a carpenter or a bank teller, it's not really important in your day-to-day life. If you've ever used an oscilloscope, you'd pretty much have to know. Strangely enough, a lot of us carry a pretty good facsimile in our iPhones and on our computers for sound recording.
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