Uh-Ohs
 

FOXNews.com - America Losing Science Brainpower Advantage?

"China graduated more English-speaking engineers last year than we did," said Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. "The United States' share of high-tech exports has fallen from 21 to 14 percent, while China's rose from 7 to 20 percent."

Though most of the world's top universities are located in the United States, the World Economic Forum ranks the U.S. 48th in math and science education. American test scores in these subjects have changed little over the last 40 years. Nearly one-third of American adults don't know how long it takes the Earth to revolve around the Sun, according to the National Science Board.

WTF, America?!

Spaghetti-o's.

I can't speak to these results. I come from a generally informed part of America, and Im a Geophicalist.

A whatalist?

I read a book earlier in the summer called Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future that was largely composed of this matter. I don't really buy into the "Republican conspiracy theory" that the book matter tried to make sound less extreme, but instead just made it sound arrogant and elitist. Honestly I think that focusing more on English and Math in school is a large part of the low test scores. When I was in high school we only had to take two semesters of a science course and in college it's only one semester for most degrees. The student body seems more than happy to only have to take a combined three semesters of science so they're not going to fight the issue.

I think the solution needs more people orientated science teachers in elementary, middle, and high school. There's a saying that goes that to every stereotype there can be found a little truth, and that does not change for the stereotypical scientist. I know most scientists are nice, interesting people, but for ever Duga you have 10 people you'd rather not be around. Not because they're bad people, they're just not as engaging. You know when you go to that class there's going to be a lot of note taking on stuff that already doesn't interest you, your interest and attention is definitely going to wane.

Our disinterest with real science has already spilled out of the schools and into other places. For example most newspapers have had to gut their science section down to a weekly piece if that, and whatever science news does get reported is usually associated with obesity and other personal health areas. Important stuff, but fluff compared to people working on vaccinations, diseases, etc.

The reason I don't buy the "Republican's War on Science" argument is because it just seems too preposterous, like something out of a Captain Planet episode. The argument paints the Republicans far too devious and cartoony, like the Captain Planet villain who steals an oil tanker to run it into a baby seal beach rather then selling the oil off for it's profits. I definitely think moving a well balanced cirriculum in school to one more based on Math and English so kids could score higher on tests is part of the problem, but I don't think of it as some grand conspiracy set up by the Republicans to keep science down and get Jesus back into Government. I just don't see where the money is to be made there, and if you cut a politician's arm, money will come out instead of blood.

no idea what you are talking about but I don't think knowing how much time the earth takes to go around the sun has ever had any positive influence at all in my life. plus the sun goes around the earth pretty much every day, isn't that more relevant.

Agreed. Is that really relevant to most people's lives? Sure, it's a year, but does that really matter in the grand scheme of things?

Er, no it doesn't

You're not another one of those nutters that thinks the earth is round are you?

I've heard he believes in, shhh, evolution.

The point is that it's a matter of understanding basic knowledge.. I guess you fall into the majority.

Exactly, just like how there's only 9 planets in the solar system.

Wait... ;)

^^ i think that's the real issue right there. first they tell us that there's no such thing as a brontosaurus, and then they tell us that pluto isn't a planet. i think after those two let-downs most americans have just decided "fuck scientists."

:laughing:

And the appendix has a purpose... They're toying with us.

More like accepting it, not that there is anything wrong with doing that.

ivenever been into none of that macrology and sizemology stuff anyway, who need it i say

Is that why you used an apostrophe in "Spaghetti-o's" when it wasn't possessive? ;)

I agree, Pete...sometimes teachers do suck the life out of science and scare people away, I fear.

I wish Carl Sagan hadn't died! He was always so engaging and engaged in science. A poet-scientist. I've heard of some religious people in the U.S. calling him "Carl Satan" since he promoted actual understanding of the physical universe rather than subscribing to superstitions:



I remember my shock several years ago when I learned that my old friend the brontosaurus was now an apatosaurus!

And then I was shocked to learn that the official name apatosaurus has been official since 1903. So, in the U.S. it only took...107 years...for this information to trickle down to me. :rolleyes: This poor and slow dissemination of knowledge may explain why people here don't know about that sun thingy and what a year is.

More fail:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/sc...726261&ei=5070

While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades, only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are "scientifically savvy and alert," he said in an interview. Most of the rest "don't have a clue." At a time when science permeates debates on everything from global warming to stem cell research, he said, people's inability to understand basic scientific concepts undermines their ability to take part in the democratic process.

Dr. Miller's data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century. :yikes::yikes:

I find that second paragraph particularly disturbing.

If someone doesn't have a slight idea which each of the things in that second paragraph is. Theyre a ****ing moron.

It's sad but I believe it. When I told this girl (college aged) that I do research on genetics, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "What's genetics?" I was a bit stunned since I never prepared myself to actually answer a questions like that, so I said it was DNA and all that. I don't think that clarified much for her.

In some ways I degree. I had to have a lot of anatomy in my schooling.

The old schoolers had to learn from Gray's Anatomy, which was largely written descriptions, vs. pictures. Boo! And people that learned it the hard way wanted us to, also.

My Ananatomy professor, who had a PhD in Anatomy, would take 30 minutes describing a principle of knee anatomy/ mechanics and only make it more confusing. Once I learned it on my own, I explained it to my grandma in 30 seconds and she explained it back to me correctly. :crazy: He's sure smart, though, and we all knew it.

hahaha, I laughed out loud

I wonder if they took 365 days or even 364.25 as acceptable answers. Because it's technically 364.24, not 365.25 like most people think.

Ah that makes me sad for her. I honestly have so much to learn about science but i learned that stuff in 8th grade. But it could have definately been her teacher or something.

One nation
undereducated and oversexed
with.....