American adults get a "D" in science

[progressoid]

So says the Pew Research Center, which issued a report Thursday on the state of the nation’s knowledge regarding some basic scientific facts.

The public opinion and research organization quizzed a representative sample of U.S. adults on geology, physics and astronomy, among other topics. Out of 12 questions, the test-takers answered 7.9 correctly, on average. That’s a score of 66%.

Only 6% of the 3,278 test-takers answered all 12 questions correctly. Twenty-six percent missed only one or two questions, and an additional 27% missed three or four.


At the other end of the spectrum, only 1% of those surveyed missed 11 of the questions, 2% missed 10 and 3% missed nine. (Want to see how you'd fare? Take the quiz here.)

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-science-quiz-americans-pew-20150909-story.html

Note: if you want to take the test, don't read the rest of the LA Times article; it gives away some of the answers.

Cross posted in Science

[hobbit709]

1. Easy test. I was 12 for 12.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Same here. -nt

[X_Digger]

19. Ditto. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

25. agree. nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. my gosh - so easy! Got all 12 and took less than 2 minutes. Such basic questions

Only 6% answered them all right? That is a national embarrassment.

[progressoid]

13. Indeed. Embarrassing. n/t

[daleanime]

26. Hell yes....

now to go on Facebook and try to get some republicans to take it.

[MisterP]

4. and ONE-FIFTH of elementary children think the Earth's flat

in Britain

[lpbk2713]

5. What is this ... rocket surgery?

[SidDithers]

10. Mitchell and Webb is always appropriate...

Sid

[Demonaut]

18. luv it!

[PATRICK]

6. Some people

who know and understand the science and the principles could be educated for hundred years and still screw up on the test for psychological reasons. Ten questions is a vanity quiz not an accurate gauge of the public. On the other hand a more useful test(which they give to kids all the time probably just to be cruel) is to gauge innate stupidity and the tendency to get things wrong or get tricked. To be sure ignorance is a big factor so exactly what are they ignorant of that is commonly used and repeated common knowledge?

BTW I got 12 out of 12!!! Yeah me! I guess senility is not an issue.

[KG]

7. ok, i got 10 / 12, but i missed the questions most often missed.

[Shandris]

8. I didn't know the water boiling thing.

I've lived on a flat plain my entire life and it's just not something they ever taught us. I knew it was different, just not what direction. I wonder how many of the people who missed that one come from an area where they've literally never had to think about it.

[Thor_MN]

14. The way I think of it, with less pressure, the water molecules have less resistence

to going into the gas phase. Increase the gas pressure and there is more holding them in the liquid phase.


12/12, but I have an BA with a Chemistry major and Biology minor.

[MiniMe]

9. 12 out of 12

[WestCoastLib]

11. 12 of 12

Admittedly I didn't actually know who created the polio vaccine. However process of elimination made that one easy since I know the other 3 didn't

[prairierose]

12. 10 out of 12 and if...

I had thought about the 2 I missed, I should have gotten at least 1 of them correct.

How sad that so few know much about science.

[appalachiablue]

20. Same 10 of 12. I be darned. Some were easy but a couple eluded me. Liberal arts person to boot.

[prairierose]

21. yes, I'm liberal arts too but I should have known that

answer about temp differential at altitude since I live on the edge of mountains.....I just didn't stop to think

[tabasco]

15. This is frightening because that quiz was very easy.

The holy rollers and the 'privatize everything' crowd are destroying America from within.

[Archae]

41. Not just them.

There are many anti-science hysterics out there, anti-GMO, anti-vaccinations, anti just about anything.

The "moon landing hoax" people crank out lots of blogs, videos, and books.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Their answer to the magnifying glass question was wrong

When a convex lens is used as a *magnifying glass*, it does NOT invert an image. It does invert an image that is *distant*, like when it is used as a lens in a refracting telescope.

[Matariki]

22. What happens when light passes through a magnifying glass?

The light is focused into a beam. Think frying ants

[Art_from_Ark]

23. If you are looking at something close with a magnifying glass, the image is not inverted

If you are looking at something far away, then the image is inverted, but the lens is not being used as a magnifying glass anymore-- it is being used as a telescopic lens.

[Matariki]

24. The question had to do with light, not about whether the image is inverted

the illustration you posted is the same as the answer - "the lens bends the light rays inward"

[lonestarnot]

33. :)

[Art_from_Ark]

37. No, the "correct" answer showed the image being inverted,

with the light rays crossing each other on one side of the lens. That indicates that the image is being inverted.

It is not at all like the image I posted.

[Gormy Cuss]

39. Hah!

So that's why I chose the wrong answer. I'm the first to admit that I've forgotten more science than just about any other subject but I thought the test was easy and was surprised that my only wrong answer was this one.

[Matariki]

40. ...

The question was about light.

[ohheckyeah]

17. ...

You answered 12 of 12 questions correctly.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

28. Use it or lose it.

If you don't actually use various scientific data in your daily life, it ends up like any other trivia, being forgotten. And, btw, having taken that one the last time around, I sort of have to agree that a question about 'astrology' doesn't really belong in a 'science' quiz, unless the question is 'which one of these 'fields' is not actually a science?'

[Bettie]

29. 12/12 for me

12/12 for my 14 year old son, 13 year old son got 11/12.

[BlueJazz]

30. 12

[zipplewrath]

31. 404

So I go through the whole thing and then get a 404 error.

So what was the right answer to the lens question?

[progressoid]

34. "3"

[lonestarnot]

32. A student me.

[SheilaT]

35. 11 of 12.

I missed the sound waves one.

[kelliekat44]

36. 12/12. Really basic science you learn in 5th grade. nt

[skippercollector]

38. boiling water

I got 10 out of the 12 correct. (FYI--I am a 54-year-old white female with a college liberal arts education.)
There was one answer that surprised me. I got the answer correct about a lower boiling temperature at a higher elevation, although that question seemed to stump a lot of people in the survey. Am I the only one who reads cooking directions on boxes? It says on many, many packaged products that the boiling temperature or time may be lessened at higher elevations, and I've been reading that for decades. I've never known why, just that's what the instructions say.
I do think the astronomy/astrology question was a trick question.

[olddots]

42. there were 3 misleading or non scientificly asked questions on the test

The biggest reason Americans flunk at science is not our education system but our enteetainment system .