Americans Love Science But... There is a lack of basic knowledge

In the process of writing my monthly op-ed column for my local newspaper it occurred to me that the subject matter might be of interest to Covers.

I’ve been concerned for a long time about the general ignorance of the American population when it comes to science. I don’t believe that your average American needs to be the proverbial rocket scientist, but there is a lack of basic knowledge that can (and does) affect our daily lives. The great irony is that we have unprecedented access to information—you can have the entirety of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on DVD-ROM for forty bucks or so, e.g.--at I just ran across the May issue of Optics and Photonics News, (not a publication I normally pay any attention to, btw) and there’s an interesting article in it called Americans Love Science, But Don’t Know Much About It. In fact the fact that I am aware of this article at all is evidence of the abundance of knowledge at our fingertips; unless someone had left a print copy in a doctor’s office waiting room I never would have seen it.

But I digress. In 2001 the National Science Foundation and the European Commission developed a simple quiz of basic science knowledge and used it in an extensive survey. As the linked article says, an astounding number of Americans don’t know whether the earth revolves around the sun or vice versa, and don’t know that antibiotics are not effective against viral infections. This latter bit of bad news has significant implications; the unnecessary taking of antibiotics contributes significantly to the proliferation of resistant strains of bacteria.

Some of the findings (e.g., that about half of Americans don’t accept the idea of biological evolution) reflect religious prejudices rather than just plain ignorance, but it’s a form of ignorance nonetheless, and the argument can be made that deliberate ignorance is worse than the unintentional variety.

Here’s the quiz . The numbers in parentheses are taken from another article on the subject found here: Panda’s Thumb: Americans Barely Pass Science Quiz, which led me to the first article. As the linked article says, the numbers in parentheses represent the percentage of Americans who answered each question correctly. The answers may be found in either of the linked articles.

1. How long does it take for the Earth to go around the sun? (55)

2. Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth? (75)

True or False

3. Radioactive milk can be made safe by boiling it. (65)

4. The earliest humans lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. (48)

5. Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals. (53)

6. The continents on which we live have been moving for millions of years and will continue to move in the future. (78)

7. Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria. (51)

8. Electrons are smaller than atoms. (48)

9. Lasers work by focusing sound waves.(45)

10. It is the father’s gene which decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl. (65)

11. The oxygen we breathe comes from plants. (87)

12. All radioactivity is man-made. (76)

13. The center of the Earth is very hot. (80)


In the interest of making a connection between all of this and the general subject matter here at the Cove, I think that many of us feel the frustration of trying to promote respect for data and statistics to people who are both ignorant of the basic principles involved and apparently too lazy to rectify that condition. As a population, we would rather create the illusion of knowledge, and the result has been a great deal of time and money spent on would-be panaceas such as Six Sigma (which has a basically corrupt theoretical foundation) that make us appear to be sophisticated, knowledgeable, and on the cutting edge. The fact of our collective ignorance in things scientific—mostly stuff that should be common knowledge—seems to indicate that we are far more interested in erecting impressive facades over crumbling buildings. How are we supposed to explain Cpk to someone who doesn’t know that it takes one year for the earth to go around the sun, or who, while listening to his portable CD player, isn’t aware that the laser in it is a form of light wave?

It's sad, but I believe those questions data. In my middle school special ed classroom the teacher had students prepare for filling out the eventual job applications by learning their basic information. She was frustrated with how many didn't know their zip code, how to spell their address street name, etc. Most of these young people are going to be working one day--they aren't disabled.

On the whole, people remember what they think is important to them. Most of the principles you listed have probably been covered in early year school curricula, but as Lee Jenkins presents in his book "Permission to Forget (And None Other Root Causes of America's Frustration with Education)" our education system is not focused on long term results. It measures short term results and then moves on to the next subject. Not often enough do previous subjects get mined to present new ones. Arguably it would be difficult to do so because the time spent in school really is limited. I often observed the teachers' frustration when they receive a small sea of blank looks when trying to reference last year's subject in this year's subject.

Although the questions you list are indeed embarassingly basic, I think they just represent the larger problem of education, starting with our society considering it a for-fee service and not an Aladdin's Cave of opportunity. I see it all the time during the school year. It's like the teachers are trying to swim in a muck of indifference.

We'll will need to step up adult and vocational education to fill this very large gap. I am doing something about it, having developed and am offering a pretty comprehensive Personal Financial Management class to five area adult ed school districts. Personal finance is another area where our citizens are alarmingly ignorant and it is costing a lot of money in credit problems. (Science is every bit as important, but I am better qualified to teach finance.)

Jennifer Kirley said:

We'll will need to step up adult and vocational education to fill this very large gap. I am doing something about it, having developed and am offering a pretty comprehensive Personal Financial Management class to five area adult ed school districts. Personal finance is another area where our citizens are alarmingly ignorant and it is costing a lot of money in credit problems. (Science is every bit as important, but I am better qualified to teach finance.)

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Good for you . Yours is actually a related problem, because the problems in science ignorance are mirrored in ignorance of basic math, and the problem is compounded by offers for credit that are deliberately unclear and in some cases deceptive.

JSW05 said:

1. How long does it take for the Earth to go around the sun? (55)
2. Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth? (75)

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How could you possibly miss #2 if you had just read #1?

It would be interesting to know if people were allowed to skip some of the questions if they weren't sure. For example, only 48% correctly stated that electrons are smaller than atoms, which is worse than if people simply guessed!

If 48% got it right and 52% got it wrong, then the US population basically has no knowledge of this subject. If 48% got it right, 10% got it wrong, and 42% didn't answer, then there is evidence that a significant part of the population is informed.

Jennifer Kirley said:

On the whole, people remember what they think is important to them. Most of the principles you listed have probably been covered in early year school curricula, but as Lee Jenkins presents in his book "Permission to Forget (And None Other Root Causes of America's Frustration with Education)" our education system is not focused on long term results. It measures short term results and then moves on to the next subject. Not often enough do previous subjects get mined to present new ones.

Arguably it would be difficult to do so because the time spent in school really is limited. I often observed the teachers' frustration when they receive a small sea of blank looks when trying to reference last year's subject in this year's subject.

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Reminds me (in a sad way) of the idea that "I don't have time to do it right, but I do have time to fix it later." Since time is limited, we ought to teach so it makes an impact the first time. That also means we need teachers that 1) know the material, 2) know how to teach it and 3) have the resources to do it right. This is a surprisingly rare combination!

Neither the students nor the teachers want to feel uncomfortable, so the teachers spend the majority of class time with lectures so they don't have to answer unexpected questions, and cookbook style activities where the students are told exactly what to do at each step. Students dutifully write down some notes, but refuse to actively participate because they don't want to appear dumb (or smart!) to their fellow students. Teachers give multiple choice tests wher they don't have to struggle with grading subjective questions.

The natural result is shallow learning.

Tim F

Tim Folkerts said:

If 48% got it right, 10% got it wrong, and 42% didn't answer, then there is evidence that a significant part of the population is informed.

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No, it's evidence that 52% didn't know the correct answer, which is what the poll was all about.

It is tought to read too much into a simple T/F answer. When half get the right answerand half get the wrong answer, it is possible that 1/2 know the right answer and the other half truly believe the other answer is correct. Or it could mean nobody knew the right answer and they all guessed. Or it could mean anything in between.

Without knowing more details, it is probably pointless trying to be too exact in interpreting the results.

Tim F

Tim Folkerts said:

Neither the students nor the teachers want to feel uncomfortable, so the teachers spend
the majority of class time with lectures so they don't have to answer unexpected
questions, and cookbook style activities where the students are told exactly what to do
at each step. Students dutifully write down some notes, but refuse to actively participate
because they don't want to appear dumb (or smart!) to their fellow students. Teachers
give multiple choice tests wher they don't have to struggle with grading subjective questions.

The natural result is shallow learning.

Tim F

Click to expand...

There are a number of contributors to shallow learning. They will need to be addressed as a group so the fix doesn't just fix just one thing.

I've seen it both ways. I've seen the freewheeling class discussions and methodical, cookbook-type lessons. Of course the freewheeling lessons were better--loosely structured but the students engaged more.

Deep down I think it's time to go back to tracking, perhaps as early as the 5th grade. I struggle with this, because for the longest time I believed we should be all-inclusive. But after getting on the inside I have too often seen the top and low performers stuggle with medium lessons where both ends could have been more effectively reached with a more specialized approach. The schools would have to hire more teachers or get really creative with the scheduling for this to work. Then some parents would deny their Jane or Johnny belonged in such-and-such a class. Sometimes the parents are the worst part of this process. Defensive, but not active in the process.

There needs to be better engagement in the students and their parents. How many times have we heard the phrase, "get an education" (or "receive an education")? Both declare the process is one where the paying customer receives a service and has the right to judge its quality. Our society has largely forgotten that education--especially in the lower grades--is a perfect model of service where the customer is 50% responsible for outcome. Although I agree that far too many schools need much better resources (the funding formulas are very unequitable) there are enough poor kids that emerge as successes for me to place the burden of blame only partly on the system.

Some teachers are apparently misplaced. I've spent regular time in a classroom with a veteran teacher (who really does know his subject) where my best self defense was to eat 5 caffeinated mints just before--lest I would fall asleep during class. We can't have the kids see me sleeping in their class! Not having found better placement yet, I will be going back for more of this on August 30th--ack!

As for testing--very correct, and it's getting worse through NCLB. Some states are trying to equalize things to the degree that their teachers are given curricula, scripted, to deliver without creativity or reading the class to ensure they are getting it.

Vocational classes are a good way to teach basic subjects like science, because the kid is being communicated with and engaged in a subject that interests him or her. I put together a decent Shop Math class for the wood shop (yes, my dear student, one needs math to work with wood!) but funding for vocational education is on the chopping block.

We do have a very large amount of work ahead of us, and are currently going down the wrong road to fix the problem.

JSW05 said:

Good for you . Yours is actually a related problem, because the problems in science ignorance are mirrored in ignorance of basic math, and the problem is compounded by offers for credit that are deliberately unclear and in some cases deceptive.

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Thank you--

I actually think the problem here is not a lack of math, because I'm not very good at math. One could easily use a calculator and add a string of numbers for a budget. Instead, I fear the problem is a vacuum of life skills teaching and certainly almost no teaching in how to analyze data to make decisions. I saw the agony in my fellow students during a college class on this. They hated it.

It's not popular in our culture to prioritize, to choose to be patient and save for a new living room set or buy a thrift store pair of jeans.

Certainly there isn't enough timely teaching about what the creditors are doing to make their money. Shortened billing cycles, raising interest rates when a competing credit card payment is made late, etc. It's scandalous.

There is a lot of interest in my class from the adult ed directors. I made a set of those spreadsheet tools for it too. I hope to get a good turnout.

Jennifer Kirley said:

I actually think the problem here is not a lack of math, because I'm not very good at math.

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The problem is applied math. It makes no difference how much theory you know if you can't balance a checkbook. If you're knowledgeable enough to help others handle their finances, you are good at the math that counts, in this instance. There's no need for people who don't need to to be able to solve differential equations.

Tim Folkerts said:

It is tought to read too much into a simple T/F answer. When half get the right answerand half get the wrong answer, it is possible that 1/2 know the right answer and the other half truly believe the other answer is correct. Or it could mean nobody knew the right answer and they all guessed. Or it could mean anything in between.

Without knowing more details, it is probably pointless trying to be too exact in interpreting the results.

Tim F

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Agreed. I'm taking some of this on faith because the data comes from the National Science Foundation, and has been scrutinized by people familiar with scrutinizing these things. The important point is that the results point in the direction of woeful ignorance, and no one seems to be too concerned with that. In fact, the direction at this point is towards the promotion of ignorance, imo.