American Science Knowledge
 

National Science Foundation report (PDF)

Keep in mind that all but the last two questions have only two choices, so random guessing would give 50%.

Here's a question for you:

Which is sadder:

A -- National Science Foundation report (PDF)

or

B -- A picture of the flooding in New Orleans

Oooh. Toughie. I think I'm gonna have to go with A.

Drat.

OK, as it turns out, I had the file still open and minimized, so here are some highlights:

Order of info: Question / Answer/ Male / Female
Center of earth is hot / true / 85 / 76
All radioactivity is manmade / false / 81 / 71
We get oxygen from plants / true / 92 / 82
Father's gene determines sex of baby / true / 58 / 72
Lasers focus sound waves / false / 61 / 30
Electrons are smaller than atoms / true / 52 / 43
Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria / false / 46 / 55
Universe began with explosion / true / 43 / 24
Continents move / true / 83 / 74
Humans descend from earlier animals / true / 57 / 50
Cigarettes cause lung cancer / true / 94 / 93
Early humans lived with dinosaurs / false / 50 / 45
Radioactive milk can be made safe by boiling / false / 70 / 60
Which is faster, light or sound / light / 89 / 65
Does Earth go around Sun, or Sun around Earth / Earth around Sun / 86 / 66
How long does it take for Earth to go around Sun - day, month, or year / year / 66 / 42
What is DNA / ... / 47 / 44
What is a molecule / ... / 28 / 15

omg thats just pathetic
"How long does it take for Earth to go around Sun - day, month, or year / year / 66 / 42"
you kidding me? how can anyone get something like that wrong???

"Universe began with explosion / true / 43 / 24" still not PROVEN but is definately the most likely answer. id say its true but someone saying false technically cant be wrong.

Ah, hem...

As anyone who passed intelligent design 101 would know, the earth was created by Jehovah in 6 days without resorting to explosive devices of any sort.

You will burn in hell for eternity for your remarks, young man. :eyebrow:

SO.....the women AREN'T smarter?

what the?

when it comes to science....


....and sport....


...and pretty much anything that involves matter of any kind...

They just weren't testing the right women.

You Mama's gonna slap you silly. :lol:

Interesting. I wonder what the demographics were of the group tested. Likely adults, due to the ones that women did get right more than men were related to babymaking: father's determine sex of baby and antibiotics don't kill viruses. The antibiotic one is posted ALL OVER every pediatricians office, you don't have to pay attention in science class to get that one right. With the exception of the {bad} origin of the universe question, which is a theory and as yet hasn't been reproduced, it's really quite sad that the number of people getting these right wasn't in the 90s. I got them all right, but science has always been very interesting to me. If they were questions regarding politics or history, I probably would be down in the 60-70% right range. :dunce:

My best friend always claims he makes everything up and that everything only existed since he thought it up... But on the other hand; we're both kind of crazy so...
:P

I sincerely hope they tested community college students, rather than the kids that got to go to the college of their choice. You know?

I think I resent that... I would have gotten all of the answers right and I go to a community college (seeing as how it is cheaper than state colleges and I am paying my own way)

The numbers I posted are aggregate. In the pdf they were subdivided into level of education.

Hopefully your community college system is entirely different than ours ... but locally the Community Colleges are more like extension high schools, and have a lot of remedial math and english classes.

Ah, wolf, you're an elitist and you know it. Just say so! Nothing to be ashamed of! All love starts with self-love, y'know.

Looking down on the community college is all I got. After all, I went to the State College.

Well, if I had several thousand dollars to spare I would go to a state college too.

But that doesn't mean that I am not going to go to college at all because I can't afford to go to "nice" schools

current university fees for kagen= $15,000+
come study in oz

Jeez!!! That is a lot of money... is that a year or a semester? Since I am paying out of pocket I can only go part time (i.e. 5-6 credit hours per semester) so I pay about $500+ a semester, which is doable. But $15,000+? No. Way.
:worried:

its after 3.5 years so far, ill finish after 4.5.
its called HECS. and i'll be paying it off for quite some time when i get a full time job

Ok... thats much better... but at least I am free and clear as far as student loans since I am paying as I go. Later I will have to get loans though, so I won't be free and clear forever. Good luck!

Father's chromosome, not gene.

Ero, when your best friend looks up solipsist...

And a whole lot of the student body desperately need the remediation. If I went back to college I'd probably have to do remedial math myself -- high school algebra was a long time ago and I only barely scraped by then. Community colleges are really more like high schools, as you said, and it's true about everywhere. They give a lot of bang for the buck, though, if their curriculum offerings match what the kid's after studying.

But the quality of college-age if not college-ready written English has long been a problem. Strunk & White's well-written and extremely valuable
The Elements of Style, a slender handbook, has been continuously in print since the mid-twentieth century. I believe it began as a class handout.

Oh, and textbooks cost like a large tank of gas.

Quite true. Bad paraphrase on my part.