Are you scientifically literate?

[crossfire]

Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz
You may have an opinion on climate change, evolution education, stem-cell research, and science funding. But do you have the facts to back up your opinion? This quiz will test your basic scientific literacy.

50 multiple choice questions.

Some of these are gimmes. Some of them are more math then

Comments

[nikoel]

I only got 30 out of 50, but that was fun!

[gmonkey42]

Is it just me or does the page take a really long time to load each time? I wish they'd put more than one question per page. I'm 11 for 11 so far but I don't know if I'll bother finishing since it's taking so long.

It's a fun quiz to see how much we remember but I question whether the, er, questions are a good indicator of scientific literacy. Like number 11 was about which one is Newton's First Law*. Understanding the principle isn't the same as remembering the arbitrary name of it, you know?

*a robot may not injure a human being

[frith_in_thorns]

It does for me too. I finished it because I'm stubborn, but I got bored with all the click-through required.

And I agree with some of the questions. I sat for a couple of minutes trying to remember whether xenon or radon has the greatest molecular mass, and then I decided I didn't care XD

[bushy_brow]

The only reason I remembered that one -- after trying, and failing, to visualize the periodic table in my head -- is 'cause radon is radioactive, and that's normally higher weight atoms.

[spyral_path]

I thought it was taking a long time too. I got bored waiting for the next page to load about 10 questions in. If it had allowed me to answer all 50 questions at once I would have finished it.

[goseaward]

Man, that's...like an encapsulation of what's wrong about science reporting. "Are you scientifically literate? YOU ARE NOT SCIENTIFICALLY LITERATE IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE PROPER ORDER FOR NEWTON'S LAWS." Not, do you know Newton's laws. Not, can you understand how Newton's laws work in a physical system. Just, do you know what order they go in.

(Uh, guess which one I've gotten wrong so far :D)

[thedrowned]

Uh, actually, that's what literate means. "Having or showing education or knowledge of". ;\

[goseaward]

But I would say almost none of those questions require knowledge of science, that is, knowledge of the working of the world. It's science history and basic vocabulary, which is part of a knowledge of science, but not the most important part. We wouldn't call someone literate if they could recognize the definition of middling-difficulty words but couldn't parse a simple sentence for meaning, like we shouldn't call someone scientifically literate if they can recognize that Gregor Mendel worked with peas but can't tell us anything about evolution.

And the definition of literate, from the OED:

"With modifying word: competent or knowledgeable in a particular area." And then it gives a bunch of examples, including stuff like "The American people were busy becoming ‘politically literate’; that is, learning how to run their political system." At the very least, like 90% of the quiz questions do not address competency in science.

[thedrowned]

To have answered any of these questions, you would have had to learn about it, ergo you would be literate in the subject. That simple. In fact, most of these questions are learnt via science or math classes! Being in one causes you to be literate of the subject. All of these questions require some degree of scientific literacy; your literacy must be so great that you feel some of the simple ones just require common knowledge! :)

[slinkslowdown]

Also, I feel far too proud for knowing the exact temperature at which Celsius and Fahrenheit converge. It's one of those relatively useless things I know.

[teacup_werewolf]

I totally guessed on that one. XD

[ardvari]

LOL, I knew that because I live somewhere where it actually gets that cold... and then it's just one of those random facts people throw around.

Overall I got 44 out of 50.

[slinkslowdown]

I've been outside in that weather and it is awful. ;_; I'd still sooner go out in a tee and shorts in -42 than suffer through anything over 90, dear lord.

[ladymercury_10]

I got 38 right, for 76%. I guessed on several, though.