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Old 02-15-2014, 12:32 PM
 
Location: Michigan
29,391 posts, read 55,481,606 times
Reputation: 22042

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Dear Science Communication Professionals: We have a problem.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) delivered news of a pretty shocking poll result: around one in four Americans (yes, that's 25 percent) are unaware that the Earth orbits the sun. Let’s repeat that: One in four Americans — that represents one quarter of the population — when asked probably the most basic question in science (except, perhaps, “Is the Earth flat?” Hint: No.), got the answer incorrect. Suddenly I realized why the Nye vs. Ham debate was so popular.


1 in 4 Americans Don't Know Earth Orbits the Sun. Yes, Really. : Discovery News

 
Old 02-15-2014, 12:44 PM
 
Location: Idaho
836 posts, read 1,657,522 times
Reputation: 1561
Prove it to me.

An education should be more than regurgitating rote data for a certificate - it should prepare students for the workplace and global competition.
 
Old 02-15-2014, 01:01 PM
 
Location: Western Colorado
12,858 posts, read 16,814,411 times
Reputation: 33508
There's a movie called Idocracy. I firmly believe this is how we will end up. I've talked to people who don't know we've been to the Moon, so nothing would surprise me.

Idiocracy (2006) - IMDb
 
Old 02-15-2014, 01:10 PM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
45,091 posts, read 60,158,471 times
Reputation: 60681
Quote:
Originally Posted by notoriouskelly View Post
Prove it to me.

An education should be more than regurgitating rote data for a certificate - it should prepare students for the workplace and global competition.

Exhibit 1.


This is what the wave of education reformers want, after all you can always "look it up". No theory, no facts, no cultural literacy.

You can "look it up". This is what the people pushing education reform are preaching (and demanding since they're funding it with unbelievable amounts of grant funding).

Groups like the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, Microsoft, Apple, Pearson education. So you look up the information on your IPad/Phone which has a Microsoft app installed. You then take a test from Pearson Education, using a Microsoft program, on an Apple computer. All this is supervised by people who are graduates of the Broad Academy for Superintendents.
 
Old 02-15-2014, 01:29 PM
 
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
5,888 posts, read 12,969,894 times
Reputation: 3973
I also like the idiocracy reference. I see more dumb arses having kids without the ability to provide and educate them.

Coupled by anti-science agendas by state legislatures (I'm calling you out South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kansas and Texas) half this country is doomed to be stupid.
 
Old 02-15-2014, 01:31 PM
 
Location: USA
7,776 posts, read 12,405,040 times
Reputation: 11812
Unfortunately, too many people are stupid and not much can be done about it. It's not only in America. Ignorance is worldwide. I wish it were not so.
 
Old 02-15-2014, 01:33 PM
 
Location: Idaho
6,344 posts, read 7,713,683 times
Reputation: 14136
About ten years ago, when I was teaching my second year of "Weather and Climate" in the local community college, I gave my students a little verbal quiz. I told them that this is a class in the geography department and that they need to have basic geography knowledge.

Saying that Japan was an important trading partner with us, I asked for the students to point it out on a wall map. Only a handful could. Then, being the age that they are, and that some of them may don a uniform and fight in the military in Iraq, to show on a map where that country is. Again, just a couple. I also asked where Uruguay is. Nobody got that one!

And . . . these are college students! Sad. Very sad.
 
Old 02-15-2014, 01:38 PM
 
24,488 posts, read 41,049,542 times
Reputation: 12919
Quote:
Originally Posted by volosong View Post
About ten years ago, when I was teaching my second year of "Weather and Climate" in the local community college, I gave my students a little verbal quiz. I told them that this is a class in the geography department and that they need to have basic geography knowledge.

Saying that Japan was an important trading partner with us, I asked for the students to point it out on a wall map. Only a handful could. Then, being the age that they are, and that some of them may don a uniform and fight in the military in Iraq, to show on a map where that country is. Again, just a couple. I also asked where Uruguay is. Nobody got that one!

And . . . these are college students! Sad. Very sad.
To be fair, it was community college. That's a representation of the lowest quality college students... not the entire population of college students.
 
Old 02-15-2014, 01:47 PM
 
Location: Northeast
1,886 posts, read 2,217,928 times
Reputation: 3758
Quote:
Originally Posted by volosong View Post
About ten years ago, when I was teaching my second year of "Weather and Climate" in the local community college, I gave my students a little verbal quiz. I told them that this is a class in the geography department and that they need to have basic geography knowledge.

Saying that Japan was an important trading partner with us, I asked for the students to point it out on a wall map. Only a handful could. Then, being the age that they are, and that some of them may don a uniform and fight in the military in Iraq, to show on a map where that country is. Again, just a couple. I also asked where Uruguay is. Nobody got that one!

And . . . these are college students! Sad. Very sad.

Yes, a sad state of affairs for kids in the public school system. The leaders of one of the most powerful Unions in the country is a disgrace..They push THEIR agenda and ask for more money! Their agenda is a failure and will continue to be.

The global stat's prove that American publicly schooled kid's are falling way behind compared to other other
countries. Some countries get it right and will continue to do so..unlike here where things get worse by the day.. I have to ask with all the money and funding a college age kid can't find a place on map! That's
sad.. Dare ask them which direction is North and South!
 
Old 02-15-2014, 01:54 PM
 
Location: Northeast
1,886 posts, read 2,217,928 times
Reputation: 3758
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJBest View Post
To be fair, it was community college. That's a representation of the lowest quality college students... not the entire population of college students.
Why should kids going to a community college be less educated than ones that attend a private college.
Most came from the public school system and can't afford state or private universities..
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