📋 Scientific Literacy
In the face of science denial about major issues that face us all (climate change, environmental meltdown, vaccine safety, the Corona virus, etc.) it is important to figure out what causes so many otherwise well-educated people to ignore, undervalue or attack scientific findings. The Pew Research Center does periodic surveys of Americans’ scientific literacy as part of an attempt to find out.
See how you do on their scientific literacy test:
Quiz: How much do you know about science?
Test your knowledge of science facts and applications of scientific principles by taking our 11-question quiz, then compare your answers to the average American and across demographic groups.
And read here about what these results might and might not mean:
Americans Are Smart About Science
Hey, didja hear about those scientifically illiterate Americans? People so dumb, they think the sun revolves around the Earth? People who can’t pass a quiz of basic science facts? People who are getting dumber and whose lack of knowledge leads them to have misguided opinions about science policy?
I was surprised by the results of the quiz. I scored better than I expected to (turns out I don’t know the effects of deforestation, just that it’s bad). I was also surprised when looking at the breakdown of scores that 5% of Americans that took this quiz did not answer a single question correctly. After reading the article I think it’s interesting that many scientists hold the belief that most people who don’t trust science just don’t understand it but data does not support that belief.
Taking this quiz solidified my opinion that I do know much about science. I think science is something that I have never found very interesting and I have struggled with. Biology is something that is interesting to me but science in nature is very confusing and seems so large with so many outlooks it overwhelms me. I do agree in the article that the reason why people struggle with believing science in just not having enough or correct knowledge.
While taking the short quiz I thought it was fairly simple although I was unsure about a few of the questions I assumed I did decent. I was shocked when I received a 5/11. After looking at the graph I thought it was quite concerning that only 10-16% of people score a higher than an 8/11. Although a number of different reasons could play into why people may score lower or higher, I believe people need to know more about science. Science is all around us weather its where we live and what we breathe, and I hope to learn more about it.
during the quiz, I scored 9% which is really average actually. I thought I didn’t know a lot about science it has never been my favorite subject over the years. also, I feel like for some of my other classes I haven’t been able to learn the subject in the best way. It honestly just a bit surprised but also reassuring that I’m apparently average.
After taking the quiz I really realized how much I still don’t know about science. A lot of the questions were topics that had been brought up and taught to me before but honestly forgot a lot of the key information. I was still surprised with the results of my quiz. I feel as though I scored a bit better than I expected but one thing that also majorly stood out to me was after I took the quiz I was looking around at the breakdown scores and saw that only 5% of Americans did not answer a single question correctly that took the quiz. I was only surprised by this statement because I thought there would be more people in America that would not know anything on this topic.
I was rather surprised on the score that I got because most of this was things that I learned years ago. I was also interested in the breakdown of scores among other users that took this test. I think it shows that the general population is not educated enough on science which can heavily influence what they believe is true and what is not.
I did much better on this quiz than I thought I would. Personally I have never been much of a science guy as I have always been better at English and history, however I recognize the importance science plays in finding answers both in our world and solving problems for us.
I went into taking this quiz blindly, unsure what exactly I would get as a score. Both of my parents are scientists and work at biotech companies yet I have never been great at science even with all of the resources that were available to me growing up. I got a 9 out of 11 on the quiz, which seems pretty average. Interestingly the highest percentage of questions right is 11, but it still is only 16%. I feel like the United States education needs make sciences more of a priority, it seems as if my parents’ generation enjoyed science but I know very few people around my age that actually enjoy the sciences, which I think is the root of the problem.
After taking the quiz, I’m quite surprised with my score because many questions I had, I was unsure of. Although at the same time, a lot of them were sort of a given. In high school, I had only ever taken basic Bio and Chem classes because I was never quite interested in science. It would definitely be fun to do more with science though. Also, the fact that I scored higher than 60% of people who take the quiz is quite good to know but at the same time kind of surprising and concerning knowing that people who take this don’t know semi-basic questions. Everyone in my opinion should know a little bit about science because we may not realize, but every day we see science in front of our eyes.
After taking the quiz, I definitely need to brush up on my science knowledge. However, it is interesting to see how much I did know about science topics. I was not too surprised to see that many Americans also dont know too much about science, but I think that everyone should have more of a better understanding of it.
Once I took the quiz, the reading following it really shed some light on the topic. Seeing the breakdown in the article from the Pew Research Center, it made me realize that Americans have an oddly wide but not extensive knowledge on science related topics.
Not to my surprise, I did very well on this quiz. I have always been better at science than any other areas in school. It is interesting how little Americans know about hypotheses. This is something that was drilled into my head over and over in grade school. I read that people who know the least about science have the least trust in science, and “scientists buy heavy into this argument that to know us is to love us”. People with different beliefs can have a hard time trusting science unless they actually learn more about it.
I enjoyed taking this quiz and did better than I expected. At the end Iooked at other results and it interests me how 16% knew all the answers, and 5% didn’t know any.
I did much better on this short quiz than I thought I would. I scored 35%. The eardrops study question got me. All the options they provided didn’t sound right to me. I would have set up a second group of people with placebo eardrops and waited 2 more weeks. I was very surprised to find out that 5% of Americans didn’t even get one right.
ahh yes, a nice confirmation to the fact i am a genius
When I saw that 5% of Americans didn’t answer any of the questions correctly I felt like our country is just getting dumb and dumber as the years go on. Also I feel like people just hear things about science or climate change and just believe what people say.
It is interesting to wrap around how scientific illiteracy affects the best of us. Perhaps being scientifically literate does come down to our morals, values, and beliefs. I also would like to consider how well my brain absorbed the scientific knowledge that I’ve been fed all these years. It’s funny because I felt so confident in answering the quiz questions but turned out I should brush up on my scientific literacy. I knew more about the science that affects me rather than increased erosion becoming the outcome of removed forest land.
I’m honestly not surprised by my results from the quiz. Science is a subject that I’ve never really been good at or liked too much. It was always a subject that I struggled with throughout my education and this quiz completely verified that I still struggle with science. I feel like the questions on the quiz were common things that I at age 21 should know, but don’t. I haven’t taken a science class since I was a junior in high school and taking this quiz made me realize that I should make more of an effort to learn about science because some concepts can be very interesting.
With this article, I feel like a good amount of the information is harmless to live without knowing. This doesn’t mean I think it shouldn’t be basic knowledge, but the people that it does, will or has effected should know without a doubt, as far as if it’s something that won’t affect someone in any way, it’ entirely harmless and not relevant to their general intelligence.
I was suprised with my result from the quiz, I’ve never been the best at science or anything like that but I feel like a lot of it is common knowledge when you get to our age.