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One indicator of why the US is losing its competitive edge...

C

Charles Kozierok

Elite Member
... is that 30% of Americans can't get half the questions correct on this easy quiz.

I'm sure if they had a quiz on football teams, the Kardashians and menu items at McDonald's, the average would be a lot higher.

ETA: Especially discouraging is the fact that, since the questions are multiple choice, dozens of people scored less on this quiz than a chimpanzee trained to be able to use a touchscreen would.
 
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Missed the nitrogen question. Oops. I'll get my 12 year old to take it this evening. Pretty sure he's had all of these except the fracking.
 
Not sure how much that says about US competitiveness, it seems like a science test that measures knowledge that most people never need. (some of it, like fracking, also seem like a news quiz)

My girlfriend would have probably gotten at least a third of them wrong and for a number of years she worked as an attorney for Wachtell Lipton. There are no dummies or uncompetitive people there.

I think the US would benefit from more STEM education, but I don't think we need to worry about answering these questions.
 
eskimospy said:
Not sure how much that says about US competitiveness, it seems like a science test that measures knowledge that most people never need. (some of it, like fracking, also seem like a news quiz)

My girlfriend would have probably gotten at least a third of them wrong and for a number of years she worked as an attorney for Wachtell Lipton. There are no dummies or uncompetitive people there.

I think the US would benefit from more STEM education, but I don't think we need to worry about answering these questions.
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I wouldn't expect most people to get all or most of them correct. Some of the knowledge is a bit obscure, and no, most people don't need to know how lasers work.

But a good half of those questions are really basic, simple stuff, that should be common knowledge. Some can also fairly easily be figured out just by thinking a bit.

My 12-year-old got 10 right out of 13. He wasn't 100% sure of all of them but he reasoned them out.
 
Don't be surprised if people take offense to this thread.

It seems you're saying your 12 year-old as well as Chimps have more superior reasoning skills than "30% of Americans".

Not that you're saying that, but I sure interpreted that way.

Just sayin'....
 
everyone should understand UV, fracking and the CO2 things because it's stuff that involves everybody and the democratic debate.
But I can't say that knowing what an electron is or knowing that the continents move around is useful to a gardener.
I got 13/13 anyway
 
Rob M. said:
Don't be surprised if people take offense to this thread.
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Well, it's not directed at anyone personally.

The chimp comment is because it's multiple choice. Even if you just picked the answers at random, the average should be 4.75. So, 15% of Americans did worse than a chimp.
 
The electron question is quite misleading. Electrons are no longer thought of as particles and instead form a probability "cloud", and so actually makes up the size limit of the atom.

I got fracking wrong. Thought it was coal and not natural gas. 🙁

EDIT: That being said, while fracking, global warming and UV rays affect our daily lives, things like the electron, laser, and anti-biotics question DOES matter for competitiveness. It doesn't seem very important, but what it shows is a general understanding of basic scientific concepts. It means that the population, as a whole, is prepared to move on to more difficult scientific concepts, and that is important in today's technology-based industries.
 
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13/13 and all I was learned in school was the 3 "R's" (reading, riting, and the road to Richmond, Va).

You answered 13 of 13 questions correctly.
You scored better than 93% of the public and the same as 7%.
 
Eureka said:
The electron question is quite misleading. Electrons are no longer thought of as particles and instead form a probability "cloud", and so actually makes up the size limit of the atom.

I got fracking wrong. Thought it was coal and not natural gas. 🙁

EDIT: That being said, while fracking, global warming and UV rays affect our daily lives, things like the electron, laser, and anti-biotics question DOES matter for competitiveness. It doesn't seem very important, but what it shows is a general understanding of basic scientific concepts. It means that the population, as a whole, is prepared to move on to more difficult scientific concepts, and that is important in today's technology-based industries.
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I really don't see how it affects competitiveness. Is progress in biotech, laser fields, and theoretical physics dependent in any way upon the level of basic science knowledge that a citizen has? I would answer emphatically 'no'.

Perhaps greater science knowledge by children might lead to more STEM career paths (something our education system is already moving to emphasize), but according to the unweighted sample sizes, 80% of respondents were over 30 and about half over 50, meaning that they had been outside of school for a long time. I hardly view their level of science knowledge as relevant to US competitiveness in that way.

An interesting note about the poll is that all the age groups were the same with the exception of the 65+ age group, which had a mean correct answer rate 2 questions lower than the average. With that in mind, I wonder what percentage of those really low answer totals that are indistinguishable from 12 year olds and chimps came from confused old grandmas and grandpas.
 
Its good to have confirmation that I am better than 93% of the population ^_^

Murloc said:
everyone should understand UV, fracking and the CO2 things because it's stuff that involves everybody and the democratic debate.
But I can't say that knowing what an electron is or knowing that the continents move around is useful to a gardener.
I got 13/13 anyway
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Fracking I can understand as in a lot (most?) news articles fracking is associated with shale oil and not NG
 
You answered 13 of 13 questions correctly.
You scored better than 93% of the public and the same as 7%.
Click to expand...

However, those are all rather simple questions where a broad general knowledge works. I had to (mostly) guess on the electron as it has been some 15 years since I studied related information. Still had a spidey sense for the answer though.

Exterous said:
Its good to have confirmation that I am better than 93% of the population ^_^
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I suspect the results change a bit if we had to answer 100 questions. 13 questions are really nothing more than a sample. More interesting, IMO, is the breakdown among age / education groups. Though I did my part to boost HS.

Also... only 20% know the major component of our atmosphere. That surprises me.
 
Charles Kozierok said:
One indicator of why the US is losing its competitive edge...
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I disagree. The group breakdown does not indicate this. Though I would say it spells wonders for arguing that anyone 60+ needs to be retired from government and NOT represent us or hold positions of power. Let alone certain presidential candidates...

Total 62
Male 66
Female 59
18-29 65
30-49 65
50-64 64
65+ 50
HS or less 50
Some College 67
College Grad + 76
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eskimospy said:
I really don't see how it affects competitiveness. Is progress in biotech, laser fields, and theoretical physics dependent in any way upon the level of basic science knowledge that a citizen has? I would answer emphatically 'no'.

Perhaps greater science knowledge by children might lead to more STEM career paths (something our education system is already moving to emphasize), but according to the unweighted sample sizes, 80% of respondents were over 30 and about half over 50, meaning that they had been outside of school for a long time. I hardly view their level of science knowledge as relevant to US competitiveness in that way.

An interesting note about the poll is that all the age groups were the same with the exception of the 65+ age group, which had a mean correct answer rate 2 questions lower than the average. With that in mind, I wonder what percentage of those really low answer totals that are indistinguishable from 12 year olds and chimps came from confused old grandmas and grandpas.
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It is directly correlated to competitiveness. These are concepts taught at a relatively young age, and having a lower score in a higher generation means that generation may not been prepared for scientific competitiveness. Simply put, te more aware the general population is, the larger the pool of eligible candidates to move to competitive fields. I would like to see an equal sampling for Asia and Europe to see what respective countries are getting. I would not be surprised if they score higher across younger generations (in educated populations).

These are not higher scientific concepts. If you didn't learn than an atom has electrons in it or that laser is light, ten there is something wrong with your education system .
 
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This is sad.
I feel like once again 93% of those I talk to do not a a clue as to what I am talking about. When people do not have a base of knowledge to draw from how can you explain anything important to them. They react to sound bites.
Thanks for posting this. It will help me reflect on what I should be saying in public. It seems it may be best to just say nothing.
 
Eureka said:
It is directly correlated to competitiveness. These are concepts taught at a relatively young age, and having a lower score in a higher generation means that generation may not been prepared for scientific competitiveness. Simply put, te more aware the general population is, the larger the pool of eligible candidates to move to competitive fields. I would like to see an equal sampling for Asia and Europe to see what respective countries are getting. I would not be surprised if they score higher across younger generations (in educated populations).

These are not higher scientific concepts. If you didn't learn than an atom has electrons in it or that laser is light, ten there is something wrong with your education system .
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You learned a great deal of basic information in school that you have likely since forgotten. Your inability to remember those facts at age 40 has little to nothing to do with how effective our education system was at preparing you for a career in that field if you had chosen to go that route. If you could show me that among a pool of high school or college students that similar groups had a similar problem as compared to foreign students I would absolutely agree with you that this was a competitiveness issue, but that's not what's being measured here.

The pool of 40+ year old people that will enter a science or tech field without previous experience in them is vanishingly small, therefore their current level of knowledge is of limited importance to US competitiveness in those fields.
 
Jaskalas said:
I disagree. The group breakdown does not indicate this. Though I would say it spells wonders for arguing that anyone 60+ needs to be retired from government and NOT represent us or hold positions of power. Let alone certain presidential candidates...
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I'm pretty sure that the qualifications of the individual matter a lot more than what his overall age cohort is doing.
 
FWIW, I scored a 10 of 13. I didn't know what the heck "Fracking" was, I also missed the "Chemical Reaction" question, and also the "1000 Sick persons" one.

If had not started re-educating myself with the Solar System and other heavenly bodies, I would not have remembered most of those questions seeing I haven't studied them on over a decade or so -- I don't use that knowledge in everyday work like those in different branches of science.

Eh, we'll be fine as a nation.
 
Jaskalas said:
I suspect the results change a bit if we had to answer 100 questions. 13 questions are really nothing more than a sample. More interesting, IMO, is the breakdown among age / education groups. Though I did my part to boost HS.

Also... only 20% know the major component of our atmosphere. That surprises me.
Click to expand...

Don't discount our genius - we were meant to lead these drooling morons out of their slump and into glory!

More on topic - I'm not all that surprised by it as I would think that is the least often encountered/covered in news
 
Eureka said:
It is directly correlated to competitiveness. These are concepts taught at a relatively young age, and having a lower score in a higher generation means that generation may not been prepared for scientific competitiveness. Simply put, te more aware the general population is, the larger the pool of eligible candidates to move to competitive fields. I would like to see an equal sampling for Asia and Europe to see what respective countries are getting. I would not be surprised if they score higher across younger generations (in educated populations).

These are not higher scientific concepts. If you didn't learn than an atom has electrons in it or that laser is light, ten there is something wrong with your education system .
Click to expand...

One question. How does this affect your ability to stock shelves at Walmart?
 
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