1 in 4 Americans Believe the Sun Revolves Around the Earth

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What is with the scientific and technical illiteracy in the US?

Conversations here in PPR indicate a deep lack of knowledge and understanding about science (typically amongst Americans). What is the cause of this? How can it be remedied? Even now some Americans are pushing for creationism or so called intelligent design to be introduced into the science curriculum of schools. The American education system (5 to 18 age range) is becoming the laughing stock of the world. Scientific ignorance is often pushed as being a virtue by some of your Republican politicians whereas scientific knowledge is almost treated like the work of the devil and scientists as pariahs.

Just what is happening in America? Your scientific and technological prowess was once admired around the world, but is now slipping into ridicule. NASA now requires Russia to transport items to the international space station since the end of your space shuttles. Europe and Japan are increasingly the countries where new technological breakthroughs are made. Even China and India have active space programs and are planning goals in advance of those of the US. American science is becoming a back-water, living on past glories.

The American public may be less scientifically literate than in other developed countries, but it isn't really the average person that matters when it comes to space programs or even technological breakthroughs, it's the smartest few. American universities are still the best in the world, along with Britain.

Yes, any country could always do with more scientists, engineers, and innovators, but America isn't particularly lacking.

I think that not all questions can be compared.

So knowledge about the earth circling around the sun, is in my oppinion general knowledge. That should be nothing new to anyone, be it kindergarten or senior.

While if you´d ask my 60+ mum about MP3s, blue-rays, software, motherboards, USB ... O_o

The Americans don't do that badly on science literacy. I have a dislike of stereotypes, the dumb yank is one of them.

This shows the Americans second

https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/l ... igure2.png

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/scilit/review.pdf

In this one the Americans are 14th, beating Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Iceland
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-inf ... c-literacy

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 134322.htm

Please show current figures. 2007 was a long time ago. US conservatives doubled down in promoting science illiteracy.

14-th is pretty low for the supposed largest economy.

Those Americans were educated in a church school.Maybe a fundie Baptist one.Or home schooled by a religious nut job.I bet they also believe the whole cosmos was created in seven days and there was a really nice garden with a mean 'ol snake in it that ruined it for everyone.

Considering how many Americans think NASCAR is real auto racing (all it has is slick and pervasive marketing), I'd not put too much stock in how "stupid" we look to the rest of the world.

What do you expect from a country that practically rewards failure, deemphasizes (and even penalizes) intelligence and hard work, and does its best to insulate people from the consequences of their own stupidity? We used to have “Gifted” programs in grade school, which is now considered elitist, if not racist. We used to flunk kids who failed; now no one fails. We also make it unnecessary for citizens to need to speak English.

Under Obama, NASA has been given a new mandate: “to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering — science, math and engineering.”
That is no joke. Most Americans can name the all contestants of American Idol but cannot even name the vice president. They are not smart enough to come in out of the rain, but they can vote.

I could never see the point of NASCAR,I'd rather watch them run the 1/4 mile.

I don't mind admitting that I'm ignorant on MANY science topics, but it's only because I really just have no interest or need to know a whole lot about it. It's just not that relevant to my life. You'll find for more people than not that's the case. And, I mean, education won't fix the problem because all students are going to do is memorize the facts they need to pass the class and promptly forget about it when they're done. The only "science" that is relevant to me is more in the area of psychology and behavioral studies. I want to teach people to do what I do. What steps do I take to develop the skills/abilities that I have, and how do I convince others to take those steps? How does someone learn differently than I do, and how do I adapt what works for me to modify the behavior of a student?

Now, I'm very good at scientific REASONING. I get the thought process, scientific method, etc. When it comes to FACTS or actually applying the reasoning ability, I may or may not switch off depending on how much I actually CARE about whatever it is I'm dealing with. I have an elementary knowledge of QM and will include that in PPR discussions from time to time, but until a major piece of furniture in my house inexplicable vanishes without a trace, I'm just not all that worried about it (I AM convinced that all clothes dryers are portals to parallel dimensions, as I've actually COUNTED the number of socks that went in and compared with what came out. Odd numbers ALWAYS come out and there is ALWAYS AT LEAST ONE unmatched pair. It's annoying, but I've come to accept it. So until someone comes up with a real explanation, I find QM, even the many-worlds interpretation, at the very least plausible if nothing else).

Now, as to the 1 in 4…sun…around the earth… I do find that shocking. I really do. I thought that was a well-enough established fact that, well, pretty much EVERYONE knew. From an earth-bound observer's perspective, yes, the sun DOES appear to revolve around the earth. There's no disputing that. But I was under the impression that what celestial bodies ACTUALLY do, as opposed to what they merely appear to do, has been overwhelmingly well-established since the days of Kepler. If you're unaware of how many light-years there are between the the Milky Way and Andromeda, meh, whatever… But something as basic and observable as our own solar system? Yeah…a few teachers have utterly failed, here.