Out of Pod Experience

Folks at the National Opinion Research Center administered a simple nine-question science test in 2012 and weren't very pleased with the results. They believe that the answers given demonstrate a lack of scientific literacy among the testtakers. I reviewed the answers given by testtakers as well as the answers given by the NORC, and I have to say I think they should brush up on their own science learning before they ought to be allowed to administer more scientific literacy tests.

How did participants score? The average American participant scored 5.75 correct out of 9, according to the answers given by NORC. They claim that the average American scored 6.5 correct out of 9, so I ponder that perhaps they could brush up ont heir math as well. Well then, lets see how NORC scores against their participants, shall we? Now I wont be answering these with what I personally believe is the best answer, but actually by answers that can be verified in publicly available scientific documentation, even if I think it is wrong. I encourage you to check my answers and verify them, and I must offer a disclaimer in that I am not qualified to administer this test. I feel I am more qualified for it than NORC is, however:

1.) The center of the Earth is very hot. True or False?
NORC: True
Americans: 84% True
Answer: 'Very hot' is a qualifier that lacks specifics. While popular opinion may suggest that an overwhelming majority would agree it is 'very hot' had they known the actual temperature, it is still a matter of opinion. NORC answer score: 7/10

2.) The continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move. True or False?
NORC: True
Americans: 83% True
Answer: As everything is moving all of the time, it can be asserted that the continents would be moving even if the Earth's mantle had solidified. The question suggests the asker is referring specifically to the motion of the tectonic plates relative either to each other or to other features of the Earth, though it goes unstated. This is a failure on part of the question, not the answer. NORC answer score: 10/10

3.) Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?
NORC: Earth goes around the Sun
Americans: 74% Earth goes around the Sun
Answer: The two revolve around a barycenter between the two which while within the Sun's volume is not attached to either object. NORC answer score: 6/10

4.) All radioactivity is man-made. True or False?
NORC: False
Americans: 72% False
Answer: False. NORC answer score: 10/10

5.) Electrons are smaller than atoms. True or False?
NORC: True
Americans: 53% True
Answer: Electrons do not have a specific size. Some suggest that their size can be represented by the distance at which electric fields reach equilibrium with one another in molecular bonds, though this distance is highly dependent on factors other than the electrons themselves. One also might suggest that the 'size' increases as the mass increases, and given that all true atoms are more than just one electron, one might say that all atoms are larger than all electrons. On the flip side, as the nucleus of an atom grows in size without changing the number of electrons, the equilibrium radius of the atom decreases. NORC answer score: 3/10

6.) Lasers work by focusing sound waves. True or False?
NORC: False
Americans: 47% False
Answer: False. LASERs may generate compression waves but apparently do not require them to function. I could not find anything to show that this has ever been conclusively demonstrated, however. NORC answer score: 9/10

7.) It is the father's gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl. True or False?
NORC: True
Americans: 63% True
Answer: False. The sex of a human is determined by the father's 'Y' chromosome, which contains many genes that cause the developing child to eventually take on male characteristics, with different characteristics appearing at different stages in life. NORC answer score: 1/10

8.) Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria. True or False?
NORC: False
Americans: 51% False
Answer: Antibiotics are a class of organic products known to have a general tendency to be extremely harmful to living cells. They can be relied on to be extremely effective at controlling bacterial populations or just killing them outright. Viruses, which are made of many of the same materials, are often destroyed by antibiotics, but antibiotics are not a reliable way to destroy viruses. Then again, no one single antibiotic can reliably be used to kill all bacteria. Also, viruses are classified as nonliving, so they cannot technically be killed. I'm cutting the max score for this question in half due to the very poor wording of the question leading to a difficulty in determining any correct answer. NORC answer score: 2/5

9.) Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals True or False?
NORC: True
Americans: 48% True
Answer: I'm assuming they mean our species, and not the specific humans who are alive today. This is an assumption, as the question clearly states "Human beings, as we know them today". Homo Sapiens Sapiens is an extant species of primate that bears its closest descendency (out of extant species) with Pan Bonobo. Over many generations, various traits in a species change, to the extent that with enough change, two separate populations can speciate and become unable to reproduce with one another. NORC answer score: 6/10

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Net NORC score: 54/85 or 63.5% or 5.7 out of 9.
link to the livescience report

^ School made me stupid.

1. The center of the Earth is hotter than the outside. True or False?

2. The tectonic plates drift across the surface of Earth very slowly over millions of years. True or False?

3. Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?
- a.) Earth goes around the Sun
- b.) Sun goes around the Earth
- c.) they both orbit around a different point in space

4. All radioactivity is man-made. True or False?

5. Electrons have less mass than atoms. True or False?

6. Lasers work by focusing sound waves. True or False?

7. It is the father's chromosome that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl. True or False?

8. Antibiotics are a reliable way to cure both viral and bacterial infections. True or False?

9. The human species, as it exists today, developed from earlier species of animals. True or False?

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I'm not against science. I'm against laziness and half-assing an important job.

Are you referring to having a nuanced opinion? Or perhaps pointing out individual nuances? Because I don't see how nuances themselves would be acceptable or not; they happen and there's nothing you can do about it but notice or ignore them.

I'm not trying to nitpick at trivial details here, I'm trying to demonstrate how easily a seemingly simple sentence can be taken the wrong way simply for lack of context. When asking a question to many people from many different cultures, the purpose of the question needs to be crystal clear and rock solid. You can't expect people from a faraway country to be fluent in your local slang just because they speak your language.

I feel like you're being sensationalist. The Earth does, for all standard purposes, rotate around the Sun since the Sun's contribution to the solar system's center of mass is more significant than the contribution from anything else in it.

The barycenter isn't "between the two" it is firmly within the volume of the Sun and would be the case in any single star solar system. The barycenter also isn't as independent of the Sun as you make it seem.

Edit: Humans evolved from monkeys, regardless of the asinine point that you're trying to make: that your uncle or your brother wasn't born in a monkey's womb. Did that point really need to be made? Is anyone actually arguing that?

/蘭

I did give the NORC 6/10 for a technically incorrect answer. I think that's being pretty lenient. I'd have given a layperson 7 or 8 for that answer. It's still technically wrong though.


You don't seem to understand the importance of clarity. You can't know that the testtakers lack knowledge of the subject for guessing wrong if they might have misread the question due to it being poorly written.

Here's a simplistic example of the types of bad questions you see in tests, homework problems, or polls:

A panther is a:
a) A pet
b) A machine
c) A cat
d) A kind of canine

There's no exactly correct answer. Some people keep panthers as pets, so a) could be true. Jet fighters and tanks have been named Panthers, so b) could be true. c) Is it true? Panthers are in the cat family. But does the question writer mean "cat" in general, or "cat" specifically (the domesticated kitty we called "cat"). Because of poor question-writing, the respondent has to guess what was in the writer's mind. "What would an average not very bright and not very aware question writer consider the right answer?" It makes you want to ask a question back: "I can't read your mind, could you clarify some of the ambiguities?"

I realize that some tests intentionally do this (the LSAT (Law School Aptitude Test), maybe the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). But it comes up a lot unintentionally. Especially in polls, American math texts word problems, and in tests handmade by public school teachers.

Some of those are horribly written questions.

Is the center of the earth very hot?

My answer: No; in comparison to the sun's core temperature

I am a horrible test taker tbh and luckily most of my education was based on practical application of my knowledge and many tests were administered by instructors that were not intentionally misleading with their questions and/or they were mostly essay tests



Just want to jump in here and say the biological organisms are machines....at least in my opinion in the sense of the internal functioning of the varying systems

One time bump to fix forum.