Science Literacy

[Anonymous No.2968412]

America is in deep trouble. The majority of our people are scientifically illiterate, and it's damaging the country.

How do we improve science literacy?

[снайпер No.2968416]

Free education for everyone.

More funding to science and engineering.

[Anonymous No.2968424]

It's the whole world. Stop acting like Americans are the only ones slipping.

[Anonymous No.2968425]

>>2968412
delete 4chan.org and all social media

[Anonymous No.2968427]

Calculus by 3rd grade with full year cycles.

[Anonymous No.2968428]

>>2968416
People need to want to learn. Most won't since:
-Being smart is seen as a bad thing early in life (typical nerd stereotype)
-Goes against beliefs (contradicts religion/new ageism etc.)
-Too hard
-Kids who are told that they are smart think they don't need to apply themselves
-Being dumb is portrayed very positively on TV (reality shows are huge for this. It's the slutty idiot females who are glorified and go on to make the $$$ and game)

There's more to it then just having the information available. A large part of US culture is geared towards breeding ignorance and stupidity.

[Anonymous No.2968430]

free education and laptops around the world
seriously
wtf
Just one generation given that the wold would improve 10 fold

[Anonymous No.2968434]

Mandatory science lectures held every Sunday at midday.
In order to prevent people from skipping the classes we should threaten them with the prospect of some kind of dystopian future or horrible eternity of torture should they do so.
People should also read from their science textbooks and recite various theorems and laws before eating meals or going to sleep.

[Anonymous No.2968435]

>>2968424
He never said it was only America. He just said America is in trouble.

One idea cannot be applied to the whole world. This thread if for focusing on the states.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968440]

Outright BAN creationism in public schools.

It's the main source of intellectual bankruptcy, imo, here in the States. I feel ill when I imagine my currently 3year old sister being taught the 'controversy'.

[Anonymous No.2968443]

>>2968412

>he majority of our people are scientifically illiterate, and it's damaging the country

[citation needed]

Youtube videos don't count. Provide some peer reviewed scientific studies.

[Anonymous No.2968449]

Annual state purges for grades 1 to 12 in which the bottom 10% of the class are lined up against the wall and gunned down.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968451]

>>2968449
>or we take those bottom 10% and breed the Morlocks from HGwell's Time Machine

[Anonymous No.2968457]

>>2968449

[Inurdaes !V1sPhobos. No.2968463]

Severely subsidize people who want to go to university for things like hard sciences, engineering and whatnot. Make the government give students loans but the students pay back the amount that they were given irregardless of inflation or interest rates.

Science funding needs an overhaul, it's pitiful the amount given for the amount of benefit it generates for the American economy.
You have to make classes more involving and interesting, from a very young age. Effectively i'm saying 'Turn every teacher into Carl Sagan.'
Classes should not be divided by age group, but performance in subjects.
Classes should be shorter a couple of hours in the first few years of schooling. I found the largest complaint about school in those years was generally waking up early.
And lastly, copy Finland.

That is all.

[Anonymous No.2968476]

make college graduates take serious science. sick of meeting english majors who take something like "oceanography" to fulfill a "natural science" requirement.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968479]

>>2968463
>irregardless

[Anonymous No.2968477]

>>2968449
>Annual state purges for grades 1 to 12 in which the bottom 10% of the class are lined up against the wall and gunned down.
>12 iterations of purging 10%
>kill 72% of all children

[Anonymous No.2968475]

Remove tax exemption status from all religions.
Funnel all that tax money into science education

[Anonymous No.2968482]

You know David, I think that's an easy question to answer.

The main reasons children these days aren't focusing on their education like kids in India or China (two countries with INSANE competition) are the following :

1) Social stigma behind intelligence in some social circles (the popular ones, which most kids will tend to want to be in) are causing children to slack off in learning.
2) Distractions like the tele, internet, ipods, phones, games, etc. I think we need to help kids understand that education should be prioritized before these things.
3) Teachers. Yes, the very teachers involved in the future generation's education. We all remember those certain teachers in high school that were just not doing a good job.

I loved these teachers. Took all their classes because they were easy. But if you want to learn, you need to take classes with teachers that want to educate you.

4) Push for AP classes during high school. My school had the nerd group that took all the AP classes and bragged about them, frowning at your inferior intellect.

But what's odd is that most of the kids in the Academic and General levels are actually intelligent kids who can handle the course. They were just never talked to about their opportunities.


And I think those are the main reasons this country's education sucks.

[Anonymous No.2968490]

>>2968449

Just take them and put them in a separate society that does all production work and low level shit that doesn't require education, and keep them ignorant.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968491]

>>2968475
>>2968475
>>2968475
>I found a workaround to the issue

[Anonymous No.2968496]

>>2968457
Think about it. First off we'll kill off 10% of the age group per year.

.90^12 is approx. 28%. Meaning that only the top will remain. Killing off the dead weight not only reduces scientific illiteracy, but stops overpopulation and dumb people from wasting valuable resources such as food, water and air.

The remaining 28% will be the cream of the crop.

Imagine on the first day of kindergarten.

>look to your left
>now look to your right
>only one of you will be alive in 12 years

[Anonymous No.2968497]

>>2968482

one last note, I forgot to mention parents. Parents these days are not really encouraging educational priority as much as they should be. It's a nature vs. nurture argument, I suppose, but most children will want to do better in school if their parents encourage them to do so.

(especially in grades K-5 where the children react to stimuli greatly. reward, action is repeated and imprinted)

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968500]

>>2968490
>HG Wells' The Time Machine

[Anonymous No.2968501]

Anyone else notice how western cartoons usually act like education is a bad thing?
Kids should not be watching that shit, it makes them think learning is uncool

[Anonymous No.2968504]

>>2968425
I like how everyone ignores the obviousness of the truth

[Anonymous No.2968506]

I was one of those kids who was always told they were smart.
>Get lazy because I felt superior to everyone anyway
>eventually my grades fell and I fell behind in class
I really hate my old attitude towards everything and wish I would've worked harder because now I'm behind in a lot of subjects like math just because I thought I was smart to begin with.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968508]

>>2968501
>nostalgia related

[Anonymous No.2968519]

>>2968501
Alot of western cartoons, although it's starting to decline, usually encouraged imagination. Dexter's Lab was my favorite cartoon as a child, I always wanted to be a scientist like Dexter ;-;

I noticed a lot of pre-teen shows like icarly and shit depict all boys as air-headed idiots and all girls as hyper, manipulative bitches though.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968542]

>>2968519
Ffffuu...
anybody else have their own pretend lab as a kid? the godlike power of science in the hands of a young boy appealed to me on a deep level..

[Anonymous No.2968549]

>>2968519
>depict all boys as air-headed idiots and all girls as hyper, manipulative bitches
lol tis show is soo funny

>depict all girls as air-headed bitches and all guys as agressive alphamales
THIS SHOW IS SEXIST AND SHOULD BE TAKEN OFF THE AIR.

[Anonymous No.2968554]

>>2968463
>>2968463
>>2968463
>>truth on 4chan?

>>might have to an hero

[Anonymous No.2968561]

>>2968443
>>2968443
>>2968443

And you call yourselves scientifically illiterate. Please find a scientific study that supports OP's claims. IF you cant't, you're all talking out out of your asses

[Inurdaes !V1sPhobos. No.2968562]

>>2968554

[Anonymous No.2968572]

>How do we improve science literacy?

>science
>literacy.

...anyway.

The best thing you can do is stop making it so everyone feels they have to go to college/university. Keep it for the top 10 percent of academic people and stop giving out scholarships based on sporting performance/economic status/gender/skin colour.

Having more college educated people is not a good thing. It's the quality of education that matters. Increase funding into apprenticeships and keep the school funding the same - simply spend it better. Children don't need to know about festivals from around the world, or what Indians do to celebrate their new year. It's simply not relevent. Teach them science, maths, English, bit of History and make them clued up on world affairs.

Schools turned into social care centers with the rise of mainstream liberalism. It's pathetic. Schools are for teaching, not so you can develop a precious little individual.

The amount of kids I went to school with that would have made brilliant skilled traders and who instead ended up working in a shop or an office was ridiculous.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968586]

>>2968561
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/science/30profile.html
this guy seems legit

[Anonymous No.2968596]

>>2968586

>While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades

I thought so.

[Anonymous No.2968597]

>>2968425
Since ITT this is completely ignored, I'm gonna say science literacy won't be improved.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968614]

>>2968596
>While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades, only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are "scientifically savvy and alert,"

context

[Anonymous No.2968627]

>>2968425
>>2968504
>>2968597
>baww people are ignoring my post

[Anonymous No.2968638]

>>2968614

And? Since when is it bad that scientific literacy has doubled? It's not as high as it should be. But we have NO REASON to think this trend will stop

[Anonymous No.2968679]

The biggest thing that can be done to improve science literacy is making science more accessible.

For many laypersons, subjects like physics might as well be a foreign language - whether it's a family member wanting to hear about what you're working on at school or a newscaster looking for some input on a story - one of the most important aspects of science advocacy is knowing how to translate scientific concepts into something understandable to anyone.

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968765]

>>2968638
I would only purpose that the advancement of scientific knowledge is met by an opposing force of equal ferocity from the religious horde, an example being creationism being pushed as an 'alternative' to evolution, as if faith in something is an alternative to knowledge. The further science gets us down the road, the angrier the old people in the back of the car get that we're not all singing hymns.

[Anonymous No.2968835]

>>2968765
wtf are you all talking about, religion and science do not collide unless faggots who worship science as a replacement for religion start preaching

[Anonymous No.2968844]

>>2968627
Indeed, I was just trying to baaaaaawwww with the rest of you.

[Anonymous No.2968867]

>>2968765

"intelligent design" was publicly thrown out of the education system by a conservative judge. What else could you want?

[North! !/RC/Wj9Ve. No.2968869]

>>2968835
>this is america
>science is the enemy of religion here
>dealwithit.gif

[Anonymous No.2968877]

>>2968412
Bring about the revolution by pissing off the American public by ensuring Trump/Palin become President/Vice President in 2012.

[Anonymous No.2968883]

http://www.youtube.com/user/Inurdaes

[Anonymous No.2968886]

>>2968412
How is it damaging the country? In what way?

You seem to be buttmad about something but you fail to provide data on how your life is ruined by someone else's lack of information you think they need to know.

[Inurdaes !V1sPhobos. No.2968889]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk60sYrU2RU&feature=relmfu

Really good TED talk involving children who when left up to their own devices can teach themselves excellently.

[Inurdaes !V1sPhobos. No.2968898]

>>2968883
That totally wasn't weird and out of place or anything.

[Anonymous No.2968904]

You really shouldn't be posting with that trip anymore, shithead.

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.2968916]

>>2968889

This, this, this and a million times this.

Teaching children is too dogmatic. A teacher is to be a guide who shows them what paths are worth traversing, but in the end it is the child who has to actual figure that out, since (As we've all heard from frustrated dried-up teachers) memorizing is worthless. Knowing implies total assimilation, and if the kids don't learn by themselves, then we'll just be passing down our errors down the generations, with new ones piling up out of nothing but entropy.

[Anonymous No.2968935]

Stop running schools like tiny prisons/gladiatorial barracks but for babies.

[Anonymous No.2968948]

>>2968889
>Really good TED talk involving children who when left up to their own devices can teach themselves excellently.
Leave western children to their own devices and you'll get some scary Children of the Corn shit because they've already been thoroughly indoctrinated into some boys vs girls jocks vs nerds hierarchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBQz921BBlI