I took this fun science literacy quiz, and got 47 out of 50 questions correct.
The ones I missed were all in biology and life sciences, my weakest subject. Since so many of the angroids label climate skeptics as “scientifically illiterate”, and because climate change is specifically mentioned, I thought it would be fun to share and to have readers post their scores. Many of the questions are simple, like the first one:
Then there’s some tougher ones, like about Planck’s constant and some that require some simple physics math, F=ma and stuff like that. There’s a bit of irony in whose website the poll is on.
The Christian Science Monitor.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1209/Are-you-scientifically-literate-Take-our-quiz/
Surprisingly, there wasn’t a single question about climate change, even though they mention it. If you feel like taking it, don’t succumb to the temptation to look up everything on the Internet…there’s no sport in perfect scores.
36 correct, 14 wrong – but I got kicked out of high school and never went to university 🙁
36 right 14 wrong, 72%….. About six I should have got right but changed my mind on…. The rest I really was guessing on….Though one of the ones I got right was a complete guess…. A bio question about cell division in eukaryotic cells = Mitosis….. Pfft, didn’t have a clue, guessed right. 😉
To +/- 0.1, using CliSci error calculations.
37/50. 74% Considering that I left school at 16 to join the Navy I am quite proud of myself. Does help that I went to a grammar school and did Greek and Latin, for this quiz. Also shows why I comment on the Political and Social posts on WUWT and don’t tend to get involved in the science posts.. Fun quiz though; I learnt a few things! As someone else said, after the first 5 questions at 100% I was going to model a projection/prognostication/prediction of 50/50. Should have stopped whilst I was winning. (A lesson for climate scientists perhaps.)
Finished, 49/50. Never had an astronomy or Greek course in my life to go with my Ph.D. in chemistry. I’ve also been good at multiple choice tests though.
Hmm, very interesting, I didn’t realize how rusty I’ve gotten:
http://www.uic.edu/classes/bios/bios100/lecturesf04am/lect16.htm says:
So, the question:
can only be mitosis if stages like “prophase I” is not like “prophase”. I’d call it a very poor question, but I’ll admit to getting it wrong simply because I didn’t remember that either 1 or 2 should be correct.
Along the way, there was a note that bacteria (prokaryotes) reproduce by duplicating plasmid ( a circular chromosome and the cell splits in two, a process called binary fission. I had forgotten that term.
Senescence is the endstage for prokaryotes as the telomeres at the ends of chromosomes get shorter on each mitotic division and reach a point where cell division stops. Very important in aging and preventing cells from becoming cancerous. The telomere stuff is new since high school biology and is a interesting story of science working right without a major controversy before new knowledge was embraced.
I took this test about a month ago, and got 100%, but I confess that one was a lucky guess. I was relieved that it contained none of the highly questionable assertions of “consensus” climate science.
I left a comment because I thought that much of the test was not about science itself, but about the symbols and words that scientists use for ideas. Knowing that the Greek letter mu is used for the coefficient of static friction does not by itself demonstrate any understanding of the forces between two objects in contact. A science question on the topic might ask, “When an idealized block rests on a flat slope, what determines the angle at which the block will begin to slide?” with answer choices like, “a) Poisson ratio. b) diffusion coefficient. c) coefficient of static friction. d) shear stress.”
In his autobiography, Richard Feynman made a big point of the distinction between understanding science and understanding human symbols, a distinction he learned from his father. Far too often our education system rewards the latter at the expense of the former. I think this quiz rewarded the latter more than the former also.
This was one of those simple dumbed down set of so called scientific questions composed by a 2nd rate Professor. How does knowing which was Newton’s first law as opposed to knowing what his actual laws were and how to apply them matter. I have used these his laws for 40+ years but I couldn’t remember if it was the 1st or the 2nd, so I guess I was scientifically illiterate according to this quiz. Then we get onto literature with Janes Joyce and the “quark”. Yes I got it correct but I have never read his books!
Then knowing the Greek letter “gamma” is used to denote the 3rd angle of a triangle made me a scientific genius! Not to mention the greek letter “mu” as the coefficient of friction made me a super genius able to do all sorts of calculations! This type of quiz reflects more badly on those who compose them than those who answer them. Absolutely pathetic but it probably reflects on the standard of education today.
The website stopped responding before I finished so I don’t know what my score would have been. Probably not as good as yours Anthony!
Scored 41 out of 50. Not bad for an accountant who last took chemistry, physics and biology forty years ago. It was interesting however, how much I retained through the years. Says a lot for the schools I attended and the quality of their instruction. Can we say the same thing now?
Jay Davis
35, which is why I read but don’t comment much here.
Not too bad for no science background.
Strong in language which helped, a lot of questions depended on some knowledge there.
Got ‘zygote’.
I shouldn’t brag, but I got all 50. Comes from having a degree in an interdisciplinary field, biophysics, plus having taught intro-level geology and astronomy survey courses in college. The difficult thing in my life is focusing on one subject – I just love science in general!
By the way, Mr. Watts, I have been following your web site for a number of years now and find it very useful. Though many scientists may now be loathe to admit it, one day I hope you will be recognized for the service you have done in providing needed critiques of climate science. I will be on a panel discussion at my college next week, and one of my topics will be how environmentalism and the climate change debacle has adversely affected science.
Bah humbug, 49/50. I missed the one about Athena and catalytic converters. I had the right answer selected, but then I second-guessed myself.
Took this test a few weeks back on a lunch break… scored either a 40 or a 41. I remember I made some dumb mistakes (I can commiserate with many here!) and was a bit disappointed in myself but, what the heck – no excuses!
MtK
Don’t try to take this quiz using a dial-up connection. You’ll be too old to finish it.
44/50 for me. I only had 1 wrong on the first 25, so I got complacent!
As a science teacher, I would have liked to have seen some questions on the nature of science and scientific method like: What is a fair test?, What is the manipulated variable?, What is a controlled variable?, What is the responding variable?.
38. 🙁
There were some D’Oh, why did I put that as well as some guesses. The D’Ohs outnumbered the guesses.
DaveE.
45 out of 50–correct. Need to bone up on my Greek next time.
40 of 50
Would be interesting to see what the climate zombats score
Arn Riewe,
Yes, I note that the usual suspects haven’t posted their scores.
27/50 first time.
50/50 second time. (after clicking the print icon on the webpage)
“50 Correct 0 Wrong You answered 50of 50 questions correctly for a total score of 100%.”
Five guesses and one by elimination – never heard of Eris.
Hope I get as much luck in the lottery!
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2011/0422/Earth-Day-How-much-do-you-know-about-climate-change-Take-our-quiz/greenhouse-gas
This is their climate change quiz but it’s rather biased in its ‘correct’ answers to some of the questions.
‘DOH! (Homer Simpson)
You Dummy! (Fred Sanford)
Meathead! (Archie Bunker)
74% . . . But I was Lobotomized at Ft. Benning
High school dropout here…30/50
Grrrrrrrr! Scalene!!!!!
Grrrrrr names of Greek letters Grrr Grrrr Grrrrr
Got watt instead of joule double grrrrrrr!!
Did guess Thunder Lizard though. Got quark but didn’t know it was from Finnegan’s Wake.
A disappointing 42.