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Science literacy: how confident are you?

Mation

Mation

real life adventure worth more than pieces of gold
Me - I've always loved science fiction and have been engaged with weird and wonderful discoveries. However, I wouldn't have been able to evaluate what any potential problems might be with stuff I read in the press before I'd done some extensive, official study.

How well do you think the science education you had has served you? What and how have you learned stuff since school?

What do you do to judge how seriously you should take science news that might affect you or people or things you care about?

Would anything make it easier?

(I'm not currently doing sci-comms, but my English course learners seem to love it when I mention anything sciency, whilst also having a load of flat-earth/conspiracy-type beliefs. I know you lot don't have those latter, but I'd like to understand it better and am fishing for anything that helps.)
 
The science education at school was limited to the usual - physics, chemistry - and I did biology at sixth form to avoid having to do PE. I did part of a science degree, but overall I've always been a nerd who loves science and fact stuff. I was one of those weird kids who was getting books out the library when I was 6 about how buildings were built, and how they laid gas mains. I've always preferred to read books about science since.

I did read a lot of sci-fi as a kid but haven't since then.
 
I dunno - I like science fiction and the odd popular science book, but find the actual details too boring to get properly literate about it. I’ve avoided reading the science of COVID for instance as it just requires too much effort to get my head around it
 
I’m fairly sciency in a popular science sort of way. I read popular science books, I used to subscribe to New Scientist, I have a science degree, I did three sciences at school.

I like to think I use Carl Sagan’s baloney-detector fairly well when assessing things, but I do rely heavily on peer review to give authority to stuff, largely because I’m fairly number dyslexic (I’m better at maths than arithmetic) and can’t be arsed slogging through statistics. (Which is why Andrew Wakefield threw me at first, and I had to read a lot of articles in respected journals to satisfy myself he was wrong. This was long before he was exposed).

If you’re interested in why people believe weird things, I’d recommend the book Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer.
 
Three of my O Levels were science subjects, Physics, Chemistry and Biology (4 if you count Maths). Got an A in Physics too, I love science-fiction and popular science books and programmes about science both hard and speculative.
 
I read a lot of science fiction, my background is physics O level, engineering drawing A level, followed by an engineering related degree but I am neither a scientist nor an engineer. My biggest weakness is very poor maths.

I like it when an author invests the time to translate science into texts a non engineer can understand. Luckily for me there are journals like "The Engineer" that seem routinely to do this.

I am going through a phase of not reading so much right now, when I get back into it I will read a lot of sci-fi, I like the fictional predictions and know that in some cases these things will actually come to pass.
 
farmerbarleymow said:
The science education at school was limited to the usual - physics, chemistry - and I did biology at sixth form to avoid having to do PE. I did part of a science degree, but overall I've always been a nerd who loves science and fact stuff. I was one of those weird kids who was getting books out the library when I was 6 about how buildings were built, and how they laid gas mains. I've always preferred to read books about science since.

I did read a lot of sci-fi as a kid but haven't since then.
Click to expand...
So now, when you see science news, do you feel like you have a handle on how to interpret it? For me, it will depend on the subject area, but I'm comfortable with the types of terms and types of analyses.
farmerbarleymow said:
PS - I applaud your continued campaign to get this forum to the top of the boards chart. :thumbs:
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Heh! Trying to put my money where my mouth is :)
Orang Utan said:
I dunno - I like science fiction and the odd popular science book, but find the actual details too boring to get properly literate about it. I’ve avoided reading the science of COVID for instance as it just requires too much effort to get my head around it
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I get that. If we don't have the mental hooks to hang a new concept on, we skirt round it.
SpookyFrank said:
I'm a trainee science teacher. The standard of scientific knowledge amongst my fellow trainees is frankly not great.
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Terrifying, amongst my colleagues.
danny la rouge said:
I’m fairly sciency in a popular science sort of way. I read popular science books, I used to subscribe to New Scientist, I have a science degree, I did three sciences at school.

I like to think I use Carl Sagan’s baloney-detector fairly well when assessing things, but I do rely heavily on peer review to give authority to stuff, largely because I’m fairly number dyslexic (I’m better at maths than arithmetic) and can’t be arsed slogging through statistics. (Which is why Andrew Wakefield threw me at first, and I had to read a lot of articles in respected journals to satisfy myself he was wrong. This was long before he was exposed).

If you’re interested in why people believe weird things, I’d recommend the book Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer.
Click to expand...

I can't do mental arithmetic at all. Completely rubbish at it. But can do processes I can see in front of me ok.

I'll look up the book. Ta :)
 
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Orang Utan said:
Most of my Maths at school was arithmetic
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In Scotland they’re separated into two subjects, taken as two separate exams. You can do a maths ‘O’ Level (as they were called in my day) as well as an arithmetic one. But you can’t do an arithmetic Higher, only a maths one.
 
Most maths is not arithmetic. Even at school, a lot of it isn't. Geometry, for example. You may still have to add some numbers together (as you do in chemistry or geography), but the concepts associated with geometry have little to do with arithmetic laws.

Good luck getting very far with this based just on your ability to do sums in your head.
 
kabbes said:
Most maths is not arithmetic. Even at school, a lot of it isn't. Geometry, for example. You may still have to add some numbers together (as you do in chemistry or geography), but the concepts associated with geometry have little to do with arithmetic laws.

Good luck getting very far with this based just on your ability to do sums in your head.
Click to expand...

Topology is just counting holes.
 
I was lucky enough to be in a school where I could study physics, chemistry, maths and applied maths.
I've always loved science. I sometimes wish I could have gone to third level and studied more...I was offered a place on an Industrial Chemistry degree course when I was 17. But at the time I really wanted to do pharmacy
Ended up doing a teaching degree as things went seriously belly up in yhe family and I was needed at home for a while.
No regrets at all though. I love reading science related material
 
kabbes said:
Most maths is not arithmetic. Even at school, a lot of it isn't. Geometry, for example. You may still have to add some numbers together (as you do in chemistry or geography), but the concepts associated with geometry have little to do with arithmetic laws.

Good luck getting very far with this based just on your ability to do sums in your head.
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Whilst I agree with your conclusion, that's not a very encouraging way to put it :p

danny la rouge said:
Sorry for the derail! 🤦
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Not a derail!
 
Considering none of my memories of science at school consist of any science (more stuff like getting the entire back row of the class to perform Glenn Miller's In the mood complete with air instruments or a kid called Neil being locked under a desk and having burning paper dropped on him through the inkwell) it's safe to say I am essentially science illiterate.
 
I’ve got a chemistry degree and I’m a tech lawyer so should be ok. However, I realise that I judge a lot of stuff based on the authority/position of the messenger. Also my style of thinking is quite theoretical/logical so I’m actually not that good at ‘real world’ science.
 
To be honest the difficult bit of teaching science is knowing when you're supposed to stop. The last thing you want to do is provide too much information or anything that's not on The Test.

I got told off for telling kids that there are actually more than two types of white blood cells and that lymphocytes do more than two things. B lymphocytes make antiBodies, T lymphocytes make antiToxins. And then the next lesson is vaccines, which you cannot possibly explain without reference to memory cells, which according to the previous lesson don't exist.
 
I have almost no bearings by which to judge the impact or importance of sciencey news, I just sort of stare blankly and feel small in the face of it all. I googled what actually is a vaccine just last week.

But did you hear about the double hand and full face transplant that happened last week though?
There’s that saying isn’t there, any mechanism you’re sufficiently ignorant of may as well be magic and is perceived as such, for me that’s far too many things.
 
S☼I said:
Considering none of my memories of science at school consist of any science (more stuff like getting the entire back row of the class to perform Glenn Miller's In the mood complete with air instruments or a kid called Neil being locked under a desk and having burning paper dropped on him through the inkwell) it's safe to say I am essentially science illiterate.
Click to expand...
I didn't really attain much science literacy until I went to uni as a mature student.

At school, I was initially very interested, but after working super hard on an assignment about HIV that the teacher didn't mark for a whole year, as well as bumping into some of the teachers at friends' parties, I temporarily lost interest. Plus, I was bad at secondary school-level physics.
 
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