This was a very interesting exercise. At first I felt intimidated when put on the spot about the moon and the seasons and how they "work," or rather, what is science's latest "narrative" for explaining how they work (because that's what science does). Think of Einstein's changing the narrative of what causes/explains gravity. We now say: "the curvature of space." I barely paid attention to my elementary and high school science courses (only finding them mildly interesting, like a trivia game). But in college I was very interested in all my subjects and I took Astronomy and loved it.
However, people's knowledge fades after they leave school. You lose what you do not use. Unless you're going into a particular field, at a certain point, you concentrate on what you NEED to know, what you USE every day, what you ENJOY knowing for leisure's sake, and let the superfluous-to-your-daily-life stuff atrophy. I was very proud of myself when I got the right answer more or less: the tilt of the earth's axis and its elliptical orbit. (I still don't quite get how we stay only 3% differing distances from the sun if the orbit is elliptical.)
- The earth's spin axis is tilted with respect to its orbital plane. This is what causes
the seasons. When the earth's axis points towards the sun, it is summer for that hemisphere. When the earth's axis points away, winter can be expected.
I don't know if the "Science Guy" (NOT Bill Nye) who made the video about science videos and students' accuracy in answering meant to make his OWN video confusing, but he never really stated what the correct answer to the physics question about the basketball player was. I guessed "upward and decreasing."
I think "private universe" is a bit sarcastic, because the point is that most people don't care too much about how everything in the universe works, as long as it works. We feel dumb when put on the spot because it SEEMS like some basic piece of information we should know about, but WHY should we? I'm a big fan of science, and I'm glad there are scientists who get paid to know this stuff, but I know lots of stuff that scientists don't know, in my own disciplines. Why is science the ONLY discipline EVERYONE is supposed to know or they're morons?
What does it mean for the future of USA/Global education if people can't seem to retain what they learn in science (even with the help of science-explaining videos, and even become more ingrained in their misconceptions AFTER watching the videos)? Again, I just must return to the fact that even though people "thought" the video was "clear" and "concise," eye-witnesses are notoriously untrustworthy! And if they THINK they know before they see the video, what will change them? Even the attempts to go through the wrong answers first was not of much help. MOTIVATION has got to be a big factor here. Just a post-video interview is not enough. What about a real academic test? A grade? A job? Money?
After watching YouTube about Khan Academy, I'd like to the students who use Khan Academy in earnest (with the kids and teachers who were interviewed raving about it) tested on THEIR knowledge. The fault might be in the poor technique of the other science videos themselves.
But as we know, the United States is not faring well compared to other countries in the ever-increasingly important fields of math and science. USA Students Not at "Bottom" of Math and Science Ratings, But Close But to randomly ask a bunch of adults (none of them in the video seemed to be American, meaning they all had strong accents and the hosts were British Isles sounding) about science makes the whole world look stupid (even though a precious few got the right answer).
Take my car, for example. I know so little about cars it's frightening. My brother the mechanic is thoroughly ashamed of me. But when it has problems? I'd probably make them worse if I tried to "know" something about my car and fix it myself. I PAY people to know and fix my car, just like I get paid to do what I do. I love the TV ad about letting the pharmacist do their job. It shows people in certain professions suddenly thrust into other professions with comedic results.
I think "private universe" is a bit sarcastic, because the point is that most people don't care too much about how everything in the universe works, as long as it works. We feel dumb when put on the spot because it SEEMS like some basic piece of information we should know about, but WHY should we? I'm a big fan of science, and I'm glad there are scientists who get paid to know this stuff, but I know lots of stuff that scientists don't know, in my own disciplines. Why is science the ONLY discipline EVERYONE is supposed to know or they're morons?
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF USA/GLOBAL EDUCATION?
What does it mean for the future of USA/Global education if people can't seem to retain what they learn in science (even with the help of science-explaining videos, and even become more ingrained in their misconceptions AFTER watching the videos)? Again, I just must return to the fact that even though people "thought" the video was "clear" and "concise," eye-witnesses are notoriously untrustworthy! And if they THINK they know before they see the video, what will change them? Even the attempts to go through the wrong answers first was not of much help. MOTIVATION has got to be a big factor here. Just a post-video interview is not enough. What about a real academic test? A grade? A job? Money?
After watching YouTube about Khan Academy, I'd like to the students who use Khan Academy in earnest (with the kids and teachers who were interviewed raving about it) tested on THEIR knowledge. The fault might be in the poor technique of the other science videos themselves.
But as we know, the United States is not faring well compared to other countries in the ever-increasingly important fields of math and science. USA Students Not at "Bottom" of Math and Science Ratings, But Close But to randomly ask a bunch of adults (none of them in the video seemed to be American, meaning they all had strong accents and the hosts were British Isles sounding) about science makes the whole world look stupid (even though a precious few got the right answer).
Take my car, for example. I know so little about cars it's frightening. My brother the mechanic is thoroughly ashamed of me. But when it has problems? I'd probably make them worse if I tried to "know" something about my car and fix it myself. I PAY people to know and fix my car, just like I get paid to do what I do. I love the TV ad about letting the pharmacist do their job. It shows people in certain professions suddenly thrust into other professions with comedic results.
Helena,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I definitely agree with your sentiments that, in the US, certain fields are considered specialized, meaning that most of us who pursue a higher education are choosing what we want to focus on -- and for the most part, it isn't science lol. I expound on this idea a bit in my blog post, pointing out that tools like Google and other search engines are right at our disposal, which means we really don't need to have scientific knowledge readily in our minds. I admit that much of what I learned about science has been pushed to the back of my mind for some time, particularly since I chose to pursue the arts rather than sciences in my higher education journey. Thanks for your post!