z53\doc\web\2001\10\scichin.txt
posted by Gregory Cochran on h-bd 10/2001:


                 I'm fairly sure I know the origin of this stuff: Jon
Miller has been  running this kind of survey for years now, in the  US, the
EU, and Japan, and I have a bunch of it filed.  I have an English version
of the quiz - it's fairly obvious that the quiz was developed by a
sociologist or other non-scientist, since the questions are often
imprecise.  But the results are loads of fun!   


                  I remember the details of the solar system question ( I
can dig up more but this should give the flavor): The first part asks
whether the Earth goes around the Sun or the Sun goes around the Earth. 
The second part ( asked of those who get the first part right, which is
about two-thirds of the US sample)  asks the how long itt akes for the
Earth to go around the Sun.  It's multiple choice - you pick a day, a week,
a month, or a year.   About two-thirds pick a year.  The fraction of the US
sample that got both parts right is just under 50%.   Given that only 40%
of the Chinese sample gets the first part right, the percentage getting
both parts right is probably a third or less.   Actually, considering that
there are only two  choices in the first part of the question,  the Chinese
 would do better by random guessing - i.e. on average they know less than
nothing.  
                A  honking 52% of people in the EU get both parts of the
solar system question right.  But on questions in general, the EU as a
whole usually does significantly. worse than the US.  For example a much
higher fraction of Europeans believe that astrology is valid.  England and
Denmark did slightly better than the US, everyone else in the EU did worse,
often a lot worse. 


               In the earlier studies, Miller defined ' scientific
literacy' as getting 75% or better  correct on these kind of 4th grade
questions,  cool stuff like  ' Lasers work by focusing sound waves, true or
false? '
6% of  adult American scored that high or higher: 7% of Englishmen and
Danes: 4% of Germans; I think the Japanese did less well than the US or
Great Britain, but the test there had some differences.
On the same scale the Chinese  have a  1.4% pass rate.   Sounds about
right.


              Miller's analysis: women do worse than men, high school 
courses make no difference,  scores increase until the late 40s,  taking a
single college  science course is a bigger plus than a BS; working  at a 
technical company is a plus.  


                      Gregory Cochran