A week or so ago, a recently-single friend of ours mentioned that the online dating site he's using asks some interesting questions. One of them is "Which is larger, the Sun or the Earth?" According to his research, 9 out of 10 people answering this question get it wrong. Wrong!
How can you get to be an adult in this country and not know that the Sun is the largest body in the solar system? Wouldn't you have encountered this information many times over the course of 12 years of school? Enough times to lodge that piece of information in your head?
In teaching geology, planetary geology, and meteorology, I've also come across some very consistent misinformation. For example:
Clouds are made of water vapor. Nooooo, they're made of water droplets. Given the high humidity (a measure of how much water vapor is in the air) we experience around here in the summer, we'd be living in a constant cloud if clouds were made of water vapor!
Seasons are caused by the changing distance between the Earth and Sun. Actually, the Earth is closer to the Sun in January than it is in July (and from where I'm sitting right now, that is NOT translating into much warmth!). Seasons don't have anything to do with actual distance from the Sun --instead they have to do with whether Earth's axis is tilted toward the Sun, or away from the Sun. That's why Australia has winter when we have summer and vice versa.
The lava feeding the volcanoes at the surface of the Earth comes from the core. No. The core of the Earth is metallic. If lava was coming from the core, we'd have continents made of metal, rather than rock. An interesting thought, really.
The ozone hole and global warming are the same thing. It's funny, really, how incredibly mixed up people are on these two topics. I've had students tell me that the warming of the Earth is causing the increase in greenhouse gases (I know --what?!), which is then destroying the ozone layer. Gah! Sometimes I don't even know where to start. And this is after they've read the textbook and heard the lecture.
These strongly held misconceptions drive me nuts through each semester, but I acknowledge that these may be concepts students haven't encountered in detail before they reach my class. However that size difference between the Sun and Earth question? In my circle of friends, we all agree that a wrong answer on that one is grounds for immediate disqualification as a human.
I readily admit I had to think the ozone hole one through again. My excuse is it was thirty years ago and I had a medical major. Sorry, Al Gore.
ReplyDeleteA friend said of her upcoming blind date, "please just let him not be a cretin." Gee, can't we aim just a FEW tiers higher than cretinous?
So sad, and yet I can totally understand, based on another single (female) friend's experiences. Honestly, if something happened to make me single again at this point, I'd have no interest in dating.
DeleteDon't you know the dinosaurs went extinct because they weren't smart enough to get on Noah's arc? Science is just one of those made up liberal conspiracies. Geez.
ReplyDelete(I was told the dinosaur thing was seriously taught at a local private school, by a parent who removed their child from the school when they discovered this was being taught.)
We have some scary religious schools here in the midwest . . .
DeleteThe earth vs sun thing first made me laugh, then kind of made me want to cry. It benefits none of us to live in a country populated by ignoramuses (ignorami?). The rest of them I like to think I would have gotten correct in T/F or multiple choice format, but short answer would not have been pretty. Looks like I need to take your class!
ReplyDeleteIn a country where people are still denying global warming and the link between death and guns none of this surprises me in the least. Makes me sad, but doesn't surprise.
ReplyDeleteI just finished an hour of proof-reading, followed by attempting to re-write someone else's awkwardly worded newsletter submission. In other words, my brain is fried and you don't want to know how poorly I answered some of your questions. I do, however, know that guns kill people and that the earth (with its solid core) is significantly smaller than the sun.
ReplyDeleteOn a happier note, when given this test as a True/False quiz, my 7th grader only missed the one about water vapor (droplets) and he went into detail describing the actual answer on several of the statements. I hope that makes you feel better!