I recently found an article written by Richard Carrier over at the Secular Web. It’s entitled “Test Your Scientific Literacy!” He writes an interesting piece covering the basics of how science works in the form of offering a 24-question true-or-false test. It’s good information that can surely benefit nearly everyone. I took the test and scored a B-, though I do have excuses for two of my wrong answers. If you want to test your own scientific literacy, do it now. I will go over my misses and explanations below. If you read them first, the results of your test may be skewed.
I incorrectly answered…
- (3) I was thinking of the general approach rather than the specific actions taken by all scientists. I don’t think this should count against me.
- (8) I consider reinterpretation and perspective change as new information within the context of an experiment. I don’t think this should count against me because he and I categorize these differently.
- (9) I took this to mean that experiments were being rigged.
- (15) I misunderstood the difference between “law” and “theory,” just as he explained.
- (20) I guessed, not knowing which actually which is relied upon more often. Deduction seemed reasonable to me.
If my excuses are worthy, I manage a slightly better B+. If you took the test, share your results.
By the way, if anyone knows how to display nonconsecutive numbering in an ordered list on a WordPress blog, let me know. Setting the value attribute of each list item works in the editor, but is lost after publication.
*Update* I have opened a thread in the forum concerning this issue.
26 January, 2008 at 4:18 am
I was going to take the test, but it’s 2:00 am, and I don’t have a pen and paper handy!