People not interested in science?

[AdrianHudson]

Ok question, it seems to me that now a days people are not interested in science. In my high school just hate science and math and I don't understand why, so my question is why are people hating on math and science :(?

 

[Pythagorean]

I'm surrounded by people that are interested in science. Many of them have made careers out of it. So it's probably just a matter of where you are and who you know.

Also, in high school, not many people are interested in normal things; it's a bit of a metamorphic stage for humans.

 

[phinds]

In the USA, depending on what study you read, somewhere between 40% and 60% of the population believes in ghosts, aliens, and angels. The vast majority of people will never use anything but the most rudimentary science and math and have no interest in them. My question back to you would be, why SHOULD they be interested in them? Pseudo-science and conspiracy theories are so much easier.

I find this really disgusting and, like Pythagorean, I personally spend most of my time with people who DO like math and science but when I go to Walmart I'm pretty sure the folks there couldn't make correct change without their automatic registers.

 

[SteamKing]

Studying math and science is hard; playing with your phone and hanging out with your friends are soooo much easier.

 

[Enigman]

TFNdashTDrY‎[/youtube] Edit: the vi...nk- [url]www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pYRn5j7oI‎
(Don't know about you...)
Edit2: the transcript with relevant lines:

It's Interesting that some people find science so easy and others find it kind of dull and difficult
especially kids; you know, some of them are just heated up, and I don't know why it is. It's the same for all... (**)
For instance some people love music and I could never carry a tune. I lose a great deal a pleasure out of that
and I think that people lose a lot of pleasure who find the science dull.
In the case of science, I think that one of the things that make it difficult is that it takes a lot of imagination.
It's very hard to imagine all the crazy things that things really are like.
...
...whether the steam evaporates until you cover the cover, and all these things you can understand from this simple picture.
And that's a kind of lot of fun to think. I don't want to take this stuff seriously;I think we should just have fun imagining it, not worry about. There is no teaching when you are asking a question at the end, otherwise it's a horrible subject.

 

[DrDu]

Same here in Germany.
In former times there were much more people doing experiments at home, were programming or doing electronic circuitery.
Today if you buy some ml of hydrogen peroxide, you already risk an anti terrorism squad taking your house.
I see a general tendency in western societies to narrow science as science done by professional research organizations like universities. This goes in hand with restricting the freedom of science and education.
Even teachers at high schools can't do any more many of the experiments I was shown or doing in class as a pupil.
I think this ultimately started with the Manhattan project when science was beginning to be seen both as a potential threat and as only achievable in large projects.
Subsequently, department structures were implemented also at most universities in Europe and organizations like CERN or the NASA were created.

 

[AdrianHudson]

It makes me so mad. PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO PUT EFFORT INTO THEIR EDUCATION, honestly I can't say I'm perfect heck I slack off and sometimes get lazy but in the end I'm willing to put in the work and I get good marks. I'm trying to learn calculus way before my peers not because I want to try to act smart but because it genuinely interests me. I know a lot more then all my peers (not trying to come off with a superiority complex or anything like that) but that's because I get curious I could spend hours and hours looking at engineering textbooks, studying physics looking at how particle accelerators works, learning about what the universe is made of ,the world is a beautiful place and it gets a heck of a lot more beautiful when you look at it through the eyes of a physicist or biologist or chemist and people don't want to they are fine with doing the bare minimum.

Sorry for the long winded paragraph but sheesh its so enraging.

P.S sorry for any grammar errors typed that fast.

 

[WannabeNewton]

People have different interests and they can choose to have a lack of interest in whatever they want. Do you have a precocious interest in literature, art, music, and/or journalism? Don't judge other people for their lack of interest in something you deem important.

 

[AdrianHudson]

People have different interests and they can choose to have a lack of interest in whatever they want. Do you have a precocious interest in literature, art, music, and/or journalism? Don't judge other people for their lack of interest in something you deem important.

Yeah I guess that's true, I mean what i find cool other people might find lame but I understand that different strokes for different folks but I think it should make people kind of curious to find out why they're here no?

 

[WannabeNewton]

A lot of people have more important problems in their lives than worrying about why they're here; if you're interested in physics and math then good for you but don't berate people who aren't. The same exact people can berate you for a lack of interest in something else. How would you feel then?

 

[AdrianHudson]

A lot of people have more important problems in their lives than worrying about why they're here.

Yeah I guess you are right, I probably sound like a nut now haha... What I am saying isn't applying to everyone though what I'm trying to apply this to is people who only concern themselves with garbage. This current generation which I'm apart of there is people caring more about celebrity gossip and who's dating who then things that actually better society I tried to talk to a group of people about the recent launch to the moon and how China is working on its space program but they didn't even know it happened.

To add to this. I understand being on a physics forum my view on the world is obviously biased towards an opinion or a general idea, but this generation is lazy, people end up not trying and after they graduate they end up in jobs they hate where they work a crappy job just because they didn't apply themselves. I couldn't care less about what people do and what interests them. I mean I probably realize that it came off as people who don't do science or math as their career is not applying themselves yada yada yada, but as the conversation evolves I want you to know my opinion might not have came off a right way haha.

P.S take none of this to heart I'm just expressing my views. :)

 

[Office_Shredder]

To add to this. I understand being on a physics forum my view on the world is obviously biased towards an opinion or a general idea, but this generation is lazy, people end up not trying and after they graduate they end up in jobs they hate where they work a crappy job just because they didn't apply themselves. I couldn't care less about what people do and what interests them. I mean I probably realize that it came off as people who don't do science or math as their career is not applying themselves yada yada yada, but as the conversation evolves I want you to know my opinion might not have came off a right way haha.

Calling Generation Y lazy is easy but there's very little evidence that it's true as far as I can tell. All the media likes to complain about how people in their teens and 20s waste all their time on facebook, but

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/weekinreview/29graduates.html?_r=0

is a good counterpoint to the prevailing view.

There is ample evidence that young people today are hard-working and productive. The share of college students working full time generally grew from 1985 onward — until the Great Recession knocked many millennials out of the labor force, according to the Labor Department.

Between 1989 and 2006, the share of teenagers who were volunteering doubled, to 26.4 percent from 13.4 percent, according to a report by the Corporation for National and Community Service. And the share of incoming college freshmen who say they plan to volunteer is at a record high of 32.1 percent, too, U.C.L.A.’s annual incoming freshman survey found.

So my opinion now is studies or it didn't happen.

 

[Yanick]

"Takes all kinds of people to make up a world"
- Kurt Vonnegut

 

[SteamKing]

Same here in Germany.
In former times there were much more people doing experiments at home, were programming or doing electronic circuitery.
Today if you buy some ml of hydrogen peroxide, you already risk an anti terrorism squad taking your house.
I see a general tendency in western societies to narrow science as science done by professional research organizations like universities. This goes in hand with restricting the freedom of science and education.
Even teachers at high schools can't do any more many of the experiments I was shown or doing in class as a pupil.
I think this ultimately started with the Manhattan project when science was beginning to be seen both as a potential threat and as only achievable in large projects.
Subsequently, department structures were implemented also at most universities in Europe and organizations like CERN or the NASA were created.

DrDu makes an important point. The exposure to science for kids now is much different than it was for kids who grew up thirty or forty years ago. For one thing, there are more distractions with electronics besides television: there are computer games, phones, social media, all sorts of stuff which was science fiction back then or not even heard of. Nowadays, kids take all this stuff for granted and don't realize that most of it did not exist as few as twenty years ago. When was the last time you stumbled across a chemistry set which you could take home and do experiments without getting a permit from the EPA? When was the last time you saw an erector set which had steel parts with all kinds of sharp edges and enough teeny-tiny screws and nuts to choke an entire pre-school? A lot of kids today follow time schedules as rigid as those for any adult who is working and there is not a lot of spare time in the schedule for goofing around with stuff.

 

[AdrianHudson]

DrDu makes an important point. The exposure to science for kids now is much different than it was for kids who grew up thirty or forty years ago. For one thing, there are more distractions with electronics besides television: there are computer games, phones, social media, all sorts of stuff which was science fiction back then or not even heard of. Nowadays, kids take all this stuff for granted and don't realize that most of it did not exist as few as twenty years ago. When was the last time you stumbled across a chemistry set which you could take home and do experiments without getting a permit from the EPA? When was the last time you saw an erector set which had steel parts with all kinds of sharp edges and enough teeny-tiny screws and nuts to choke an entire pre-school? A lot of kids today follow time schedules as rigid as those for any adult who is working and there is not a lot of spare time in the schedule for goofing around with stuff.

Do you think that the limiting of this home science makes it not worth it and thus makes people not follow their curious side of science ?

 

[AdrianHudson]

TFNdashTDrY‎[/youtube] Edit: the vi...nk- [url]www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pYRn5j7oI‎
(Don't know about you...)
Edit2: the transcript with relevant lines:

Thats why I don't like the openended courses in high school.. I ask a question as to why something is the way it is and the teacher will say "dont worry about about it" or the famous line "you will learn that in grade 12"

This was addressed to the "if you are asking question at the end of a lesson or course"

 

[SteamKing]

Do you think that the limiting of this home science makes it not worth it and thus makes people not follow their curious side of science ?

I think that those kids who have an insatiable curiosity about things will do just fine. The kids who are just plugging along, following their kid careers, may not find or get the chance to do something out of the ordinary, which might set them onto a different path in life.

 

[AdrianHudson]

I think that those kids who have an insatiable curiosity about things will do just fine. The kids who are just plugging along, following their kid careers, may not find or get the chance to do something out of the ordinary, which might set them onto a different path in life.

This is kinda unrelated but what home project do you find the most fun? For me it was an electrolysis machine :)

 

[AdrianHudson]

To keep it back on topic, I hear a lot from my friends on how they think science and math is all memorization, while that is true IN certain circumstances most of math and science is understanding WHY things are the way they are or WHY we use that equation to find out this "thing".

Do you think that science and math get a bad rep for being subjects where you have to memorize ?

 

[WannabeNewton]

Do you think that science and math get a bad rep for being subjects where you have to memorize ?

Not that I know of. If anything, subjects like biology have the bad rep with regards to memorization.

 

[AdrianHudson]

Not that I know of. If anything, subjects like biology have the bad rep with regards to memorization.

Amen, I'm experiencing that one right now. Biology is a load of memorization.

"Name this valve of the heart"
"What does the liver do"

 

[Caveat]

Imagine living in a world where everyone loved science, where everyone was an atheist - where culture, religion and social constructs died at the shores of the incoming technological tsunami, where we placed efficiency ontop of a pedestal as our god and disposed of those silly, useless, time-wasting arts that deal with fantasy (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter etc) and nonsense

In an efficient and perfect world, people die of boredom

 

[Charmar]

Imagine living in a world where everyone loved science, where everyone was an atheist - where culture, religion and social constructs died at the shores of the incoming technological tsunami, where we placed efficiency ontop of a pedestal as our god and disposed of those silly, useless, time-wasting arts that deal with fantasy (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter etc) and nonsense

In an efficient and perfect world, people die of boredom

I understand the point you are making, but I don't see how more knowledge equals the extinction of the arts/culture. I'm sure some things would change, of course, but I think there are way too many unknowns.

 

[Astrum]

In the USA, depending on what study you read, somewhere between 40% and 60% of the population believes in ghosts, aliens, and angels. The vast majority of people will never use anything but the most rudimentary science and math and have no interest in them. My question back to you would be, why SHOULD they be interested in them? Pseudo-science and conspiracy theories are so much easier.

I find this really disgusting and, like Pythagorean, I personally spend most of my time with people who DO like math and science but when I go to Walmart I'm pretty sure the folks there couldn't make correct change without their automatic registers.

I remember a group of students becoming distraught when the evolution unit was taught in HS biology. Even in a fairly educated northern state, we have our fair share of loons. I confronted them on why they thought it was BS, after telling me about "the Bible", they couldn't come up with anything to refute the evidence. As revenge he unfriended me on FB.

A lot of people have more important problems in their lives than worrying about why they're here; if you're interested in physics and math then good for you but don't berate people who aren't. The same exact people can berate you for a lack of interest in something else. How would you feel then?

I don't completely agree with you here. A lot of people have an open dislike for science and math. In talking with a lot of family or friends, I see plenty of hate towards science and mathematics. I'm perfectly OK with somebody not being into as much as we at PF are, but when you have an open dislike towards a subject that's so fundamental to all of our lives, I see that as an ignorant view. Hating a subject that you've never taken the time to explore is really a sad way to live.

It is really a good thing that there are people who have different interests. Let's be honest, if everyone was a scientist or mathematician, we'd probably collapse as a society pretty soon.

Maybe your experience was different in HS, but where I went, kids used to avoid chemistry/bio/physics,math like it was the plague.

 

[Evo]

Amen, I'm experiencing that one right now. Biology is a load of memorization.

"Name this valve of the heart"
"What does the liver do"

I still remember biology tests, name all of the bones in the human body and name all of the muscles. Talk about short term memory dump. Memorized it all the night before, aced the test, forgot it the next day.

 

[Enigman]

I still remember biology tests, name all of the bones in the human body .

Bones...I know bones!

Bones

 

[Chronos]

Well, kids in middle school have raging hormones - which can be very distracting. Who cares about science or math when you have an overwhelming need to breed? That is why scientists seem so socially inept. It's the only way they survived youthful enthusiasm - they were social outcasts.

 

[Pythagorean]

Well, kids in middle school have raging hormones - which can be very distracting. Who cares about science or math when you have an overwhelming need to breed? That is why scientists seem so socially inept. It's the only way they survived youthful enthusiasm - they were social outcasts.

You should write for Big Bang Theory.

 

[AdrianHudson]

Well, kids in middle school have raging hormones - which can be very distracting. Who cares about science or math when you have an overwhelming need to breed? That is why scientists seem so socially inept. It's the only way they survived youthful enthusiasm - they were social outcasts.

I don't totally agree with this, I excel at the math and sciences portion of school. While I do not have enough time to constantly hang out with friends I have a good social circle and I have a girlfriend.

 

[AdrianHudson]

Bones...I know bones!

Bones

Oh god hahaha 10/10 seriously though I much prefer microbiology and genetics way more than the stuff we do, the idea of being able to choose genomes that a species has is way cool. :beer:

 

[WannabeNewton]

A lot of people have an open dislike for science and math.

So? It's their right to hate whatever they want with as much predisposition as they want. There's no official piece of paper on it that says science and math are somehow so fundamental that people have to make an effort to like them in the slightest.

Maybe your experience was different in HS, but where I went, kids used to avoid chemistry/bio/physics,math like it was the plague.

I went to a science based HS and there were still people there who hated science and math but they have all the right to do so.

 

[Enigman]

So? It's their right to hate whatever they want with as much predisposition as they want. There's no official piece of paper on it that says science and math are somehow so fundamental that people have to make an effort to like them in the slightest.

Far be it for me to question your sense of propriety which I too to a degree share but a natural question arises from the statements that you have put forward:
When that dislike spreads its bounds as is won't to happen to the practicians of science and that particular community then would you contend the beration to be justified or perhaps the dislike itself?
(I had almost forgotten how much fun writing like this is... now to think up a jabberwockian name for this dialect.)

 

[Enigman]

Well, kids in middle school have raging hormones - which can be very distracting. Who cares about science or math when you have an overwhelming need to breed? That is why scientists seem so socially inept. It's the only way they survived youthful enthusiasm - they were social outcasts.

Lets analyze that...

• Opening statement:Well, kids in middle school have raging hormones
• Stated Consequence: can be very distracting.
• Rhetorical question: Who cares about science or math when you have an overwhelming need to breed?
• Conclusion:
  • That is why scientists seem so socially inept.
  • It's the only way they survived youthful enthusiasm - they were social outcasts.

Interpretation: Scientists are socially inept. They are social outcasts. (unfounded stereotypical assumption correalating social awkwardness with specific interest in academics or more specifically science) This is because teenagers have hormones. Teens are sexually promcious and hence cannot possibly be interested in knowledge and be socially profecient as they both are mutually exclusive attributes.

Your conclusions then seem to based only on stereotypical assumptions and first principles and hence on a very shaky ground as far as logic is concerned.
BBT screenplay seems a good option...

 

[leroyjenkens]

In the USA, depending on what study you read, somewhere between 40% and 60% of the population believes in ghosts, aliens, and angels. The vast majority of people will never use anything but the most rudimentary science and math and have no interest in them. My question back to you would be, why SHOULD they be interested in them? Pseudo-science and conspiracy theories are so much easier.

A coworker of mine was telling me about how this guy had a dream about his dead grandmother, she told him the lottery numbers, and he won the lottery. This was on TV, and the guy really won the lottery. Well, it's easy to say what happened prior to winning the lottery when there's no evidence of it. I told him the guy could have just made that up, or maybe he had a vague dream about his grandmother and thought she gave him numbers, or maybe if you grilled him about it, he'd admit she didn't give him the numbers per se, but inspired him to play the lottery, or something like that. Or maybe he just flat out lied and didn't have a dream about her at all.

But he was having none of that. He wanted to believe the story. You just can't reason with people who want to be unreasonable.

I never understood believing something simply because you WANT it to be true.

What's more likely, this guy lied, or his dead grandmother manifested in his dream and gave him the winning lottery numbers? He chose the latter. Apparently lies are highly improbable when they're in your favor.

 

[Dash-IQ]

Show people the awesomeness of science, and they will love it.
Explain it for the sake of understanding of how the world works not to pass a final or a midterm and they will love it.I loved physics because it's to me the language that explains how the world works... When I was in HS. I hated it because of the school treating it as a tool of testing only, not an amazing opportunity of enlightenment. I started to gradually study and experiment the theories I studied in class(if I could afford building them), and then get more attracted to it.

 

[AdrianHudson]

Show people the awesomeness of science, and they will love it.
Explain it for the sake of understanding of how the world works not to pass a final or a midterm and they will love it.I loved physics because it's to me the language that explains how the world works... When I was in HS. I hated it because of the school treating it as a tool of testing only, not an amazing opportunity of enlightenment. I started to gradually study and experiment the theories I studied in class(if I could afford building them), and then get more attracted to it.

This is what made me want to invest time into physics and math and biology and chemistry because we learn about how the world works and WHY it works to me that is so fascinating.

To add to this I am trying currently to get kids interested I talked to the principal at my HS and he is currently ok'ing the idea of a small rocketry club which I think is awesome.

 

[phinds]

Show people the awesomeness of science, and they will love it.
Explain it for the sake of understanding of how the world works not to pass a final or a midterm and they will love it.

I admire your optimism, but am not impressed by your naiveté. You think others think the way you do. They don't.

 

[FreeMitya]

You know how the things you love literally leave a good taste in your mouth? I guess science doesn't taste very good to the people you speak of.

 

[AdrianHudson]

You know how the things you love literally leave a good taste in your mouth? I guess science doesn't taste very good to the people you speak of.

Very true, nothing tastes better than bacon wrapped scallops ;) anyways I guess people can choose what they like and what they don't like even though I still don't understand why they hate science and math.

I wonder if its the actual math part like the equations and stuff or the abstractness because once you start getting higher and higher up in math it takes pretty abstract thinking to get questions.

 

[FreeMitya]

Very true, nothing tastes better than bacon wrapped scallops ;) anyways I guess people can choose what they like and what they don't like even though I still don't understand why they hate science and math.

I wonder if its the actual math part like the equations and stuff or the abstractness because once you start getting higher and higher up in math it takes pretty abstract thinking to get questions.

It would have been better if I had written "subjects" instead of "things." Oh, well.

Another part of the problem is that many people take longer to grasp math than others, so it is easy for them to become frustrated and resentful. (A banal thought, I know.)

 

[BobG]

When was the last time you saw an erector set which had steel parts with all kinds of sharp edges and enough teeny-tiny screws and nuts to choke an entire pre-school?

The last time I was at ToysRUs. They still make these (or started making them again if they stopped at some point).

I bought one each of these for two different grandkids and the only thing that bugs me is that I bought them for grandkids I don't see very often.

It's occurred to me that I need one of these just for me!

(I have to admit that there is one other thing that bugs me about one of the grandkids. Last time I visited him, the car we built together a year earlier was still put together. For crying out loud! Take it apart and build something new! I might have bought it for him when he was a bit too young.)

 

[AdrianHudson]

It would have been better if I had written "subjects" instead of "things." Oh, well.

Another part of the problem is that many people take longer to grasp math than others, so it is easy for them to become frustrated and resentful. (A banal thought, I know.)

It would be interesting to have a survey, would you guys be interested if I made a survey and posted the results? The participants would be from my Highschool and it might help to see what is actually wrong with the education of math and science.

Adding on, I might have to get a bigger sample size then just my school maybe like 2 or 3 schools. Would be fascinating.

 

[cragar]

About a year ago I did physics demonstrations at a booth at my school, and there were other booths their biology geology and many others. i was their from 9-5 and it was a bunch of kids from grades k-10 or so. And our physics booth was always swamped with kids playing with the demos and watching the cool electricity and magnetism demos and gyroscopes. So what will these kids grow up to do? I think we could do a better job at getting physics in the open to at least get people aware.

 

[TheOldHag]

I know what is not the answer: Everyday Math. Awful stuff.

 

[AdrianHudson]

I know what is not the answer: Everyday Math. Awful stuff.

Define everyday math like multiplication, division and adding stuff like that ?

 

[TheOldHag]

Everyday Math, like the new math curriculum they are teaching kids now. The distorted and disconnected view of math comprised of silly handouts without any unifying theme other than circle and block games that make some educational theorist feel warm and fuzzy.

 

[Monsterboy]

Ok question, it seems to me that now a days people are not interested in science. In my high school just hate science and math and I don't understand why, so my question is why are people hating on math and science :(?

Faulty education system and shortsighted/bad teachers can demotivate students and make them hate science,maths etc ,i hated maths in my middle school but fortunately met a good teacher who was also a motivator than just a teacher ,later by high school maths became my favorite.

 

[USCadam89]

I work in a quality control microbiology lab, I always give fun facts about astronomy and physics throughout the week(albeit the simple concepts I understand). The other day I was telling something about the speed of light and how everything we see across the night sky is from the past(pretty simple gesture). One or more people said, "why do we care about this useless information and I could careless." I was astonished a lot of chemistry/biology degree coworkers and no one gives a damn about how the world around them operates.

 

[Evo]

(I have to admit that there is one other thing that bugs me about one of the grandkids. Last time I visited him, the car we built together a year earlier was still put together. For crying out loud! Take it apart and build something new! I might have bought it for him when he was a bit too young.)

Reminds me of me and my kids. When I was little, I had a microscope, and a slide kit, I'd make my own slides. I had a telescope. I had erector sets and tinker toys and (little) chemistry sets, my mom wouldn't allow me the really cool BIG ones I begged for every Christmas, she said I'd blow up the house.

So when I had kids, they had microscopes and telescopes and building sets, and biology sets. And they wouldn't touch them, had absolutely no interest. I bought them glow in the dark night sky books. Nothing interested them. Spawn became a computer whiz, (She's a computer scientist now) however Evo Child wanted to become a trial lawyer (since age 7). She's finally decided on becoming a psychologist.

You can take a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.

 

[Enigman]

She's finally decided on becoming a psychologist.

You remember I told you I might steal you for a story?
...the character was a psychologist.