People not interested in science?

[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.

 

[collinsmark]

Fred loves his microscope. We can hardly separate him from it. He doesn't actually use it because he just sits there in his mason jar. But boy, he really loves that microscope.

[Edit: holy crap, I thought this was "Random Thoughts" when I posted. I'm sorry.]

 

[Enigman]

I'm sorry.

You should be. You never told me about that website. And I thought you were just kidding when you wrote the 'mad variety' as your favourite area of science...thanks for the nightmares.

 

[Tobias Funke]

I'll second the "why should they be?" sentiment. Math and science are taught terribly, by teachers who for the most part don't understand them. What they get in school isn't science. I knew a bunch of students who were memorizing what a beta biomite does when it attaches to a subdermal DNA receptor (of course I made that up...) to pass a test, yet couldn't tell me why the seasons change.

I also agree with WannabeNewton, as I do every time this subject comes up. I would prefer more people to know history than science myself. The occasional post by the "hard science" guy forced to take a humanities class taught by a radical communist revisionist professor who taught actual history (BRAINWASHING THE YOUTH!) is pretty depressing.

 

[AdrianHudson]

Fred loves his microscope. We can hardly separate him from it. He doesn't actually use it because he just sits there in his mason jar. But boy, he really loves that microscope.

[Edit: holy crap, I thought this was "Random Thoughts" when I posted. I'm sorry.]

W-w-what is that thing...

 

[lisab]

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.

My daughter had a class with a text called Everyday Math. Horrible, horrible stuff. I was raised on *real* "new math". I have no idea what that stuff in her book was .

 

[AdrianHudson]

My daughter had a class with a text called Everyday Math. Horrible, horrible stuff. I was raised on *real* "new math". I have no idea what that stuff in her book was .

Is this what you're talking about?

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu

I live in the great white north so I haven't had an encounter with this "everyday math"

 

[Claude Bile]

I can tolerate people that have no interest in science (my wife for one .

It's those that openly slander scientists that I have a hard time dealing with. Especially in Australia, we seem to have a real anti-intellectual culture emerging in politics, where the more qualified you are, the less reliable your opinion seems to be (?!).

Claude.

 

[TheOldHag]

Especially in Australia, we seem to have a real anti-intellectual culture emerging in politics, where the more qualified you are, the less reliable your opinion seems to be (?!).

Your not alone. Here in America half the country regards ignorance as a virtue.

 

[Cyril141795]

I think that people hate math and science because they don't understand them and it's not easy to understand math and science. If one understands (doesn't simply know formulation) at least one significant theorem in math he can't hate math. The work which one has to do on the way to the truth will always interfere with understanding of beauty of science.

 

[Pythagorean]

If one understands [..] at least one significant theorem in math he can't hate math.

I disagree. Most people are weird and not everyone thinks like you. There are people who have gone through a math degree, understood a theorem, shrugged about it, eventually decided they didn't like math because they just want to work hard and make money and sail around the world in their own sailboat, so they became market analysts where they are daily reminded that they hate math, but at least they only have to do it 9-5 now and only for ten more years before they retire and start sailing.