In the wake of rating compilers

    Recently, an article " Viva China, :( Russia " was published on Habré , from which it followed that, according to the studies of American scientists, Russian scientists are hopelessly behind and generally Russian science is bent. found (there are too many letters), but came across the beautiful.Here: www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind10 , chapter 7.

    Those who are not interested in this topic probably remember the polls that this organization suits the adult population, in order to, like, establish the level of knowledge of the average US citizen (Japan, Russia, the European Union, etc.). Like, "is it true that the electron is smaller than an atom" or "The Earth revolves around the Sun or the Sun around the Earth." Which is typical, judging by the data on page 19, the questions have not changed at least since 2001.

    On page 20 of the study, a new, 2008 General Social Survey questionnaire is titled “New Science Knowledge Questions”. This, I tell you, is just a song. Also with the refrain. When I read this monumental work, basically something revolved in my head, vaguely similar to "WELL DUPTY." Who made this list is interesting to me.

    The first question kills on the spot.


    Caution:

    What is the most important property of water for living organisms?

    My relatively good school education hinted to me that repulsion should be from the high dielectric constant of water (80), which makes it a good solvent, etc. And then I somehow find it difficult to formulate in one sentence what (one!) Property of water makes it so important for living organisms.

    Guess which answer is correct. Attention:
    “It is liquid for most temperatures on Earth” (translate literally).

    This is brilliant, I think.

    UPD I explain.
    1) nobody gave criteria of importance-unimportance;
    2) during the whole time of the development of life on Earth, there were periods when liquid water was present far from everywhere on the globe. By the way, the maximum recorded temperature on Earth is +53, and the minimum -89, so the wording “most temperatures” requires significant refinement (on most of the surface?);
    3) water is necessary for life, primarily because many life-critical reactions occur in an aqueous medium: water is a good solvent with a high dielectric constant. Therefore, the answer of B is actually the most similar to the truth.


    The second question is specifically designed for morons - look, evaluate for yourself. Questions 3 and 4 are still nothing. There is no question in the fifth question.

    Sixth question: the student is conducting an experiment - how an increase in temperature changes the behavior of goldfish. He has 4 aquariums and 20 fish. Which of the experiments from the picture should he conduct?



    Yes FIG knows! Nothing has been written about the nature of the study. Or do the authors believe that any study of the effect of temperature on the behavior of fish should be carried out by planting 5 fish in each aquarium?

    UPD:
    A student in this experiment CANNOT draw the required conclusion, because:
    1.1) if there is no difference in behavior, it will only follow from this that the temperature does not affect the behavior of FIVE fish at DATA temperatures in an aquarium of this volume.
    1.2) there is at least one factor affecting the behavior of the fish that this experiment does not exclude: the sexual composition of the fish. It is obvious that five males will tirelessly fight for the territory, in contrast to the mixed composition.

    Total: the test does not check the logic (namely, understanding the difference between the necessary and sufficient condition) and does not check the knowledge of the scientific methodology (the exclusion of other factors - sex of fish, age, time of day, etc.).


    UPD2:
    Generally speaking, the idiocy of the question becomes clear if you ask yourself: do you need to know something about fish in order to answer this question?
    If we consider the question as purely logical (replacing the fish and temperature with abstract parameters), the task is posed completely incorrect: none of the experiments allows us to answer the question in the case of a negative result.

    If you know something about fish, then the answer is that no experiments are needed. At zero temperature, the fish will certainly die, therefore, the temperature affects the behavior of the fish.

    UPD3. Here is the correct analogy:

    How much will 2 + 2 * 2

    A 8
    B 27
    C 873
    D 0 The

    correct answer, according to the logic of the compilers of the tests, is 8. Yes, all are wrong, but 8 can somehow be explained logically. And in addition, a man demonstrated the ability to perform simple actions.


    The seventh question. The farmer thinks that the vegetables on her farm do not get enough water. Her son suggests using water from the ocean to water vegetables.
    Attention, question: is this a good idea? How do you like the wording?

    To begin with, the question does not say anywhere: a) but do vegetables really suffer from a lack of water? b) and the son offers to desalinate water or directly water it?
    And there is still the answer D - no, because ocean water is more dirty than rainwater. In principle, in some places it is).

    UPDIn an arid climate, the proposal to use desalinated water is extremely meaningful. Moreover, just for the reason specified in paragraph A, there is much more salt water than fresh water. To answer C, one must make an implicit assumption that desalination is too expensive.

    The eighth question. Which of these is not an example of erosion?
    A desert wind blows sand over rocks
    B a glacier drags boulders along when it moves
    C a stream washes a river bank and carries away soil fragments
    D cracks appear on sidewalks from a cold wind

    As the Russian Wiki suggests, erosion is the destruction of soil and rock by water currents and wind. So the correct answer is B and D. The same wiki indicates that in the West it is customary to call erosion any destructive activity of geological forces. So there is no right answer at all. The English Wiki, however, unequivocally indicates option D. For example. What do you think is checking this question? According to the compilers - Composition of the Earth; forces that alter the Earth's surface; rocks: their formation, characteristics, and uses; soil: its changes and uses; natural resources used by humankind; and forces within the Earth. Then I already had the power to laugh. In my opinion, this question only checks knowledge of the school definition.

    UPDIn general, everything is written above. I repeat: the question does not check basic knowledge about the structure of the earth's surface, the formation of rocks and soil, as the authors believe, but the knowledge of the definition of erosion from an American school textbook. In the Russian tradition, the definition is different. There is no logical difference between the answers - everywhere we are talking about the destructive influence of natural forces (here most likely the glacier option is out of order).

    The ninth question - and again the song:
    Traits are passed from generation to generation through
    A only sperm
    B Only an egg (egg)
    C Sperm and an egg
    D

    To begin with, the correct answer is through DNA. The wording itself implies a million different readings - traits can be interpreted as “facial features” or “characteristic features”, egg - as “egg” or “egg”, etc. The condition does not say whether it is about sexual reproduction. Etc.

    13 question. Students 20 times calculated the weight of the sheet and received 20 slightly different values. Which of the following is the best method to describe (to report - report? Ambiguity again) sheet weight?
    A Ask the teacher
    B Report the result of the first measurement
    C Average of all values
    D Average of the maximum and minimum values
    E Drop 5 minimum values

    UPD.Generally speaking, the correct answer should sound something like this: discard extreme values, calculate the mean and variance. Answers C, D, E contain every part of the correct solution.
    In addition, the answers are grammatically heterogeneous: the first two indicate the action (ask - report), the 3rd and 4th digit (that is, they do not answer the formulated question: “Which of this is the best method” is “average”). Actually, this is the main reason why I brought up this very question: the inability of the authors to at least correctly formulate questions and answers.


    The rest of the questions are no better. All of them are idioticly worded, most require substantial refinement, there are no answers to many, or several are correct.

    And on the basis of such tests, they compose their “ratings”. The first reasonable question - what kind of idiots work in this organization? They demonstrate a) complete scientific illiteracy and b) complete inability to make tests. Who are these people?
    The second reasonable question - what is the use of these ratings? What can they reflect?

    Of course, I did not carefully read the rest of the report. Of course, it may be that it is in the particular unit that studies the level of scientific knowledge that some idiots work, and all the rest are white and fluffy. But for me personally, the value of this report was rapidly approaching zero.

    UPD Especially for commentators, he deciphered each item.

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