Personally, I’m bugged by the inset block that says, “The Earth is tilted about 23.5 degrees on its axis.” The image shows two axis lines, a vertical one and a tilted one corresponding to the continents. The picture is unclear just to what the Earth’s tilt is compared. It would be more clear to say, “The Earth’s axis is tilted about 23.5 degrees to the plane of its orbit (around the sun).” Around the sun being optional for thoroughness.
I love these “studies.” They never publish the ones that point out smart people. Makes better headlines this way.
Let’s see. This is put out by the National Science Foundation. Hmmm what would their motivation be? Well, NSF pushes for increased science education. If we were doing well, we wouldn’t need an NSF now would we? Can you say, “self serving?”
And who decided that this was 8th grade information? NSF. There is no national standardard for curriculum.
Most every study that compares students internationally shows that our students are doing as well or better than our international counterparts. Not as sensational, I know.
This “educational doomsday” crap has been making it’s rounds since “A Nation at Risk” was published, and for some reason has continued even after its discreditation.
Spritle,
who is in the biz
Spritle, did you even read the article? Nowhere in there does it claim that these are eighth grade questions.
The article was not, for the most part, about students. It was about adults and teachers.
And almost all of the doomsdaying stuff in that article, not that there was a lot, had nothing to do with NSF. I’m not saying that the medium is totally to blame for the hopeless spin, but if you got the impression from that article that we’re in an educational apocalypse, I don’t think you can blame NSF for it.
Also, I don’t think you can discredit the NSF study just because it’s done by people who deal with science. It is their job, after all. And if you’re in the biz, then you know that they do a lot more than sit back and benefit off the public’s fears of idiocy. If we were doing well, then we would need a Science Foundation more than ever.
Yeah, but the article was probably written by an American. 
I find it hard to believe that anyone couldn’t ace the quiz, much less that anyone might fail it.
My 5th grade son aced it too.
I think we all know what the real problem is: Science Hard.
The NSF isn’t a primarily a science education group, or some sort of science teachers union. It’s an independent federal agency and one of the chief means by which the U.S. government supports scientific research; the NSF gives out grant money to support basic scientific research. If basic science education were doing well, the NSF should (in theory) find it easier to carry out its mission, so in that sense, yes, it’s “self-serving” for the NSF to be promoting better science education, but not in the “Let’s make jobs for ourselves” sense you’re suggesting. The NSF does also dole out money to support grade school science education, but if we concluced that all our youngsters were doing just fine in that department, the NSF would still have plenty of things to do.