Thurisaz Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Well well. Yesterday, after years of thinking "man I gotta see that thing from the inside", I finally visited the Phaeno in nearby Wolfsburg, with my wife and some friends. As not all of you will know what that is, it's a kind of "do-it-yourself science event" set up there - lots of experiments set up for everyone to do on the level of popular science. Not university-level stuff but surely enough to get one interested in learning more (yay for that idea therefore!). We had some fun hours with all those things. I checked out pretty much everything except for the bio lab (I've never really been a sucker for biology). There was but one thing that kind of spoiled my fun though: I remembered most of the stuff by far from school or the stuff I read or watched after school. Yup I'm too well-educated to enjoy all the coolness of the place Constantly finding yourself thinking "Ah yes that thing... on to the next setup!" after taking a look at some experiment is DUH. Makes me wonder what the current average of science education is over here. Looking at the cretinism pandemic in the states I guess it's better than in the US but just how much better... hrmmm... you don't go in there if you know it all already do you? And considering that they wouldn't have built the thing if they'd known there'd be few visitors... ...well anyway. A cool place to spend a day or a week. And it does make me wonder what would happen if one could herd the cretinists of the world in there and make them try out the stuff for themselves. Would at least some of them start to use their brains again? Hmmmm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babylonian Dream Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 I don´t know, but I found it disturbing that my brother left school not knowing the calendar, and came just short of thinking the earth was flat. Most people I encounter, I just don´t discuss science with them. They know little of science, and sometimes even act with the "you know way too much" attitude, despite not really being a scientifically literate as I'd like to be. Hard to say how Germany and the US, and the rest of the world compare, but I think that we can do much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Positivist Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Well, the cretins with certain convictions would view many of the setups as conspiracies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryper Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 was the experiment prayed over before it was setup? NO? SATAN!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 I do know that, in certain types of museums, xians go in groups and the exhibits are properly "explained" according to their proper scriptural context as opposed to whatever is presented. So billions of years becomes thousands of years and evolved becomes created and so on. I can imagine it might happen in a science museum but depending on what is there. Usually, however, the information given is pretty decent (I will say it has been about a decade since I've visited one of our science museums around here). I can't say how this reflects on the education levels of the visitors though. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crow Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 When I was in elementary or middle school we went to cave around here on a field trip. I'm pretty sure it was in a state park. Nothing was said on the age of it. There was a laser light show type thing in the biggest cavern, it told the story of genesis as read by Charlton Heston or James Earl Jones. Pretty much straight from the bible. I thought it was great at the time. I went to a christian elementary school so maybe they changed the tape, but I doubt it. That's kind of fucked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadedAtheist Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 Anyone working in IT will hate most movies to some degree or another. I think Swordfish is one at the top if my list. So yeah, I totally get you about feeling somewhat cursed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exevolt Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 I spent literally my first half of chemistry being taught stuff I learned 3 years ago. Then when someone asked what the Big Bang Theory was my teacher who was a master degreed chemist pretty much made a "I don't believe what I'm saying face" as she stumbled through the most inaccurate rendition of it and made a face at me when I corrected her, my entire class looked at me as if I was telling fairy tales, same as when I had to teach them some things considered quite basic in astronomy. The education of science has been faultering lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sexton Blake Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 I worked with people who would boast about how ignorant they were as though proud of it but call them weak and you'd have a fight on your hands. They execised regularly but read a book? No chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts