I don't do Math | Emily Calandrelli | TEDxOregonStateU

I don't do math it's a common phrase I'm sure a lot of us have heard and maybe we're even guilty of having said it ourselves but it's a funny phrase isn't it because when people say it they seem oddly proud of it like it was a quirky trait that they acquired and they were sort of excited to tell us about it but we would never say this about other basic skill sets that you use every day like you would never proudly assert oh I don't read that would not be something you are excited to tell people but for some reason we feel this way about STEM skills science technology engineering and of course math we put these skill sets on a pedestal reserved for people in glasses and lab coats we recognize their importance to society we revere people like Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein but we don't consider them pertinent to everyday life but this idea that stem literacy isn't necessary or worse that you can't be stem literate if you're not in a stem career is untrue and dangerous and it's time we threw away that mindset stem literacy is a survival skill set that's becoming increasingly important in today's world now I want you all to consider your last trip to the grocery store did you look at a lot of food labels did you feel a little bit overwhelmed buying healthy and safe food for yourself and your family didn't used to be as hard as it is today do you buy the food with genetically modified ingredients should you pay extra for organic and what about artificial sweeteners didn't you read somewhere that they cause cancer or something and these are just the small decisions what about the Bay scary ones like climate change or net neutrality or even childhood vaccinations all of these decisions from the big to the small can be better understood with a little research and a critical stem literate mind but what do I mean by this what is stem literacy well I think Carl Sagan put it best when he said science is much more than a body of knowledge it's a way of thinking stem literacy doesn't mean that you know a ton of science facts or that you've memorized the quadratic equation or that you know pi to the 100th digits stem literacy simply means that you are a critical thinker when it comes to decisions based on stem it means that you question the source of science and demand evidence to back up conclusions sym literacy means that you can be non emotional and objective when forming your opinion on stem issues and when there's an overwhelming body of scientific evidence this must influence your opinion take for example smoking cigarettes now it wasn't that long ago when smoking cigarettes weren't considered bad for you some people even thought they were good for you but today there's an overwhelming body of scientific evidence that proves that smoking cigarettes is harmful to nearly every organ in your body and that it can cause cancer now if you are someone who is persuaded by the scientific evidence and believes that smoking is bad for you then you in fact are stem literate on this topic easy right so what's the problem well the challenge is is that science and technology are advancing at an exponential pace but the public's level of stem literacy is not Americans apathy to stem literacy is painfully apparent and the officials we've elected to represent us today in the current Congress only 39 out of 535 representatives have a formal background in stem this is just 7% is that enough to put it another way are we all okay with over 90% of the representatives who are making decisions and passing laws that affect all of us in our highly technological 21st century world not having any type of formal background in stem now it's important to note that one does not need a formal background in stem to be stem literate so let's dive in a little deeper to this issue and really understand the level of stem literacy in Congress today let's take the example of human-caused climate change a phenomenon that over 95% of climate scientists agreed to be true this is I will point out the same level of consensus of scientists who believe that cigarettes cause cancer well unfortunately over 56% of Republicans in Congress today deny human caused climate change this is over half of the majority party in Congress today that should scare all of us but okay let's take a step back let's not be melodramatic not everybody in Congress is really influential and climate change policy right well I have worse news there are three very powerful officials that have recently taken leadership positions and science-driven committees in Congress and yes they all deny human-caused climate change number one we have Jim Inhofe the new chairman of the environmental and Public Works Committee and the Senate you could say that he denies human caused climate change because he literally wrote a best-selling book on it next we have Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz Rubio is the new chairman of the subcommittee that oversees NOAA the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Cruz is the the new chairman of the subcommittee that oversees NASA now why is this a bad thing well it's because NOAA and NASA are world leaders on climate science research together they invest three billion with a B annually on environmental and climate science efforts NOAA and NASA are scientific eyes and ears on our world and how we are affecting it now that we have these leaders overseeing this research we've sent the Fox to guard the henhouse and unfortunately we are all the hints in this scenario now can we really blame these officials because aren't they just doing their job and representing their constituents after all over 60% of Republican Americans deny human-caused climate change all of these people are denying an overwhelming body of scientific evidence that proves otherwise all of these people are stem illiterate on this topic and this illiteracy manifests itself in other areas in society more than four and ten Americans deny evolution they believe that humans were put on this world in our present form on an earth that was less than ten thousand years old they simply can't believe that we came from those damn dirty Apes and today too many parents are refusing to vaccinate their children for fear that vaccines are dangerous and that there's a link to autism a fear that has been disproven time and time again by multiple independent bodies in an overwhelming body of scientific research and because of this a disease that was thought eradicated in a year 2000 has come back with a record number of outbreaks and cases in the u.s. in just the past two years clearly we have a problem our country is stem illiterate today the u.s. is faced with decisions regarding the food we put on our shelves the medicine we put on our bodies and our children's bodies the Internet we put on our homes and the pollution we put in our sky how our representatives make these decisions will affect all of us in a very tangible way in our lifetime and before we can expect stem literacy out of our representatives we must expect it out of ourselves and those around us but how what can we all do starting today to foster a more stem literate society well first we need to change our mindset then we need to change our actions first and foremost we must change our mindset and believe that one does not need to be in a stem career to stem literate in fact when representatives who deny human caused climate change are asked why there are most popular defenses hey I'm no scientist this does not mean you can't understand what science tells you President Obama addressed this in his most recent State of the Union he said hey I'm no scientist either but I know a lot of good scientists at NOAA and NASA and our major universities just because you're not in a stem career does not mean you can't understand what science tells you and just because you don't have a formal background in stem certainly doesn't mean you can't have a personal interest in it this is how a girl from the UK at least Andrews could buy herself as the sole curator at the ripe old age of 23 with no formal background in STEM create the immensely popular stem Facebook page called I effing love science and if you're not familiar with this Facebook page it's a page that shares interesting tidbits and articles on various stem topics which are shared tens of thousands of times by scientists and engineers and others around the world each and every day this stem Facebook page is more popular than the Facebook page for Madonna Madonna often cited as the most influential female recording artist of all time Madonna at least Andrews is no scientist but she sure is STEM literate now there is a flip side of this right we must be careful not to assume that those in STEM fields are stem literate in all fields not all scientists are the same if you're a rocket scientist or the host of an educational outerspace show it's very likely that you know absolutely nothing about neuroscience and if you're a neuroscientist NASA is not likely to come to you to design their next rocket where the science comes from matters and because of this there are certain rare cases where a scientist in one field will promote pseudoscience or false science and another take Mayim Bialik for example star on the Big Bang Theory and a page and neuroscience in real life while it's wonderful that she promotes stem through her wildly successful show unfortunately in her personal life she promotes anti-vaccination beliefs and supports homeopathy and alternative medicine technique that has absolutely no scientific evidence to prove its efficacy both of these beliefs go against all scientific evidence against them and can actually be very dangerous to those who believe them and act on them so while Mayim Bialik surely gained a number of stem tools through her PhD in neuroscience she has unfortunately proven to be stem illiterate in other fields of science now to summarize this first point we must all change our mindsets one does not need to be in a stem career to be stem literate and just because someone is in a stem career doesn't mean you should take their advice on all things science stem literacy gives you the tools to think critically for yourself now this leads me to my second point the second thing that we can all do to foster a more stem literate society is actionable and you all have the tools and the influence to do it effectively starting today we need to start reaching out to people in our own communities who support and believe pseudoscience people who believe in pseudoscience are not often persuaded by scientific facts they have an inherent distrust of scientists and medical doctors who they believe may be biased but they may just listen to you these people who believe in pseudoscience they can be your friends or your family or even your colleagues at work these are the people to which you are most influential these are the people who are most likely to listen to you and engaging these people on the topics of pseudoscience is not going to be easy these are going to be uncomfortable conversations to have but we must start engaging people who believe pseudoscience and kindly point out the dangers and the fallacies of pseudoscience now as you go out there and fight for this grassroots social movement here are a few tools for your anti pseudoscience tool belts these are a few common fallacies of pseudoscience that you should look out for and address number one people who support pseudoscience often like to use the word chemical as a scare tactic they say anything that contains chemicals can be toxic and should be avoided at all costs but what these people should know is that technically chemicals are all around us they're makin a chiral e without any human interaction water is technically a chemical and they're also made in the lab but whether they come from the earth or the lab all chemicals can be toxic but here's the important part it's the dose that matters water is a very deadly chemical if you drink enough of it there are people that have overdosed by drinking too much water chemicals are not inherently dangerous doses are dangerous number two people who support pseudoscience often like to say things are unnatural as you sole reason why something is bad for you but the funny thing is there's so many things that we do today that are now considered natural that were considered unnatural just a few centuries or decades earlier traveling faster than we can run wearing clothing taking vitamins pasteurized milk and even indoor plumbing could all be considered unnatural today that does not make them bad for you similarly there are many natural things like naturally growing organic poisonous mushrooms that are not necessarily good for you natural is a relative concept that changes over time just because something is considered unnatural at this point in time does not make it bad for you and lastly people who support pseudoscience in the climate change debate often confuse weather with climate for example it snowed today therefore global warming is a hoax this confuses weather with climates weather is how the atmosphere changes day-to-day and month-to-month climate is the long-term trend of weather over decades and decades of time one cold day in one location is just one small part of the larger global climate picture now to summarize if we can accomplish these two things a change in mindset in a grassroots effort to combat pseudoscience we can all work together to foster a more stem literate society a stem literate society elects stem literate officials to represent them a nation with stem literate officials is one that is more innovative healthier and more sustainable in a world where science and technology are moving at an exponential pace this is a nation in a society I think we would all be really proud to be a part of and I hope we can all work together to create it we can no longer afford to be stem illiterate in a world in a nation surrounded by science and technology thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 326,922

Keywords: tedx talks, TEDxTalks, ted talk, ted talks, ted, ted x, Education, Personal education, Science, Math, English, tedx talk, Pseudoscience, United States, tedx

Id: y44nqo11Fh0

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2015