In today's technological society, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have an understanding of basic scientific facts and processes in order to make informed choices, both in one's personal activities and on issues of public policy People in developed nations routinely make decisions on issues that have a scientific, technological and/or environmental component, either through their personal activities or through their work. Consequently, a level of knowledge of basic scientific facts and processes is an essential ingredient for informed decision making. Recent surveys of adults in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada have detected some indications of fundamental scientific illiteracy in the adult populations. Positions of responsibility that entail policy development and decision making are often held by university graduates. Therefore, a survey of undergraduate students at Erindale College of the University of Toronto was undertaken to determine the levels of knowledge of scientific principles and processes in this segment of the population. More than 1000 student responses to the survey were recorded. The questions pertained to basic scientific principles and processes (planetary motion, pasteurization, lasers, geologic time, changing seasons, atomic structure, photosynthesis, acidic fluids, plate tectonics, evolution and medicine), and environmental issues (tropical forests, stratospheric ozone, greenhouse effect, and acid rain). The group as a whole scored 66% correct. Three variables producing main effects in level of performance on the test were gender, year and discipline. Males consistently scored higher than females at equivalent levels of education, students in the life and physical sciences did better than those in the humanities or social sciences, and test performance improved with level of education. The effect of the location of high school the student had attended was not significant. The highest scores on the test were achieved by males in the fourth year of the physical sciences (88% correct). The questions with the lowest correct response rate were those pertaining to geology (49% correct).
