Definition
According to the United States National Center for Education Statistics, "scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity". A scientifically literate person is defined as one who has the capacity to:
- understand experiment and reasoning as well as basic scientific facts and their meaning
- ask, find, or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences
- describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena
- read with understanding articles about science in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions
- identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed
- evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it
- pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately
Read more about this topic: Scientific Literacy
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