The Agenda with Steve Paikin, a current affairs television program on TVO, recently featured a panel of experts to discuss the importance of science literacy in Canada. The Science Media Centre of Canada’s Executive Director, Penny Park, was included in the panel.
The Agenda has additionally created an online quiz (available here) for viewers to test how scientifically literate they are. The episode was inspired by a report on science culture in Canada published by The Council of Canadian Academies.
Watch the episode here
The report, Science Culture: Where Canada Stands, found that 42 per cent of Canadians are able to understand an in-depth newspaper story about a scientific discovery, while 93 per cent of Canadians report they are very interested or moderately interested in new scientific discoveries. In both categories Canada was the highest ranked nation included in the survey.
“Canadians express above-average levels of support for public funding of scientific research, and a strong majority of Canadians view science and technology as important in pursuing a range of social objectives such as environmental protection and improving Canada’s economic prospects. However, since 2004 Canadians have become slightly more skeptical about the ability of science and technology to achieve these objectives.” – Science Culture: Where Canada Stands
