Survey reveals Canadians believe science is needed to solve critical world issues

Tuesday, October 02, 2018 1:39 PM | Deleted user


Ontario Science Centre's 2018 Science Literacy Survey reveals Canadians believe science is needed to solve critical world issues.

Highlights:

  • 83% of Canadians want to learn more about science and how it affects our world

  • 81% agree that most people don't understand the impact of science on their everyday lives

  • 74% agree that critical challenges facing the world will need to be solved by science and technology

  • 54% believe that society is turning away from science in favour of ideas that lack evidence or data

According to the Ontario Science Centre’s third annual Science Literacy Survey, most Canadians believe that science and technology play a major role in solving different challenges across the globe. Contradictory to this, many Canadians are also concerned about the impact of new technologies that may be, or already are, applied to everyday life such as artificial intelligence.


Each year, the Ontario Science Centre publishes the results of its Science Literacy Survey to coincide with Science Literacy Week, a national celebration of science from September 17 to 23, 2018. However, this year’s study also found that a little more than half of the respondents believe that society is turning away from science.

"Science literacy has never been more important than it is today," said Dr. Maurice Bitran, PhD, CEO, and Chief Science Officer, Ontario Science Centre. "The rapid pace of scientific advancement and the emergence of new technologies like artificial intelligence and self-driving cars have created an interesting tension in the minds of Canadians. People recognize that these technologies are important, but don't know enough about them to feel comfortable with their implementation. That's something the Ontario Science Centre can help with.”

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