In an article posted on tes, a group of Australian scientists claim the reason men are better than women at certain types of physics problems, is their ability to projectile urinate. They state that in dealing with questions about projectile motion only around one-third of girls answer correctly, compared to two-thirds of boys, and this is because boys play with projectile motion up to 5 times a day while going to the bathroom, and playing games with floating toilet targets, and "peeball".
I don't even know what to say to this... I suppose I could start with, what the hell is "peeball?" There has to be a more rational explanation to this, perhaps men are better at projectile motion because most of us like guns, missiles, aircraft, etc. so they inherently pay more attention to that aspect. I think their mentioning of ball sports is a much more feasible answer than the ability to write ones name in the snow. Or maybe this is that "male privilege" I've been hearing so much about.
This self-directed, hands-on, intrinsically (and sometimes extrinsically, and socially) rewarding activity must have a huge potential contribution to learning, resulting in a deep, embodied, material knowledge of projectile motion that’s simply not accessible to girls.
I don't even know what to say to this... I suppose I could start with, what the hell is "peeball?" There has to be a more rational explanation to this, perhaps men are better at projectile motion because most of us like guns, missiles, aircraft, etc. so they inherently pay more attention to that aspect. I think their mentioning of ball sports is a much more feasible answer than the ability to write ones name in the snow. Or maybe this is that "male privilege" I've been hearing so much about.
This self-directed, hands-on, intrinsically (and sometimes extrinsically, and socially) rewarding activity must have a huge potential contribution to learning, resulting in a deep, embodied, material knowledge of projectile motion that’s simply not accessible to girls.