FLOTUS: Elevating the social status of nerds everywhere

Making her 13th visit to a federal agency, Obama joined Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Thursday in a tightly packed, 200-person basement DOE auditorium for a mock quiz of 10 middle schoolers who would compete next year in the National Science Bowl, an outreach effort run by DOE.

I heartily applaud this kind of effort.

But (you knew there would be a “but”) this made me wince:

Chu seemed to take pleasure when the budding scientists nailed a question, but winced when one team incorrectly guessed that nuclear power comprises only 5% of the US energy budget. The other team quickly got the answer right: 20%. “Correct,” said Chu with a wry smile.

How is that a science question? What concept should those students who missed it go back and study? The format of a quiz-bowl makes it tough to ask conceptual questions, so you’re limited right out of the gate, but really — statistics about nuclear power? Is our children learning that in science class?