The venerable aphorism “an old dog cannot learn new tricks” implies that the elderly rarely learn anything new—in particular, scientific knowledge. On the basis of “learning by doing,” the present study emphasized knowledge application (KA) as elderly subjects collaborated on the design of a toy flying saucer (UFO). Three types of KA were identified by questioning the work: Type 1—knowing neither how nor why; Type 2—knowing how, but not why; and, Type 3—knowing how and why. The results indicated that female elderly subjects more often exhibited Type 1 of KA compared with male elderly. The evidence supported a KA of Type 3 for those who had a science background, as they performed better than those without a science background. However, even those without a science background were able to produce science toys if they worked cooperatively, particularly when they could learn from others who had a science background.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 1 citations exist upstream.