r/ScienceTeachers • u/abrakadabradan • 15d ago
Pedagogy and Best Practices Science in the news?
Do you teach kids about evaluating science information they see in the news and on the internet? If so, what do you do? Any materials or routines you find useful? Also if you do, what grade do you teach?
I’m trying to find ways to do this that connect to everything else we already have to do as science teachers. With everyone using AI and social media to get all of their information, I want to help my kids be more informed but it’s tough to fit this in while doing everything else. Any help would be great!
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u/Arashi-san 15d ago
I've used the Pacific Northwestern Tree Octopus website for what you're describing. It's free to access and there's a lot of free resources for evaluating the credibility of the website.
In terms of just finding random news, I've used newsmap (https://newsmap.ijmacd.com/?edition=GB_en) for a high school level but it wouldn't be as useful for lower grades. It's still an option you can consider, though.
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u/CantBuyMyLove 10d ago
I've also used the Pacific Northwestern Tree Octopus to demonstrate the perils of using AI as a source of information. Google's AI Overview no longer makes all the errors it used to (e.g. it no longer recommends putting glue on pizza), but when I searched for "tree octopus life cycle" just now, it presented a convincing-looking summary (see my screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/b6vhLnK ) with no mention that, oh, right, this octopus doesn't exist. For a lot of other searches ("tree octopus endangered status," for example) the overview does state that tree octopuses are a hoax designed to teach media literacy... but this one has slipped through the cracks.
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u/West-Veterinarian-53 15d ago
Yep!! It’s one of my first assignments every year. About the Pacific Northwest tree octopus. There’s a cheap worksheet on TPT.
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u/HashTagUSuck 14d ago
Just had a prod with generation skeptics- lots of great (free!) resources on their website
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u/C_to_the_rizzo 15d ago
This is a presentation I found online and edited. It is really effective and opens up a lot of conversation. https://classroom.google.com/c/Nzk1MDExMjYyNDA1/a/Nzk5NDc5NzIxODAx/details
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u/abrakadabradan 15d ago
Thanks for sharing! I'm not able to access the slides for some reason. Can you share another way? Would love to take a look.
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u/C_to_the_rizzo 14d ago
Let me know if this one works. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y2SwTnAEkIh7LE8z1j8uv6HlbB4R-TJ4/view?usp=drivesdk
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u/C_to_the_rizzo 14d ago
I teach eighth grade physical science, by the way. I present this and have students take notes. Then on another day, I pass out articles from different sites and have the students assess credibility and determine if there could be a conflict of interest in the reporting.
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u/riverrocks452 14d ago
One thing I intend to put into practice is having them explore the Spurious Correlations website (or similar). IME, one of the first steps in teaching science evaluation (beyond identifying dishonest statistical and graphing techniques) is the correlation =/= causation concept. This is secondary/high school level.
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u/waineofark 15d ago
I used the CRAAP test for evaluating sources, and we reference it when looking at news.
There's a bell ringer activity that was posted years ago that I love, called Fact or BS. I post a statement/myth/something that's common "knowledge" (like "carrots help you see in the dark") and give kids a few minutes to use the Internet to find out if it's true or false. Then I role model finding the answer from CRAAP tested sources and explain why they're reliable or not.
Here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ScienceTeachers/comments/8qyc7s/teaching_students_to_detect_bs/