- PVCC Jessup Library
- Jessup Playbooks
- How do I evaluate science news?
- Politics of Scientific Research
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How do I evaluate science news?
This guide will help students evaluate news stories about science for credibility. Students will also be able to understand why science is politicized, misunderstood, and misrepresented.
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Betty Sue Jessup Library
501 College Drive
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.961.5309
reference@pvcc.edu
Module Outcomes
After completing this module, students will be able to:
- evaluate news stories about science for credibility
- identify why science is politicized, misunderstood, and misrepresented in news coverage
Readings
- The 7 Biggest Problems Facing Science, According to 270 Scientistsby Julia Belluz, Brad Plumer, and Brian Resnick, from Vox
- Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overloadby Bill Kovach, from Bloomsbury (Chapter 1)
- Did NASA Just Accidentally Discover Warp Drive/EM Drive? (Spoiler Alert: No.)by Jolene Creighton, from Futurism
- Evaluating Scientific Claims (Or, Do We Have to Take the Scientist's Word for It?)by Janet D. Stemwedel, Scientific American
- The Fine Art of Sniffing Out Crappy Scienceby Steve Kolowich, The Chronicle of Higher Education
- In Public Understanding of Science, Alternative Facts are the Normby Andrew Shtulman, NPR
- Making Sense of UncertaintyFrom Sense About Science
- The One Chart You Need to Understand Any Health Studyby Julia Belluz and Steven Hoffman, from Vox
- Ph.D Student Pioneers Storytelling Strategies for Science Communicationby Tianyi Dong, from Berkeley News
- Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Eraby Daniel J. Levitin, from Dutton Publishing
- What is Science?from The University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley
- Who Here Believes in Science?by Gary Stix, Scientific American
Why We Should Trust Scientists
by Naomi Oreskes, from TED Talks
A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science
Example Assignments
- Research moon-landing deniers and the reasons they claim Neil Armstrong didn’t land on the moon. What is their evidence? Can it be verified? Evaluate their arguments.
- Read these articles. Vox, “The 7 Biggest Problems Facing Science, According to 270 Scientists” and Berkeley News, “Ph.D Student Pioneers Storytelling Strategies for Science Communication” and consider ways in which scientists can do a better job communicating their research to the general public.