Investigating Scientific Claims

Lab 2: Follow the instructions and complete the assignment below. Submit your answers through the Lab 2 Assignment on Blackboard.

Lab 2 1

Lab 2: Investigating Scientific Claims

You may have noticed that the articles we evaluated in Lab 1 were written (and based on data from) a few years ago. Now, you have an opportunity to use your resources and scientific literacy skills to learn more about something important to you. Follow the steps and criteria outline below. A. Choose something that you’ve heard or seen recently that appears “scientific”.

 It can be an article, advertisement, commercial, a more recent news article, something someone once told you, something that you are curious about but just haven’t gotten around to looking up, etc…. as long you are basing your choice on a scientific claim that can be investigated.

 Remember that in order to be classified as “science”, the claim needs to be based on something that can be directly observed and measured (for example, how much mercury is really in vaccines?).

B. Your task for this lab is to evaluate the validity of the claim and come to a supported conclusion regarding the evidence behind the claim. To do this, you will need to critically assess the science (and the source(s)), using credible scientific evidence to support your decision.

 Tips: o If the topic is complex, choose 1 aspect; try to keep it as simple as possible. o Stay focused. These endeavors can easily turn into a rabbit hole of tangential

questions which can be a really quick way to lose direction. Make notes about things you want to look up later, and come back to them another time.

o Take some time, and dig – really dig, and read carefully. Unfortunately, more often than not, the accurate “science” is harder to find and read than it should be. Feel free to reach out and ask for help if you need it.

C. In your evaluation, you will need to consider each of the following:

 The scientific process: What information do you need to assess the validity of the claim(s)? How will you go about finding this information? How will you determine if the sources you use in your evaluation are reputable?

 Data. Find both qualitative and quantitative evidence to support your conclusions.

 Keep an open mind: Make sure to take both sides/all possibilities into account before arriving at your conclusion.

 Red Flags: Keep an eye out! Look for everything we’ve talked about this week in terms of trustworthy sources. o Clickbait? Underreporting? Echo Chambers? o Misleading Graphs or Data presentation? o Bias, Anecdotal evidence, pseudoscience? o Author credibility? Citations?

 Other things of interest to keep an eye out for:

Lab 2: Follow the instructions and complete the assignment below. Submit your answers through the Lab 2 Assignment on Blackboard.

Lab 2 2

o Make notes of anything else that you see that seems questionable/suspicious/scientifically inaccurate?

o Make notes of anything that you found interesting/that you didn’t already know.

 References: Keep track of all your resources as you work.

When you are finished, answer the following questions:

1. Summarize the “claim” that you chose to investigate and state your general conclusions. Include in your answer, why you wanted to investigate this (what seemed questionable about it) with as much description as possible here (if possible include a link or attach an image as well). Also discuss your determination as to whether the item was representing valid scientific claims or if it was fake. Include in your answer the most convincing evidence that you found that helped you make this decision. Be sure to include any references that apply to this answer as well.

2. Summarize your scientific process. What information did you determine that you needed to find in order to assess the validity of the claim? How did you go about finding this information? How did you determine if the sources you use in your evaluation are reputable? Be sure to include any references that apply to this answer as well.

3. Discuss the main evidence/data that you found during your investigation that helped you to reach your conclusions. Explain why you found this evidence valid and also why you are able to conclude that the source of this evidence trustworthy (provide evidence for this evidence, if you will). Be sure to include any references that apply to this answer as well.

4. Discuss any sources or evidence that you found that conflicted with your final conclusions. Explain why you found this evidence or source invalid or untrustworthy (provide evidence against this evidence, if you will). Why did you disregard this? Be sure to include any references that apply to this answer as well.

5. Discuss any red flags that you noticed during your investigation. How did the red flags that you found impact your analysis and decisions? Be sure to include any references that apply to this answer as well.

6. Discuss anything that you noticed during your search, (this doesn’t have to be related to your main topic, this can be something else you found) that seemed questionable or suspicious or scientifically inaccurate. How did this (or how will this) impact your analysis and decisions? Be sure to include any references that apply to this answer as well.

7. Discuss anything that you noticed during your search, (this doesn’t have to be related to your main topic, this can be something else you found) that you found interesting/that you didn’t already know. How did this (or how will this) impact your analysis and decisions? Be sure to include any references that apply to this answer as well.

Lab 2: Follow the instructions and complete the assignment below. Submit your answers through the Lab 2 Assignment on Blackboard.

Lab 2 3

Now that you completed this lab, return to Blackboard and select Lab 2 Assignment. You will see that Blackboard randomly selected 4 of the 7 questions above for you to answer, from the pool of all 7 questions. Copy-paste your answers for the 4 questions that Blackboard selected into Blackboard. Note that as this is a random selection, sometimes the questions will all be next to each other, sometimes they will be the hard ones, sometimes the easy ones, sometimes a true mix, and each student gets a slightly different selection. Each question is worth 2.5 points, for a total of 10 points for the lab.