By the end of the lesson, you will be able to discern the difference between science reported in the news and scientific journals. 

News is available to us everywhere, all the time – in newspapers and magazines, on television and via the Internet – and this includes science news. Some scientists complain about the accuracy of scientific information in the media, however, the news organizations and media will continue to be an important source of scientific information. Scientific Journals often contain vocabulary and language that is hard for the average person to understand, and news articles can help translate the information.

The following examples illustrate some of the differences between news reports and research articles. Although this example comes from a newspaper article, it could equally apply to other sorts of popular science reports: magazine articles, podcasts or video clips of the television news, for example.

News reports generally follow an established pattern. In the first paragraph, you will find all the information you need to understand the story: who, what, where, when, why and how.

Let’s look at an example from the BBC website (Walker, 2009).

How Cities Drive Plants Extinct

By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News.  An international team of botanists has compared extinction rates of plants within 22 cities around the world. Both Singapore and New York City in the US now contain less than one-tenth of their original vegetation, reveals the analysis published in Ecology Letters. However, San Diego, US and Durban, South Africa still retain over two-thirds of their original flora…..

Matt Walker, Earth News editor, describes the results of an international study involving scientists from various countries. Did you notice that the main information is available in the first paragraph?

This is one of the biggest differences between news articles and other types of text. In scientific research articles, for instance, the results and conclusions are presented in separate sections, towards the end. Even in the abstract, the short version of the scientific paper, the structure follows the same pattern: introduction, methods, results and conclusions.

Let’s take a look at how the same story was presented in a scientific journal – in the abstract of an article published in Ecology Letters (Hahs et al., 2009).

A Global Synthesis of Plant Extinction Rates in Urban Areas

By Amy K Hahs, Mark J McDonnell, Michael A McCarthy, Peter A Vesk, Richard T Corlett, Briony A Norton, Steven E Clemants, Richard P Duncan, Ken Thompson, Mark W Schwartz, and Nicholas SG Williams

Plant extinctions from urban areas are a growing threat to biodiversity worldwide. To minimize this threat, it is critical to understand what factors are influencing plant extinction rates. We compiled plant extinction rate data for 22 cities around the world. Two-thirds of the variation in plant extinction rates was explained by a combination of the city’s historical development and the current proportion of native vegetation, with the former explaining the greatest variability. As a single variable, the amount of native vegetation remaining also influenced extinction rates, particularly in cities > 200 years old. Our study demonstrates that the legacies of landscape transformations by agrarian and urban development last for hundreds of years, and modern cities potentially carry a large extinction debt. This finding highlights the importance of preserving native vegetation in urban areas and the need for mitigation to minimize potential plant extinctions in the future.

As you can see, the abstract finishes with the conclusions: ‘the importance of preserving native vegetation in urban areas and the need for mitigation to minimize potential plant extinctions in the future.’

Another difference between news stories and scientific articles is that, in news reports, some of the facts may be presented as quotes by people involved in the subject. Let’s read a bit more of the news story:

“The rapid and ongoing growth of cities and towns significantly threatens global biodiversity,” says Dr Amy Hahs, a scientist working at the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, Australia

This explains why Hahs and her collaborators came together to try to understand the threat and how it could be minimized.

Science reporting is also criticized for sensationalizing the results of the actual study. Authors can overly simplify or exaggerate claims to create catchy headlines or entice people to read or watch. 

Go to this website from UnderstandingScience.com. This website walks you through how to read and analyze science reported in the news. 

Comment: Describe some of the differences between the introductory article and abstract above. Which resource would you rather read, the news article or the scientific journal? Why?

Update: Create an update in which you find a news article and the corresponding journal abstract. Describe the similarities and differences between the two, the intended audience of each, and point out if there are any misleading or inaccuracies in the news article. Comment on 2 of your classmates updates. Where do you agree? Are there any similarities or differences that they missed that you saw?

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to participate in a discussion about the meaning of different graphs or figures in the media. 

Understanding graphs, data tables, and infographics is essential to understanding science in the news. In this update, you will be looking at different figures that have been taken from The New York Times’s Upshot.

Study the graphs and discuss their meanings with your classmates.

Change in wealth is percent change of gross domestic product per capita from 2010 to 2015. Change in fast food sales is percent change in total price paid by consumers from 2010 to 2015. Sources: Euromonitor International and World Bank

Source: Climate at a Glance, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

By The New York Times | Bureau of Labor Statistics, IPUMS.org

Comment: Look carefully at the three graphs above. Choose one of the graphs and comment on what you notice, what you wonder, and then develop a headline.

Update: On Tuesday, go to the NY Times’s website “What’s going on in this graph”. Click on the most recent graph and join the moderated discussion. After you have posted your comment, read the other responses and respond to others comments by using the “reply” button or the @ and student’s name. On Wednesday, check the website again to look at responses from others and from the American Statistical Association to help your understanding go deeper. Finally, on Thursday afternoon, the NYtimes will reveal more information about the graph at the bottom of the post. You are encouraged to post an additional comment after reading the reveal.

Create an update on your own that documents your learning process over the three days. What were your original statements? How did reading the discussion change your ideas or opinions? Did you see something in the graph that you didn’t notice before? Did the discussion cause you have additional questions or change your headline? Did the additional information provided on Thursday help you understand the information in the graph differently?

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to evaluate science reported in the news and online. 

The news can be an important source for learning about scientific studies.  Results from studies can be summarized and simplified to make it easier to understand and see the relevancy.  However, not all science reporting is created equal, and it can be difficult to spot reporting that is sensationalized, biased, or a hidden advertisement.  

This lesson is important to see how news articles can mislead or exaggerate scientific studies. There are also many advertisements that pose as news articles that can be hard to spot if you are not looking carefully.

In this update you should read the articles linked and complete the survey. The survey will ask you to analyze the articles by listing the author, the purpose, the evidence listed, the citations present, the objectivity, and transparency of the article. You will then be asked to give a final evaluation of each of the articles.

Click on the links and read the following articles. Then answer the survey questions about their credibility.  

10 Reasons To Avoid GMO’s

Can Eating Chocolate Help You Lose Weight?

Benefits of Alkaline Ionized Water

Agricultural Pesticides and Human Health

Will Sitting in a Car Under Shade Kill You?

Eat Nuts, Live Longer

Magnetic Bracelets DO Work, Says Researchers

Are Algae Blooms Linked to Lou Gerigs Disease?

Comment: Which article was the most trustworthy? Which was the most misleading? Respond to each other's posts using @ and their name.

By the end of this unit, you will be able to identify and analyze claims made in advertisements. 

Watch the following commercials. After each commercial, discuss with your peers about the claims that are being made about the product being advertised? What advertising methods are used to make us believe these claims? Do you believe the claims made about these products?

Update: Find a commercial that bases some claims on the experiment. Evaluate the advertisement. What is the claim that the advertiser is making? Is the method behind the testing clear and straightforward? Research the claim and see if you can find the study. Was it a scientifically sound study? Are there any aspects of the commercial that seems misleading? What additional information would you like to have about the product to help you determine the validity of the claim?

Comment on each other's updates:  What additional questions do you have about the credibility of the advertisement?

By the end of this update, you will create your own advertisement that makes grand claims. 

You have watched and researched ads that make some scientific claims to sell you a product. You and a group will mimic these advertisements and make a claim about a made up substance that makes your life better.

Update: In your update, work in a group to create a commercial or print advertisement for a made up product. Your ad should demonstrate how the product works, include buzzwords to cause excitement for viewers, makeup unverified statistics to promote the product and create phony testimonials or endorsements for the product.

Comment: Comment on 2 other students updates. How well did they fool you? What could they do to make their advertisement seem more credible?

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify and define the independent variable, the dependent variable, controlled variable, and control group. 

Working in the science lab can be a lot of fun. Mixing random chemicals and burning stuff just to see what happens can be entertaining (and possibly dangerous), but it doesn’t lead to anything helpful to the scientific community. Scientific claims can only be made if a study has proper experiemntal design that tests only one variable at a time. In order to be helpful to the community, a researcher’s work in the lab must be systematic. A researcher usually asks a question and then designs an experiment to investigate that question.

In this activity you will identify different types of variables that will help you design controlled experiments.

When designing an experiment, you need to consider three types of variables.

The independent variable is changed by the experimenter by design. This variable is sometimes called the “manipulated variable.”
The dependent variable is what changes as a result of the change in the independent variable. This variable is sometimes called the “responding variable.” In some cases more than one dependent variable is considered.

The third category involves controlled variables. These are variables that you think might change the outcome of the experiment, but since you are not studying them, you need to keep them constant in each trial.

Scientists may design an experiment with a control group, which is a set of organisms or samples that do NOT receive the treatment (the independent variable) that is being tested. Scientists can then compare normal changes in organisms or samples with those that might have occurred
because of the treatment. The idea of a “control group” is not the same as a “controlled variable.”

Comment: Study Models 1, 2, and 3.  Identify the independent variable, dependent variable, and controlled variables for each. Describe how you identified each of these variables. 

Update: Many experiments designed to investigate the reaction of Mentos® with Diet Coke® have been documented on YouTube. Design and write an experiment that uses the knowledge gained in this activity to investigate this reaction. Include a research question; the independent, dependent and controlled variables; and a simple procedure.

By the end of this lesson, you will successfully design an experiment to test a claim made about a household product. 

In this activity, you will work in a group to design an experiment that tests an advertiser's claim.

You should research different ads online to find a product that you would like to test to see if it lives up to its ad. Remember, you will need to perform the tests, so make sure that the product you are testing and your experimental design can be completed with household objects in a short time frame (no medical testing).

Questions to consider when designing and presenting your experiment:

What is the product you are testing?

What is the advertiser’s claim?

What background information do we need to understand?

What variables are you testing?

In your group, design an experiment and identify the independent, dependent, and controlled variables. Then create a procedure that you will follow to carry out your experiment. 

Update: Identify the product you are testing, and outline your experimental design. 

Comment on each other's updates: Comment on 2 other groups procedure. Offer suggestions to the other groups on how to improve on their design. 

Time to test your product! For this lesson you should perform your test, and design a presentation to present your results to the class. You submit your presentation as a project in this course. 

After you have finished your project, you will be conducting a peer review of each others presentations before the final draft is due.  

Questions to consider when presenting your experiment: 

• What is the product you are testing?

• What is the advertiser’s claim?

• What background information do we need to understand?

• What variables are you testing?

• How will you organize your data and results?

• How will you present/display your experiment?

Your group will have 4 days to complete your experiment and create your presentation. You will then have 3 days to complete your peer review. Finally, you will revise and resubmit your project for your final grade.