The importance of laboratory demonstrations and experiments in chemistry education is undeniable. In addition, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the ACS Guidelines and Recommendations for the Teaching agree on the growing importance of critical thinking skills. These critical thinking skills already stem from post-lab exercises that challenge students to analyze and interpret data, evaluate the effectiveness of procedures, formulate models, and communicate findings. Familiarity with the scientific method that students gain in basic chemistry courses can be used beyond the laboratory by incorporating these skills into strategies for critically thinking about sources of information.<br/><br/>This presentation will focus on how instructors can use news articles as a jumping off point to critically evaluate claims. We will focus on strategies for reading secondary sources and comparing them to primary research reports. Methods will include pulling keywords from the article to find the original research report and then taking it a step further by evaluating the research itself. These approaches are flexible and can incorporate discussions of scientific communication, preprints, journal metrics, and etc. Armed with hands-on experiences of the ‘process’ of science, these students are primed to examine the specifics of the experiment and have conversations about standards of quality research such as sample size, faulty logic, or even funding biases.

The IL (information literacy) concealed in post-lab skills and how to use them to counter ‘misinformation’

ACS Fall 2021

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