Evaluating Science in the News

Evaluating Science in the News INTRODUCTION Reading news articles or websites about science is a great way to learn about new ideas, discoveries, and research. But some sources of information are not as good as others. Before believing information from the news, you need to figure out if that information can be trusted. This activity will show you how to determine if a source of information is trustworthy. First, you will answer some questions about a science news article. Then, you will use your answers to decide whether that article is trustworthy. Finally, you will identify the main ideas of the article and respond personally to those ideas. You can use the methods you learn here for any news articles to help you know what news to trust. PROCEDURE 1. Find an article focusing on something biological in nature that is covered in this course. The article could be from a printed source, like a newspaper or magazine, or an online source, like a website or blog. The article must be a secondary source (not a journal article or first-hand report of scientific research). Avoid using secondary sources that summarize primary literature; instead, try to focus on event-related news. Before deciding this is the article you wish to use, make sure it is a fit for the assignment by completing the following items. Justify how you can confirm that this is an article from a secondary source and not a primary source, like a journal. You can confirm that this is a secondary source from the title, the creditintals, and the fact it says it on the top left of the paper. You can also confirm this because of the creditintals list, and that it has been peer reviewed. Justify how you can confirm that this is an article focusing on reporting an event and not reporting or summarizing recent scientific research, collected data, or an experiment. What event is it focusing on? (If you mention research, then your article isn’t a good fit.) See the video if necessary. This article is focusing on the effects of habitual coffee consumption on cardiometabolic disease, cardiovascular health, and all-cause mortality. You can tell that the article following the title is going to be able coffee consumption just by reading the title. 2. Before reading your article, complete the following table . When multiple options for an answer is shown, you can circle, highlight, or bold the correct answer, or you can cross out or delete the incorrect answers. Article title Effects of Habitual Coffee Consumption on Cardiometabolic Disease, Cardiovascular Health, Date published or last updated Novemeber 12,2013 Is this date recent enough for your topic? Explain. Publisher or sponsor Elsevier Inc Is the publisher/sponsor trustworthy? What are their basic values? Yes because it is only 9 years old, and honestly not much has changed. ".....They're generally legitimate. The negative reviews and boycotts aren't about the quality of the journal, but are because of Elsevier's alleged high prices ..." For online articles only: What domain does the URL use? Does the site’s name match the URL? Generally trustworthy: .gov .edu Yes No Can be owned by anyone: .com .net .org Yes No If there are ads on the No Ads on the site website, are they clearly marked? Weblink to the article (if applicable) 3. Read the article, then complete the next table. Author of the article James H. O’Keefe, MD, What is the author trying to do? Inform Persuade Present an opinion Sell something Entertain Does the author give references for data or quotations? yes What are the author’s credentials/qualifications? What afÏliations or conflicts of interest are mentioned? Does the author seem objective (uses facts, not opinions)? Explain. doctor of medicine ntravenous caffeine infusion induced similar increases in muscle sympathetic activity Yes No 4. Complete the “Criteria for Evaluating Sources (CRAP Test)”, which is adapted from the CSU Chico CRAAP Test, given below, which has more questions and information to help you decide if your article is trustworthy. Question Yes/No Tips Currency: The timeliness of the information Was the information published or no For a news article, check the date it was published. For a website, check the copyright date or “last updated” date. updated recently? Is the information recent enough for your topic? yes For topics like current events or new research, it’s important to use up-to-date sources. For other topics, like history, older sources may also work. If using a website, do the links work? yes A website with broken links might be outdated. Reliability: The accuracy and truthfulness of the information Evaluating Science in the News Is the information supported by evidence like data or quotes? Are there references for the evidence? yes If the source references a research study, try to find out more about the study. Make sure the study was valid and represented accurately. Does the source make reasonable claims about what the evidence shows? yes Some sources may overgeneralize the results of a study. Check where the study was done, how many individuals it tested, if it used humans or animals, etc. If the study used animals, for example, its results may not apply to humans. Has the information (or its references) been reviewed? Can you confirm the information using another source or your own knowledge? yes Be wary of information from a study that was not published in a peer-reviewed journal. yes Trust your judgment and be wary of claims that have been shown to be false by a trustworthy source, such as an educational or government website. Does the language or tone seem unbiased and professional? yes Avoid sources that use opinionated or biased language, or are poorly written with spelling and grammar errors. Authority: The source of the information Is the author, publisher, or sponsor of yes the information a trustworthy source, such as an educational or government institution? Is the author qualified to write on the topic? yes yes Is the author likely to be unbiased about the topic? Is there any contact information? yes Purpose: The reason the information exists Is the purpose of the information to yes teach or inform, rather than to sell, entertain, or persuade? Is the information fact, rather than opinion or propaganda? yes If you’re using a website, check the domain in the URL. In the United States, websites with the domain .edu are owned by educational institutions, and those with the domain .gov are owned by the government. Check the author’s credentials/qualifications to see how experienced they are with the topic. Check the author’s background and organizations they work with to see if they may have biases or conflicts of interest. Avoid sources without an email, publisher address, etc. Avoid sources that are just trying to sell products, get more views, or push a personal agenda. If there are any advertisements, they should be clearly marked as such. The information should be objective, meaning that it uses facts instead of personal opinions or emotions. 5. Based on all the information you found, is your article trustworthy? Explain your decision using evidence from your tables and the “Criteria for Evaluating Sources”. Be sure to provide specific examples from your article. Yes because with having a trustworthy source and a qualified source is the best because without that, it's like reading somethhing a child did, and if it's not a trustworthy source, you really don't know what you are reading, and it does not make a lot of since to keep reading something that does not have the correct information 6. Read the article again, looking for the main idea and supporting details. Describe the main idea and 4 to 6 details from the article that support the main idea. You can do this in an outline or in a concept map. Make your descriptions specific! Evaluating Science in the News The main idea of this article is to teach the everyday person that drinking habitual coffee is bad no matter how little someone drinks of it. But, then again drinking a lot of anything is really bad for you, even water. 7. Write three detailed paragraphs reacting to the ideas in the article and their possible impacts. Your paragraphs should address each of the following questions: a. How does the information in the article connect with what you have learned in class? b. How does the information in the article relate to you, your community, or society in general? c. What did you find interesting or surprising about the article? How does the information in the article connect with what you have learned in class?How does the information in the article relate to you, your community, or society in general?What did you find interesting or surprising about the article?- I think that it is intresting that habitutal coffee is contected to so many health probelms. 8. Review all your previous responses using the rubric below. Revise your work as needed to fulfill the criteria for high performance. 9. When submitÝng this assignment to Brightspace, be sure to include a scanned copy or PDF of your article. For online articles, a simple weblink is not sufÏcient.