Climbing the Pyramid

Abstract

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Melting polar ice caps, hydraulic fracturing, hominid discoveries, faster than light neutrinos--science is almost always in the news. But to be scientifically literate, students need to understand that not all news sources are equal. Today's students are inundated with information--via social-networking websites, personal blogs, collaborative wikis, online-only publications, and so on--that ranges from biased personal opinions to peer-reviewed scientific papers. Some sources describe science events accurately; others don't. Students should understand how this media coverage affects their perceptions. Many students assume, for example, that the more extensively a topic is reported, the more important it is (Antilla 2010). An enlightened media consumer analyzes and critiques a news story based on its and the methods in which the information was collected (NRC 1996, 2011). Developing this media awareness presents unique challenges and opportunities for students and teachers (Jarman and McClune 2010). Media awareness begins with asking questions, such as: can I find scientific What sources of science news am I exposed to most often? and does the information's affect its quality? To help address these questions, we developed the activity. This intuitive, student-driven activity promotes classroom discussion of science literacy and media awareness. It also helps address any student misconceptions about what makes a news credible. (Hint: It's not how nice the website looks.) Introducing the activity Teachers can introduce the Source-Quality Pyramid activity with video footage of a science news report. We implemented this activity in a teacher workshop focused on climate change, so we played a clip from Comedy Central's The Colbert Report in which host Steven Colbert comically celebrates a record year of polar ice loss with a melted ice cream cake. We asked teacher participants: How does one assess Colbert's tongue-in-cheek report on polar melting? They then discussed evidence for Colbert's factual claims. They found a Canadian newspaper report online that was briefly referenced in Colbert's video clip. That report led to the website for the National Snow and Ice Data Center (see On the web), where a press release announcing the record ice melt was accompanied by satellite data, research, and a link to their Twitter feed. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Video clips can provide relevant context when asking students questions about media's accuracy and validity: Where did the reporter get his or her information? How do you know whether the news report is accurate? Do you trust the news source? Students' responses can help teachers gauge their level of media awareness. Another way to introduce the pyramid activity is to ask students to bring in science news articles to share with the class. Provide minimal instruction about where students should obtain articles; the reasoning behind their selections can spur classroom discussion. The Source-Quality Pyramid activity The main component of this activity is the source-quality pyramid: a hierarchical pyramid of scientific sources divided into four horizontal segments of increasing quality (Figure 1). The segments decrease in size from the bottom to the top of the pyramid. Students might correctly interpret this to mean: Higher-quality sources are less common, less public, harder to access, or more specific than lower-quality sources. Students work in small groups to manipulate a specific set of scientific sources, represented by cards, by placing them on the pyramid's blank spaces (see photo). All spaces must be filled. The source cards can represent a wide variety of sources of scientific information, such as * blogs * social-networking sites (e. …