Need for Change, Option B:
Interpreting Data in Newspaper Article
Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes.
List of Materials
Note: This presentation can be modified by substituting another interesting
article about a scientific finding. Newspapers and popular magazines are
excellent sources. You should display and distribute the article if it
is brief enough or prepare a synopsis of the findings reported in the article.
Sample Presentation
Presenter:
The purpose of this activity is to show that science
illiteracy is a problem in the United States.
TRANSPARENCY: Do Soldiers
Live Longer?
Distribute the HANDOUT: Do
Soldiers Live Longer? Ask the group to read the article.
Presenter: How would you expect a science literate person
to respond to this article?
As responses are given, write significant phrases on the blank transparency.
Note: You may wish to use think-pair-share
if the group is large. Have pairs share some of the questions. Write some
of the more pertinent questions on a transparency.
Among possible responses:
-
In what publication does the headline appear?
-
Who conducted the study?
-
Over what period of time was the study conducted?
-
What was the size of the population studied?
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What comparison group was used?
-
Was the comparison group like the experimental group with regard to all
but the tested variable?
Presenter:
A science literate person will be skeptical
about headlines. A science literate person will ask probing questions and
insist on obtaining convincing answers to those questions before he or
she believes something like this headline. Too many of our young people
are not skeptical. Too many of them do not know what questions to ask.
Too many students who graduate from American high schools are science illiterate.
Project 2061 and its tools are designed to help change this situation,
to bring about a reform in science education so that when young Americans
leave grade 12, they will be literate in science, mathematics, and technology.