Media, Myths, and Misinformation

A Chemistry/Government Experiment in Calling BS

Catherine Cresson

Lucy Bernick

Carolyn Thompson Tapp

Lucy Bryan

Comparison of Student News Sources

Chemistry & Government have a big problem!

MISINFORMATION

“Our aim in this course is to teach you how to think critically about the data and models that constitute evidence in the social and natural sciences.” - Carl Bergstrom & Jevin West

“Bullshit involves language, statistical figures, data graphics, and other forms of presentation intended to impress, overwhelm, or persuade presented with a blatant disregard for the truth, logical coherence, or what information is actually being conveyed.

Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin West

“You can call bullshit on bullshit, but you can also call

bullshit on lies, treachery, trickery, or injustice.

Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin WestCalling Bullshit (2016)

Designing Our Co-Curricular BS Unit

Defined our essential questions

Wrote our standards

Defined our final “product”

Planned our lessons & divided up our time How do I know what to believe?

How do I take action based on my knowledge?

Stanford History Education Group Study: November, 2016

Where are 0ur students?

● How would you rank different sources of information?● How do you assess the quality of your sources?● Is the source biased?● Who decides what information the source provides?

The Pyramid of Sources

First published in 1880, Science is a peer-reviewed journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The journal publishes important original scientific research and news.

Twitter is a social networking site started in 2006. It lets people share short, 140 character messages with their followers. Users can also follow people and organizations they are interested in who use Twitter for quick updates.

The Pyramid of Sources

Preparing Our Students to Call BS

Misleading Graphs

Preparing Our Students to Call BS

A Game of Telephone

The Backtracking Assignment

The Backtracking AssignmentMy first steps:

- Check out the original article

- Explore the website the article came from: purewow.com

What I noticed:- PureWow is a

women’s lifestyle website

- 85% of PureWow’s revenue comes from ads

- The author is the website’s food and wellness director

My original image

Student Created Infographics

Student Created Infographics

Connecting with the BS Guys on Twitter

Our Students Skyping with the BS Guys

Digital Portfolios & Reflections

“The amount of energy necessary to

refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.

Brandolini’s Asymmetry Principle

Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West at the University of Washington (@calling_bull, callingbullshit.org)

Our Administration at Louise S. McGehee

Acknowledgements