Supplementary Material for Chapter 36

Supplementary Material for Chapter 36

Critically Evaluating Non-scholarly Sources through Team-Based Learning

This chapter is published as:

Ruhl N. 2016. Critically Evaluating Non-scholarly Sources through Team-Based Learning. In: Byrne L (ed) Learner-Centered Teaching Activities for Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Springer, New York. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28543-6_36

Nathan Ruhl

Department of Biological Science, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ USA

This file contains the following supplementary material:

A: Student Readings (with links)…beginning on p.1
B: iRAT/gRAT and Application Questions … beginning on p. 2
C: Answer Key and Discussion Tips … beginning on p. 4

Supplementary Material A: Student Readings (with links)

In the case that any of the links below cease to function in the future or if you would prefer to assign the readings as a single PDF, please contact the author() or volume editor.

Abrams L (2014) House republicans just passed a bill forbidding scientists from advising the EPA on their own research. Accessed 1 March 2015

Atkins E (2014) Media jumps to conclusions on Ebola and climate change. Accessed 1 March 2015

Kampton C (2013) Thoughts, opinions, and musings from a curious “seasoned citizen”. Accessed 14 July 2015

Kluger J (2014) The ‘climate deniers’ newest argument. Accessed 1 March 2015

Mahajan AC (2014) Composition of Eastern forests not affected due to climate changes Accessed 1 March 2015

Mooney C. 2015. Sorry, skeptics: NASA and NOAA were right about the 2014 temperature record. Accessed 24 June 2015

Romm J (2014) Watching Fox News addicts viewers and misinforms them on climate change. Accessed 1 March 2015

Supplementary Material B:iRAT/gRAT and Application Questions

iRAT/gRAT Questions:

1.)What is the “secret science”, as relates to H.R. 1422?

The exclusion of industry experts, but not officials for environmental advocacy groups
Negatively affecting the appointment of experts, which would weaken scientific independence
Scientists participating in advisory work regarding their own work
Science that interferes with the interests of corporations
Anti-science and anti-health campaigns

2.)Eastern United States forests are ______.

Impacted by climate change
Not-impacted by climate change
Impacted by disturbance and climate change
Impacted by disturbance
Not-impacted by disturbance

3.)Fox News is ______.

Addictive
As addictive as other conservative news media
As addictive as other non-conservative news media
More addictive than non-conservative news media

4.)Governmental inaction on climate change can be partially attributed to______

the “echo chamber” created by conservative media
the “denial chamber” created by conservative media
the “anger chamber” created by liberal media
the “myth chamber” created by liberal media

5.)What impact did climate change have on the 2014 Ebola outbreak?

It made the outbreak more severe
It made the outbreak less severe
It did not have an effect on the outbreak
We do not know if it had an effect

6.)What does “Climate science is settled” mean?

Human-influenced global climate change is not a hoax
Global warming has stopped
Global climate change is too complex to make accurate predictions
Global climate change can be accurately predicted

Application Questions

1.)How should you interpret the climate-change summary attributed to Plimer?

a)Plimer is an important, successful, and senior scientist; his writings are probably accurate.

b)The article is a summary of a book; we should read the book before deciding what to think.

c)Plimer is biased by his discipline; his writings should be read with a critical eye.

d)Plimer does not use facts to make his argument; his writings should be disregarded.

e)It is hard to tell if Plimer actually wrote what is being attributed to him, so the summary should be disregarded.

2.)Are scientists biased by virtue of being scientists?

a)Scientists rely on public money for their research, so they have an innate bias toward anything that will increase their funding from the public

b)Scientists are biased within their discipline and other perspectives are needed to balance their expert opinions

c)Scientists are not biased because they don’t take money from special interests

d)Scientists identify themselves as biased, if they are

e)Scientists try to minimize bias through open communication of potential sources of bias

3.)In the article “Composition of Eastern forests not affected due to climate change”, does the title accurately reflect the content?

a)Yes, It is accurate

b)Mostly, it doesn’t reflect some details of the article

c)No, it misrepresents the content

4.)Are all sources of news equally accurate when it comes to reporting on climate change news?

a)Yes, all news-outlets try to be accurate and un-biased

b)No, the news-media often make mistakes and are biased

c)Yes and no; some news outlets are more accurate than others.

d)Yes and no; conservative news outlets can’t be trusted, but other sources of news are accurate.

5.)What sources can be trusted for accurate information on the science of climate change? (pick as many answers as you want)

a)The liberal media

b)The conservative media

c)E-mail forwards

d)Social-media links

e)Wikipedia

f)Verbal discussion with anyone that has a college education

g)Verbal discussions with a PhD scientist

h)Peer-reviewed literature

i)Scientific-Society Blogs

Supplementary Material C: Answer Key and Discussion Tips

iRAT/gRAT

1)A (Kampton 2013)

2)C (Abrams, 2014)

3)D (Romm, 2014)

4)A (Romm, 2014)

5)D (Atkins, 2014)

6)A (Kluger, 2014)

Application

1)E

It could be argued that C, D and E are all correct. Without any additional information, students should choose E. Plimer is a well-known climate-science denier with financial ties to industry and is known to “cherry-pick” the facts that support his view-point (Mckewon, 2012).

In discussing this question, the instructor should emphasize that we really don’t know the provenance of the information in the article. This is a good opportunity to talk about how special interest groups, lobbyists, and politicians spin the facts about GCC toward whatever conclusion is most convenient or profitable for them. Reference not only Kampton (2013), but also Kluger (2014) and Abrams (2014) in the discussion.

The content of the Kampton (2013) article was originally received by Dr. Ruhl as a viral e-mail in January of 2015. The viral e-mail has been circulating since at least 2014. The instructor could use this information as a transition into further discussion about the methods of special interests groups, lobbyists, politicians, and “seasoned citizens”, as Kampton claims to be.

2)E

E is the best answer. Students may also answer B. A scientist that operates ethically is forthcoming about their biases, making E the best answer.

Individuals, regardless of whether they are scientists or not, have inherent biases based on their worldview and past experience. Therefore, it is important to have a diverse scientific community that acknowledges their inherent biases. This is very different compared to “balancing” bias by introducing (non-scientific) opposing viewpoints. Emphasize that because (most) scientists acknowledge their biases, it is much easier for the reader to judge their work. This question is directly related to the Abrams (2014) reading, but also to Mooney (2015).

3)C

The title of the article very clearly misrepresents the content.

But was the misrepresentation a result of malice/bias or simply a function of writing a catchy title? How might we determine how this “mistake” happened? What do we know about the biases of the author and publisher? The article appears in a website owned and operated by a company in India… perhaps the mistake happened simply because whoever wrote the title has a limited understanding of English!? Sometimes the motivation, if there even is one, is not readily apparent. This question most directly references Mahajan (2014), but the discussion should also include Atkins (2014) and Mooney (2015) as examples of mistakes/misrepresentations/misunderstandings.

The instructor might also want to draw student’s attention to misrepresentations of Plimer in Kampton (2013; question 1). Plimer has not published a book named “Where does the carbon dioxide really come from” as Kampton (2013) purports. Plimer published a book titled “Heaven and Earth: Global Warming – The Missing Science” in which he claims that volcanoes are the primary source of atmospheric CO2 on Earth. Is it fair to judge Plimer based on an article he probably did not endorse? Refer back to the discussion of question 2. Is it easier to understand the biases/motivations of scientists or journalists? Do scientists make mistakes?

4)C

Students have a tendency to choose D after answering questions 3 and 4 from the iRAT/gRAT.

It is not about liberal vs. conservative media. News outlets make mistakes and increasingly, there are fewer editors working to catch those mistakes (though some news outlets make more mistakes than others). This question references Romm (2014).

Romm 2014 is a non-scholarly summary of Feldman et al., 2014. Because this activity is all about critical readings of non-scholarly material, students may ask why this article is treated as “trustworthy” in the discussion above. The main reason that Feldman et al. (2014) is not assigned as a reading is that it’s hard for a broad audience to read and Romm (2014) does a good job of accurately summarizing the findings of Feldman et al. (2014). If students continue to challenge the instructor on this point (and it’s great if they do!), challenge them to write a non-scholarly summary of Feldman et al. (2014) themselves. If that’s too much work, challenge them to vet Romm (2014) for accuracy and report back any problems they find.

5)H

Student answers to this question will, to a large degree, depend on their experience. Younger students will be more likely to trust a variety of sources. More advanced students will assume that H is the best answer, will not question it, and will come to a team-conclusion quickly. The most advanced students will recognize that no source of information can be implicitly trusted and the team-debate on this point may be quite extensive.This discussion draws on all of the readings, but perhaps most directly on Abrams (2014).

Ask the students to reflect on the readings and application questions 1-4. What implicit lessons might be learned? While it is true that no source of information can be implicitly trusted, what is the best available source of information? Which sources are worthy of being cited and in what situations? Does source reliability depend on the context and/or subject?

References