9/17 Earth Science update and homework due 9/24

Hi folks,

Today we explored the differences between science and pseudoscience.  Nowadays with the easy access to the internet and to "information", it is so difficult for any of us to tell the difference between well researched science and, shall we say, not so well researched science.  Today's lecture was designed to give some guidelines to keep in mind as one is evaluating news reports, articles, FaceBook posts, etc.

I've included a chart that I went over with the students in class.  I didn't have the students take notes on this so it may be useful to have it handy.

Homework due 9/24 is do some observations and come up with the following:

1. Come up with five hypotheses of things you see around you.  They don't need to be complex but just simple hypotheses of real observations.  For example, "I hypothesize that the dishes will get cleaner in hot water than in cold water."  Or, "I hypothesize that cold milk tastes better than hot milk."  You don't need to test each hypothesis but I do want you to come up with five hypotheses, in other words five educated guesses that can be tested.

2. Keep your eyes open for confirmation bias.  See if you can find two examples either in yourself or in someone else.  Remember, confirmation bias is when someone uses evidence to confirm or reinforce a conclusion they already have.  

For example, if someone is sure they want a snake for a pet and all they look at to confirm that snakes are good pets are things like "Snake and Home" magazine or "Letmesellyouasnake.com" they will get tons of information confirming how wonderful snakes are as pets. 

However, if they looked up something like "Best family pets" or "What pet is best for you" the snake may not come to the top of the list.  

In the first case, they are actively cherry picking evidence to confirm a conclusion they already have.  In the second case, they are opening the possibilities to a variety of pets and if snakes happen to come out on top, all the better.

Have fun with this.  We may share many of these in class next week.