Due: August 31, 2017
Name: ______________________
Inquiring Minds Want to Know…Is it Science? Introduction Drink coffee its good for you! No! Don’t drink coffee, its bad for you. Drink wine it will save your life! No! Don’t drink wine, it will kill you faster. Eggs will kill you! No! Eggs are the perfect food. Cell phones give you cancer. No! Cell phones just annoy everyone around you. We are constantly getting mixed messages from the media. Remember, news programs, internet news services, newspapers, etc. are all trying to get your interest; they want to hook you, even if their “teasers” are not entirely true. So, what can you do? What information is good? What information is based on science? What is just plain trash?
Instructions Read the attached article and evaluate its scientific message. Write your answers on this sheet. 1. Where does the information
come from? 2. Are the views of the
scientific community accurately portrayed?
3. Is a controversy
misrepresented or blown out of proportion?
4. Where could you get more information?
5. How strong is the evidence?
PICKLES CAUSE INFERTILITY (Miami, Florida) Stay away from pickles if you are
even thinking of having children. Brined cucumbers can
cause sterility in women according to researchers in
Florida. “Pickles are made with vinegar which can
cause abdominal problems in some people” says Dr.
Tom White of The Institute of Reproductive and
Digestion Disorders at the University of Miami, Florida.
A 45-year woman desperate to have children found this
out the hard-way. “I have eaten pickles all my life…I
can’t seem to get pregnant,” stated Lila-Sue Turner of
Tallahasee, Florida. Mrs. Turner, a new bride, wants to
have children, but is unable to conceive due to medical
problems. “It has to be the pickles. I am a healthy
woman otherwise,” stated Turner. Dr. Denton, Turner’s
gynecologist, declined to comment.
Pickles contain salt, vinegar and spices. Any of these
can cause digestive discomfort and/or intestinal stress in
a person. According to 1989 published study by the
National Institute of Health (NIH), increased stress can
cause issues with fertility in women.
www.picklehaters.com Dec. 2008http://www.picklehaters.com/
Due: August 31, 2017
Final Evaluation/Drawing conclusions 1. Is this good science? Is it fair? Is it accurate?
2. Give an example of something that you “heard” or “saw” on the news that confused you OR may have been bad science.
3. Why would being able to evaluate scientific messages a good quality for everyone to
have?
Inquiring Minds: Misconceptions
Read each of the following statements and evaluate if it is a True OR a False statement about science. For each, give a brief explanation for your answer. Questions generated from www.understandingscience.com 1. Science is a collection of facts. 2. The Scientific Method is only way to do a scientific experiment. 3. Science only involves analyzing data; there is no creativity involved. 4. Experiments are the only way to conduct science; observations are not science. 5. Because science’s ideas are tentative or changing, they cannot be trusted. 6. An experiment is wrong [or not good science] if it didn’t work. 7. If evidence supports a hypothesis, then it is upgraded to a theory.http://www.understandingscience.com/
