I listened to the podcast from The Daily called America’s Education Problem. This episode interviewed Dana Goldstein and the host, Michael Barbaro, talked about standardized testing. I wasn’t very excited to listen to this podcast but Susan recommended it to me so I thought I would listen. This was SO interesting. Dana had some really interesting statistics and facts that actually blew my mind. One statistic that stood out to me was only 14 percent of American students could distinguish, reliably, between fact and opinion. This blew my mind, especially because I see it happening in my science classes. Dana brought up another good point after she shares that statistic and she says, ” And think about the implications of this in a world where there’s so much misinformation on social media, political advertisements that are trying to sway your opinion.” All I could think about was all the information they see every single day on Instagram, Facebook, SnapChat and how most of it is not accurate and how they might not be able to see that. Something that I have been trying to do better this year with my biology students is to always back up their opinion with statistics. I tell them that no one is going to believe them if they do not have reliable sources or have data that supports what they are saying. If they are drawing conclusions, I tell them to use the data they collected in their lab. If they are forming an opinion about a topic, I tell them they need to include their research in their final answer…I tell them that if they want anyone to believe them they HAVE to back up what they are saying. I am afraid that they are reading “information” on social media and listening to the news that could be spewing false information and they might not be able to distinguish if it’s the truth or a lie. 

So, on an assignment from last semester, I really tried to get my students to back up their opinion. They were given the following question, “Should Creatine Supplements Be Regulated?” We had talked about cellular respiration and now they had to take what they learned, do more research, and come to a conclusion about the above question. They had to find articles that had multiple viewpoints (because I think it’s important to always hear both sides) and then use the information and data they collected to write a paragraph. I stressed how important it was to support your argument with legitimate facts; not ones found on Instagram or “something my friend told me”. I was still slightly disappointment with their final paragraphs but there were some people who had convinced me that they should or shouldn’t based on the facts and data they included. I think going forward, that is something I will continue to stress.