Using Novel Instructional Materials to Improve Students' Detection of Pseudoscience in Decision-Making about Socially-relevant Real World Issues

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As a result of their coursework, undergraduate students are in a unique position to detect scientific misinformation or disinformation campaigns, often referred to as pseudoscience. Many issues sit at the intersection of scientific knowledge and everyday society, and these issues are particularly vulnerable to pseudoscience. This project aims to serve the national interest of developing a scientifically literate citizenry. It will do so by producing instructional materials that aim to mitigate the growing influence of pseudoscience. The instructional materials will (1) highlight the harmful impacts of pseudoscience on decision-making, (2) promote accurate science content knowledge related to the issue, (3) foster trust in the scientific community, and (4) improve students' ability to detect pseudoscience. The project intends to improve the functional scientific literacy of undergraduate students, thus preparing them to effectively use scientific evidence and approaches in their lives. The project team at Texas A&M University will develop twelve sets of instructional materials that each focus on a different socioscientific issue and contain three components: (1) a primer describing the science that is relevant to the issue, (2) a story addressing the historical and contemporary pseudoscience surrounding the issue, and (3) a sample case study. The materials will be used by more than 20,000 undergraduate students in science majors and non-majors courses at the University. The twelve socioscientific topics have been identified by the project team to ensure a seamless fit into existing courses in both face to face and online modalities. Knowledge generated from this project will help to answer questions about the relationships between student demographics, social factors, pseudoscientific views, science attitudes, and their socioscientific related choices. The project team will explore how exposure to the various components of the instructional materials affects students’ conceptions and attitudes regarding scientific evidence and conclusions, the nature of science, and pseudoscience. Results from this project will be freely disseminated through a newly developed website, as well as via science education listservs and professional conferences. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.