Please read the following excerpt from an editorial about the Atkins diet People are constantly looking for the best way to shed a few pounds. I think I found one. The Atkins diet is an effective diet. It burns 25% more fat than any of the leading available diet plans and in doing so, the lack of carbohydrates increases your health by reducing your body mass index by up to 3 % in the first two weeks. While it is true that some studies have also found that people lose an average of 10 pounds more from diets like Jenny Craig, these studies only measured short-term weight loss. The Atkins diet has been shown to be an effective diet for longer periods of time than those diets. 1
How convincing is this information for understanding how effective the Atkins Diet is? Not very Very Convincing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Convincing 2
Did you notice anything important? So who wrote this editorial? Is the author knowledgeable? How do we know? This article was written in by manager of a retirement facility not an expert. He is not trained in nutrition or medicine. It is also an editorial in a newspaper. Anyone can contribute to this section. So, how do we know it is reliable or true? Readers of the Web have to always be vigilant in evaluating the source before reading a text, because some people are very skilled at making things look very scientific. We can t assume information is really reliable and trustworthy. We have to consider the source. 3
So Who wrote the document? Before reading any document, you must learn as much as possible about who wrote the document and why they wrote it. When identifying the author, be as specific as possible and be careful using information you don t know the source for. First, start by finding the name of the person (or persons) who wrote it (e.g., Mr. Kevin O Connor). 4
What is the author's educational level and field of expertise? Find out how knowledgeable the author is about the topic. For science information: Scientists with advanced degrees (e.g., Ph.D. or M.D.) are trained at evaluating, verifying, and explaining scientific info so give it more weight and credibility for science topics. It is also important to consider their field of expertise. E.g., A clinical psychologist has a Ph.D. but they do not have expert knowledge of the nutrition. VS A person with a Ph.D. in nutrition who conducts research at a university would have that knowledge. 5
Does it come from a reputable outlet? If you really want to be sure that the information is reliable, you should select an outlet that has a reputation for publishing quality scientific work (e.g., peer review). You also want to attend to the type of publication you are reading (e.g., journal article, editorial, blog). However, no one checks that information for accuracy. When scientists publish in reputable outlets, other experts verify that the methods and results are reliable. Of course, assessing outlets for credibility does not totally ensure that the information will be reliable, but without at least considering it, there is a good chance that the information may be untrue. 6
Some elements of the source important to scientific claims includes. Evaluating source is more than looking for bias. Who wrote this document? Name of the person who wrote it. (e.g., Dr. Joe Smith) Educational level / field of expertise: How knowledgeable the author is about the topic (e.g., Ph.D. in Nutrition Science) Professional position : What is their field of expertise (e.g., Nutritional Researcher at State University) Does the document come from a reputable outlet? Name of publishing outlet: (e.g., Journal of International Environment) Type of document: (e.g., article vs. blog) 7
Sample essay question Possible essay question (or MC): What is an explanation in science and what is important to attend to when comprehending explanations for phenomena. 8
What is an explanation in science? An explanation is a statement that makes clear the intermediate steps between one or more factors leading to the to-be-explained outcome. It helps us understand how or why some phenomena occurs or will occur. 9
Example In trying to explain the recent increases in average global temperatures one could state that Man s increased fossil fuel consumption since the industrial revolution has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which increases the greenhouse effect which is causing the recent increases in average global temperatures. 10
What is important to attend to? Identify factors that could cause the outcome (e.g., increases in average global temperatures). Figure out the main connections to go from the factor to the outcome. Sequence of events Causal relations May need to make inferences May need to explicit seemingly obvious things. 11
QA2: Learning about explanations Research Question: Memory for explanations for a scientific phenomenon? Does a short tutorial help? Method: IV: 2 Tutor (Tutor before vs Tutor after) between-subjects DV: # of steps correctly recalled in the correct order Procedure: Tutor before: Tutor After: Read tutor and fill in handout Read unrelated Read and rate 4 explanations Read and rate 4 explanations Surprise cued (title) recall Surprise cued (title) recall Read unrelated Read tutor and fill in handout 12
Please read each passage carefully and rate how difficult it was to read on the 6 point scale. You will be given 13 minutes to read them. Later you will be asked several questions about each passage. Supernova Supernovae are stupendous explosions that destroy an entire star. The "nova" ("new") part of their name is because they are mostly seen as `new' stars appearing suddenly where no star was seen before because of their sudden increase in brightness. They can, for a few days, rival the combined light output of all the rest of the stars in the galaxy. The supernova begins when the nuclear reactions in the center of the star stop. This results in a loss of internal pressure in the star which causes a lot of gravity pulling the star inward. When the inner shell hits the iron core, it makes a huge shock wave. This violent shock causes the star to explode into a cloud of cosmic debris. Most of the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, and iron that we have on Earth originally came from a supernova explosion. How difficult was this passage to read? Very Easy 1 2 3 4 5 6 Very Difficult 13
Please read each passage carefully and rate how difficult it was to read on the 6 point scale. You will be given 13 minutes to read them. Later you will be asked several questions about each passage. Supernova Supernovae are stupendous explosions that destroy an entire star. The "nova" ("new") part of their name is because they are mostly seen as `new' stars appearing suddenly where no star was seen before because of their sudden increase in brightness. They can, for a few days, rival the combined light output of all the rest of the stars in the galaxy. The supernova begins when the nuclear reactions in the center of the star stop. This results in a loss of internal pressure in the star which causes a lot of gravity pulling the star inward. When the inner shell hits the iron core, it makes a huge shock wave. This violent shock causes the star to explode into a cloud of cosmic debris. Most of the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, and iron that we have on Earth originally came from a supernova explosion. How difficult was this passage to read? Very Easy 1 2 3 4 5 6 Very Difficult 14
Results t(61) = 2.067, p >.05 15
As a group, describe a person and task situation. When describing the person, be specific about different Internal Resources (at least 5 dimensions). When describing the task situation, be specific about what the question is and what materials they are given or have access to (External resources especially task specifications). Then, using the MD-TRACE model, describe the processes (or steps) and decisions (diamonds) that are required to complete this task. Make sure to use the terms you learned from MD- TRACE to answer this question.