Science Articles (How to Read) pt 2

Here's a recent article you might want to use in the classroom to prove that science articles can be deceptive (see earlier "How to Read Science Articles"). This one overstates its case, from Space.com:  "Earth Life Likely Came from Mars, Study Suggests"  If you know that no life has been found on Mars (as the article itself states), then the term "Likely" should set off red flags.  The article reads:

"No indigenous Red Planet organisms have ever been discovered. But it is possible that life on Mars — if it ever existed — may have made its way to Earth at some point, many scientists say." [emphases mine]

The "likely" term is chiseled away by the more realistic terms of possibilities.  It is interesting that the author chose the term "many" to describe scientists.  Why?  Perhaps, to give the possibility more weight than it deserves and lend credence to the use of the term "likely."

After reading the article, I wonder if the author should have stated "Some chemicals that life may require may have come from Mars."  Or maybe the author thinks, despite the lack of evidence for life on Mars, the conditions on Mars may have been more conducive to life and maybe it started there, survived a necessarily violent upheaval in order to fly it off Mars toward Earth, survived radiation and vacuum and atmospheric reentry and a crash landing to seed life on Earth.  Maybe.

If you read this for class, you might ask the students to come up with questions like:  Why is life "likely" to come from Mars?  How many is "many?"  What does it mean that scientists acknowledge the possibility of something?  Why do some scientists believe that life must have these chemicals to begin life?  Are they saying that life on Earth is unlikely to begin without rocks from Mars?  Is there evidence?

Science Articles (How to Read)

Whether students go on to work in science or not, it is important that they be knowledgeable consumers of science.  Sometimes scientific studies are flawed or has an agenda; sometimes the writer is flawed or has an agenda.  Claims get overstated or misinterpreted.  (See:  "Researchers have found that authors of "soft science" research papers tend to overstate results more often than researchers in other fields.") Students need to be able to think critically, to see for themselves what is reliable and what is not.

This is probably one of the easiest yet most useful, practical exercises I have done as a teacher.  Often I will introduce the topic by dissecting a flawed article.  There was one in Phys.org about depression, and one in Scientific American about Facebook that we picked apart, sentence by sentence.  I'll see if I can find those (there's a newly released, problematic article which I will discuss today here).  But really any article will do, but it helps if the article is flawed so that students see that "Scientists found that" does not necessarily = the whole truth.

The rules are simple:

1. Find a science article from a reliable source.  (Science News, Scientific American, etc.)  
1. Length is unimportant.  (It just has to answer #3 below)
2. I tend to let them read in any field because I want them to focus on their interests, which will help them engage in the activity.
2. Read.
3. Summarize in one to three sentences about what the scientists learned.  
1. Focus them or they will ramble all over the place.  If they reach the end and cannot answer this question, they've read the wrong article.  Early on, you may have to repeat, "What did the scientists learn?" frequently.
2. Also, this must be reported orally.  There's something soporific about students reading aloud their summaries (and it usually includes more information than they need).  No, they do not need to look up the exact name of the drug used.  (They can write it down for reference, especially if they're not going to report orally that day.)
4. Finally, the most important part, ask a question about what the scientists learned.  Sometimes students need guidance.  Provide the question starters, "Who, what, when, where, why, and how."  It helps.  

The first day you do this will be unimpressive, but subsequent days tend to get more impressive--the questions they come up with. Many start to sound like well informed college students.  I have done this with seventh grade to twelfth grade students with success.  However, those times we only did it a few times during the year were only so-so--no matter what grade.  This, of course, will depend on what your administrators allow.  Some only want you to plow through the book or state standards, but hopefully the smarter ones will realize the value of such an exercise.

Sample questions:

• Why did this happen?
• What caused this?
• What might result from this?
• What aspects might the scientists have overlooked?  (proper controls, etc.)
• What future experiments might result?
• Would using X make a difference?
• Would doing this to X produce the same result?

If you know the answer, chime in.  Or simply acknowledge the good question.

This may be a useful activity for spurring ideas for a science fair.  I plan to use this as an idea generator and a way to help them focus on what might interest them for projects:  What kinds of articles did you want to read?  Does this give an idea for a future experiment?

Reader's Guide to Theodore Sturgeon's "The Hurkle is a Happy Beast"

Summary:  Through a mishap in another dimension, an alien pet is sent through a scientific device that lands the creature outside a school room.  The teacher, Stott and students immediately begin to itch, but Stott spots the being and startles it.  When it returns, he's ready with powdered DDT--only things don't go as either the alien or human had planned.

Commentary:  What a heady shot of ingenuity from such a humble title.  This is good for science students as well cultural studies:  What works well on some organisms, does not work the same for all.  Moreover, how a drug works on one human does work the same in another.  Even within a body, drugs can have different effects on different cells.  The same holds true for those moving between different culture--even within cultures.

Questions:

1. What was your initial impression of the title?
2. How does your interpretation of the word "happy" transform over the course of the story?
3. Contrast how the Lirhtians think to the humans.
4. Who is narrating the story?  Who did you think was narrating it?\
5. How does the narrator get into the mind of the other creatures? (or does it?)
6. What does it mean that both the Lirhtians mistakes turn things toward very different directions?
7. Knowing that the teacher has forty students under his charge, the students are called "animals", the Moscow is discussed with places on Lirht, and the story begins, "Lirht is either in a different universal plane or in another island galaxy. Perhaps these terms mean the same thing," could the story be interpreted differently?
8. If you buy #7, what does it mean that the humans scratch themselves?
9. What does it mean that Stott's actions not only fail but also exacerbate the situation?  Is this not unlike his early overreaction with the ruler?

Selected Bibliography for the story (ISFDB):

1. The Magazine of Fantasy, Fall 1949, ed. Anthony Boucher, J. Francis McComas
2. The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1950, ed. Everett F. Bleiler, T. E. Dikty
3. The Science Fiction Roll of Honor, ed. Frederik Pohl
4. The Great Science Fiction Stories Volume 11, 1949, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, 
5. The World Treasury of Science Fiction, ed. David G. Hartwell
6. The Perfect Host, ebook

Education Links

I used to believe teachers had to fill every minute with education.  Now I see it important to loosen up and take breaks.  This short video about a driving dog went over well.

Why does talent leave businesses?  This goes for teachers but also students (even if the dynamics are different).  Projects may drive some students crazy, but it does allow students to see both the process and creative side of science.

This amazing photo of the Milky Way looks doctored but apparently is not.

"And So On, And So On" by James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon)

Availability:

1. Phantasmicon Jun 1971
2. Star Songs of an Old Primate, Ballantine 1978
3. Microcosmic Tales, ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D. Olander, Taplinger 1980
   
4. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, Arkham House 1990
5. 100 Amazing Little Alien Stories, ed. Robert Weinberg, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz & Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 1996
   

Pre-Reading:

• This is a story students may have to read twice due to the difficulty of the number of different speakers of unidentified alien races.
  

Summary:

• Passengers on a spaceship talk and convince one another of the end of the frontiers and knowledge, saying there's nothing left for the next generation to discover. The story ends with a member of the next generation staring excitedly out into space.
  

Key Passages:

1. "Rovy! They asked you not to play with the screen while we're Jumping. We've told you and told you there isn't anything there. It's just pretty lights, dear. Now come back and we'll all play--"
2. [S]omething happened.... a very slight something, just enough to make the drowsy passengers glance up.
3. "I feel sorry for the youngers today." ...blew out his ear sacs comfortably. "We had all the fun."
4. "The primitive phase is finished. The true frontier is within now. Inner space.... I refer to reality, to that simpler and deeper reality that lies beyond the reach of the trivial methodologies of science."
5. "Ooh, science is horrible. I cry every time I think of the poor Armers."
   
6. "Life has never before met the ultimate challenge.... In the history of every race, society, planet, or system or federation or swarm,whenever they had expanded to their spatial limits they commenced to decline."
7. "For the first time all life is closed in a finite space. Who can rescue galaxy? The Clouds are barren and the realms beyond we know cannot be crossed even by matter, let alone life. For the first time we have truly reached the end....The young sense this. They seek to invent pseudo-frontiers, subjective escapes. Perhaps your inner space can beguile some for a while. But the despair will grow.... We have come to the end of infinity, the end of hope."
   

Questions:

1. What kind of name is "Rovy?" What word does it make you think of? How might this word aid our understanding?
   
2. Many scientific discoveries were due to mistakes--penicillin, radioactivity (look up how these were discovered). Scientists have suggested that play distinguishes species of higher intelligence from the lower--as play helps the player discover or uncover or stumble upon new tools. If you were a child, what would the word, "Jumping" make you think of? How does Rovy's action compare to scientific inquiry and the discoveries mentioned above? How is the adult reaction to Rovy counter-productive?
3. How does the young clanwife's remark sum up the story's theme?
4. What does it mean that the passengers are drowsy?
   
5. How does the captain's statement, "The momentary discontinuity we just experienced is quite normal in the mode of paraspace," validate this interpretation? Look up all words (including para- and space). For the thematic use of "normal," see title.
6. How do the passengers feel about science?
   
7. It may prove useful to students to know that scientists in the nineteenth century--before relativity and Einstein--felt they were nearly finished discovering all there was to know about science. All that was left was the cataloging. Knowing that, how does key passage #7 read to you now?
8. How does the final image/action of the child counteract Pathman's statements? How does it fit into the title?
9. What is "no-space" literally and figuratively in terms of the story?
10. If you can think of other questions, please let us know.
    

Applicability:

1. History of science
2. Scientific Inquiry

About the author:

• Wiki
• James Tiptree was the pseudonym of Alice Sheldon