Building Critical Thinking Skills: Is Purple the Perfect Color?

Here is an article I wrote for the TalkSTEM site:

Building Critical Thinking Skills: Is Purple the Perfect Color?

As an elementary science teacher and mother of two young boys, I love hearing, “Guess what I just discovered?”. It often occurs when curiosity, wonder, and knowledge collide and can provide the foundation of a lifelong love of science. Recently a student had such a eureka moment and announced excitedly, “I found out that sapphires are really just blue emeralds”. I was intrigued by the statement though my limited knowledge of geology suggested it was incorrect. Maybe I was wrong and would learn something new. When asked where they found this interesting fact the student replied, “Online!”.

The saying, “You cannot trust everything you read”, is particularly true for online sources. Yet this often takes students (and adults) by surprise. In an age where Google is the go-to-source for general scientific questions, how much confidence can be had in data found online and how does one decide what is a reliable source? In scientific research, Peer Review helps ensure confidence in the scientific literature. Before publishing new data and conclusions, it is reviewed by a collection of other scientists to gauge the quality of the work and ensure all conclusions are supported by the data. Only work that meets the high standards of a field is published. Unfortunately, while Google uses an algorithmic approximation of peer review called PageRank to rank websites by importance, the question of accuracy of information isn’t directly considered.

To get students thinking critically about information online I tell them that I could post online that purple is the perfect color. Does that make it true? Is it a fact or an opinion? What if I was the main sponsor for purple items or had some other conflict of interest? Does that change how they would view my comments? Generally after answering these questions, it does. Another factor to consider is the relevance of the source. For instance, the student who noted “sapphires are really just blue emeralds”, found that ‘factoid’ on a website for a video game describing their virtual Chaos Emeralds.

All students should be trained to develop critical thinking skills including how to gauge confidence in online sources by accuracy and relevance. Its a requirement for those intending to pursue STEM careers and it benefits all students.

About Jamie:
Dr. Jamie Repasky is an independent science educator in Portland, Oregon, focusing on hands-on STEAM programs for K-8th grade students. She works both at Rieke Elementary School as a Science Enrichment Coordinator and at Woodlawn School as a STEAM Consultant. She holds a B.S. in Marine Science and Biology from University of Miami, Florida, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Immunology from Yale University. Recently she was honored at the Sigma Xi Columbia Willamette chapter’s 2015 Outstanding Science Teacher of the Year.

Celebrate STEAM

E.T. Phones Home!

After seven months with no contact, Philae the space probe on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, woke up!

'Hello Earth!': Comet probe Philae wakes up

Solar S'mores

The sun is out and we are ready to enjoy a favorite summer snack.  Using poster board, cardboard, aluminum foil, glue, string, and clips, we created Copenhagen Solar Cookers for s'more science fun.  Once in the sun, the ovens heated up to 150'F in a matter of minutes and were able to melt the chocolate on our marshmallow fluff covered graham crackers.

Here is a video on how to build your own - How To Make Cogenhagen Solar Cooker.  We even made mini ones using 7"x7" poster board squares and 4"x4" cardboard center!

Future Solar Engineers

The Woodlawn students had a chance to experiment with solar panels and create a UV activated bead keychain at the "It Takes A Community" event.  Go Woodlawn Wildcats!

photo credit - Sherylita Mason

photo credit - Sherylita Mason

Come to the Woodlawn 'It Takes A Community' Event this Friday!  We will be running a 'Celebrate STEAM' table with science crafts and more information about the Planetary STEAM program.

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink

Did you know that 1/6 of the world does not have access to clean drinking water?  That's over 1.1 billion people!  This week Rieke's 5th graders learned about the microbes all around us and which are the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Located near the school is Stephen's Creek watershed that has had high E. coli pollution over the last 10 years - E. coli is one of our sometimes good but sometimes bad microbes.  For this engineering challenge, the students were asked to purify the water from our creek with the SODIS method - using infrared and ultraviolet radiation from the sun to kill the microbes.  Each team chose a variable to test with their creek water - using baggies vs. glass bottles, black tarp vs. reflective surface, sari filtered water vs. SODIS treated water, aluminum foil boats vs. corrugated roof, ...  We allowed the experiment to run over the weekend and then the students tested their water with a bacterial/coliform petrifilm.  With these plates, bacterial colonies appear as purple dots on the pink plate.  E. coli colonies are purple dots with an air bubbles next to them.

Three days later, they observed the results.

Thankfully, our tap water did not have any detectable bacteria!

Stephen's Creek water - there are 8 E.coli colonies on this plate

From left to right - creek water, sari filtered creek water, SODIS treated creek water

From left to right - creek water, SODIS treated on a black tarp, SODIS treated on reflective surface