Integrating Media Literacy in Science Instruction
How can we help students evaluate scientific information? Media literacy education! That’s why we’ve launched a new science-focused media literacy project that aims to incorporate media literacy education into K-12 classrooms.
New Report
Like others before us, we believe that science teachers can help prepare students for a world where both accurate and inaccurate information is available at the touch of a button, and where, more than ever, people of all ages need to use science to inform decisions they make in everyday life. That’s why teaching students to find trustworthy information needs to become a priority in more science classrooms, just as it has become a greater priority in other subject areas. This report, published in September 2023, identifies our goals and recommendations to help K-12 students better evaluate scientific information.
Recent Updates
This summer, Media Literacy Now convened a group of 21 STEM and media literacy educators to discuss the skills students need to learn to better evaluate scientific information. During the two-day conference in D.C., participants discussed current standards per Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), examples of misinformation in the classroom, ideas of what students need to learn to better evaluate scientific claims, and what media literacy instruction regarding information sources, critical thinking, and biases students should receive.
You can’t expect to leave school with all the information you need for the rest of your life. You’re going to constantly be encountering new information and need to make decisions on that information – it’s a lifelong process.
There is an urgent need for instruction and resources to help young people resist the proliferation of false and manipulative science-related information on TikTok, YouTube, cable news, and other media.
Being exposed to an overwhelming amount of information can be confusing and I want students to be able to understand why messages are being shared so that they can make informed decisions for both personal consumption and general community/world wellbeing.
Background
Our science-focused media literacy project came from an idea sparked at a convening in February 2023 at Stanford University. Many science educators have long made the argument for integrating media literacy into science instruction as a way to combat the growing proliferation of scientific misinformation. After bringing together key stakeholders to help determine the skills the students should learn in K-12 science classrooms, our next step will be to survey current lesson plans, videos, routines, and instructional materials and identify gaps or missing pieces. Our ultimate goal is to be able to provide an inventory of instruction materials, including activities that challenge students to think more critically about scientific information, to best support teachers in incorporating media literacy into their classrooms.
This project is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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