Lecture Assignment 1

Lecture Assignment 1: Case Study How do you decide what to believe? Question: Do vaccines cause autism? Possible Hypotheses: 1.Vaccines do cause autism 2.Vaccines do not cause autism. 2

Informed Citizens By being informed you make better decisions By understanding the information available you become better informed. – Ability to discern reliable from unreliable material 3

How to tell if your resource is a good one Reliable resources must site their sources – Newspapers, textbooks, and scholarly articles – But why not Wikipedia? Peer reviewed literature (papers and textbooks), subject work to scrutiny by others in the science community before publication. Openness/Transparency – Resources that present personal opinions (such as editorials) should state such in a clear manner, at the beginning of the article. 4

Assignment 1: Using the Scientific Method Task: 1.Choose your hypothesis 1.Create an argument for your hypothesis, using resources – Use at least 3 sources 2.Identify if your sources are reliable and why 3.Create a work cited section 5

Citation You must cite resources to explain your work in context. – Gives your work validity References should be reputable resources – This includes scientific articles – Textbooks – News articles Unreliable sources should be identified as such. 6

Typical citation format (APA) Information varies with the type of source – websites, blogs, etc. URL and access dates are helpful, since information may change over time. – See help guide on Canvas, or Bio Lab Report Handbook 7

1 st Assignment Do vaccines cause Autism? A 2-3 pages (double spaced); essay format – Hypothesis – Argument Supporting by Data (3 or more resources) Assessment of resource reliability Citation (in-text) – Conclusion – Work Cited Section Due February 3 rd on Canvas 8