Warmup 11/18/15 Research says a glass of red wine each day is good for your heart. Who do you think paid for this research? Why? Objective Tonight’s Homework To learn how to approach a "hot topic" scientifically Special: For current event, find an article with bias. In your summary, explain the bias

Discussing Scientific Bias We’re going to do a little activity. Each of you is going to write a short survey in the next 15 minutes. Your survey should be 10 questions long and can be about any topic you want. It should be designed to ask people about their opinion or habits. Examples: - A survey asking people about the sports they watch - A survey asking people about what games they like - A survey asking people about their favorite foods.

Discussing Scientific Bias Bias is where we put our own ideas or assumptions into what we’re trying to research or study, or where we bend the information towards an answer we want. Examples: “Which sport do you like more? Rugby, or tennis?” is a biased question. What if the person taking the survey doesn’t like either? If your survey is about foods and the only kind you ask about are Italian foods, your survey is biased. What if the people taking it don’t like Italian?

Discussing Scientific Bias Your task for the next 5 minutes is to try and find bias in your own survey. Bias is pretty much impossible to get rid of, so see what you can find. At the end of this, we’ll discuss.

Discussing Scientific Bias So why do we care? Because we’re going to find that there is bias in both the theory of evolution and in creationism. Both sides really want to defend their view of things, and sadly, both sides sometimes ignore facts to make sure that happens. We’ll examine these biases later in the unit, but for now, let’s just add the definition of bias to our notes and vocabulary.

Notes on Bias Bias is where we put our own ideas or assumptions into what we’re trying to research or study, or where we bend the information towards an answer we want. This can be done on accident or on purpose and is almost impossible to get rid of completely. Types of Bias:

Notes on Bias Selection Bias This is when scientists don’t look at all the factors involved. This may be because they’re missing some tools or because they were looking at the wrong thing. Example: Let’s say you decided to ask a bunch of people their weight to find out if Americans are overweight. You decide to put your survey forms up in every MacDonalds in America. To your surprise, you find the average person is horribly obese. You’ve introduced bias because you only did your survey in a fast food restaurant. What about all the thin people that never go there?

Notes on Bias Confirmation Bias This is when scientists will bend their research to only notice the things that confirm the result they wanted in the first place. It can also be accidental, where a scientist pays more attention to the stuff that confirms their theory, and doesn’t see the things against it. Example: If you start imagining that the number 5 is everywhere, you’ll start seeing it everywhere. There’s no coincidence or conspiracy, it’s just your brain cutting out what doesn’t fit.

Notes on Bias Exposure Bias This is when scientists don’t tell the whole story of what they’ve discovered. They’ll leave out details or pieces to show what they want. Accident here can happen when news sites only find some of the results to an experiment. Example: Our warmup said that a glass of red wine a day is good for you. But is this the whole story? Of course not! Alcohol can lead to liver problems, addiction, and car accidents. But the scientists who did the research were probably told to only find good things.

Exit Question What is scientific bias? a) When scientists are mean and attack each other b) When scientists use the word “as” twice c) When scientists do research d) Putting your own opinions into scientific research e) Taking all your own opinions out of research f) None of the above