The scientist and the citizen alike must make evaluative judgments about the validity of science-related media reports and their implications for people’s own lives and society.
A driving goal of the Science Literacy Initiative at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is to effectively prepare PK-12 students for successful careers and a lifetime of science-informed decisions. Achieving this goal will require students to develop critical thinking and problem solving as habits of mind and to critically evaluate and interpret science information.
To help middle school and high school students become critical consumers of scientific information, we have created a Nebraska edition of the popular New York Times' offering, "What's Going on in This Graph?". Our version will look and function very similarly.
Our collection features a monthly post focused on a data visualization related to topics of particular interest to Nebraska. Some posts will feature a graph, map, or chart from University of Nebraska faculty or graduate student researchers. These visualizations act as rich texts which can be used as a focal point for students' sense-making discussions.
Students will be asked to spend some time interacting with the map, graph, or visualization and answer three basic questions.
- What do you notice?
- What do you wonder?
- What do you think is going on in the graph?