Evolution in the News Submission and Discussion

Instructions

Evolution in the news:

The communication of science to the general public is increasingly recognized as an important aspect of the entire scientific endeavor. This assignment asks you to navigate the intersection of science communication and science itself in the form of a brief summary presentation to your peers.

Here’s your job:

Find an interesting story in the news. Prepare a brief summary of the research, based both on the general audience version you found, and the peer-reviewed journal article on which it is based. You should also prepare a short presentation to the class that describes the following:

-The key finding, (including the context for why it is interesting). What was the specific hypothesis that was addressed?

-A rough sketch of the actual methods used in the article. This is often quite technical and detailed. Summarize it in a few sentences!

-Comment on how well the media reported the findings and/or other angles. What was the “hook” for the article? Was it the focus of the study or was it tangential? Were the findings considered controversial? If so, was it because of the quality of the science (i.e. data/methods), or was it the ethical/sociopolitical findings that caused debate? How did the popular article do in accurately describing the study? Were there unforeseen consequences, future applications, etc. of interest? How were the scientists portrayed, if relevant? Feel free to “follow the story” in the most interesting direction. Include links in your presentation to both your popular article and the peer-reviewed study. Plan for the entire presentation to take 5 minutes.