Science vs. Pseudoscience Debate:

Assessment
Participants of the debate were assessed at two levels. Each level was 50% of their overall grade.

We used the responses of the original survey to gain the perspectives of scientists. The debate gave my "student scientists" an opportunity to use those perspectives as a guidline to disproving the claims of the pseudoscientists. It also gave pseudoscientists an idea of how they would be attacked during the debate. Ultimately though, the debate required research and students were assessed on their research.

Students had to complete the research notes template. They were assessed on the level of completion of the template, the requirements of the template, and the accuracy of the information recorded.

The debate was intended to specifically address two Maine State Standards:

1. Identify basic informal fallacies in arguments.
2. Support reasoning by using a variety of evidence.

The student scientists were evaluated on how well they identified the fallacies in the arguments of the pseudoscientists. I also looked at how well students used the scientific process to disgard claims by the pseudoscientists.

The pseudoscientists were evaluated on how well they were able to support claims with various forms of evidence. After the debate we discussed the validity of the evidence used, but for the debate they just needed to have some type of "support" for their claims. I wanted the "student scientists" to find the errors in the proof of pseudoscientists.