A Novel Approach to Teaching Scientific Reasoning to Future Journalists

Abstract

A novel approach to teaching scientific reasoning and writing to science journalism students, as presented here, shows considerable promise. First, the pedagogical approach and a description of seven types of common episodes in the experimental testing of models are outlined. Then, a rubric for evaluating the quality of reasoning is presented. Science writers can use this scheme to identify patterns in scientific reasoning as they interview practicing scientists and write press releases.