Students encounter science claims through social media, news, online searches, and generative AI chatbots. Whether it is a headline about climate change or an ad promoting a new health supplement, young people need the knowledge and skills to navigate these claims. This connects to the Next Generation Science Standards through Science and Engineering Practice #8: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information. Students need science media literacy: the ability to evaluate who is making the claim, whether the source is credible, and how to recognize the tactics used to distort or deny scientific consensus.
These resources are designed to support you in bringing science media literacy instruction into your classroom. Please see our Events Page for information on upcoming workshops on Science Media Literacy.
Science Media Literacy Framework
Grounded in the research of Douglas Allchin (Allchin, 2012; 2022), this interactive framework helps teachers understand how science works as a knowledge-building process and how scientific claims are communicated, translated, and sometimes distorted as they move through media into public discourse. Teachers can also use the framework as a planning tool to identify where students are most likely to encounter science claims and design lessons accordingly.
Interactive Tool
Science Media Literacy Framework: From Test Tubes to YouTube
Explore the interactive pathway of scientific knowledge from the expert science community into public discourse. This tool maps 29 strategies across the domains of expert science and science communication, helping teachers see how legitimate and bogus claims each travel through distinct channels on their way to students.
Companion Documents
Ten Competencies for the Science Misinformation Crisis (Allchin, 2023) | The foundational article outlining the ten competencies that guide this framework's approach to science media literacy.
Managing Misinformation Competency Checklist | A planning tool for teachers to track which competencies are addressed across their science media literacy lessons.
Curriculum Resources
Lesson plans, instructional routines, student activities, and classroom-ready materials for teaching science media literacy across grade levels, all anchored by our year-long instructional model.
Start Here
Science Media Literacy Instructional Model
A year-long instructional model that walks teachers through the routines for bringing science media literacy into any science course. Each part of the year includes linked lesson resources, Google Docs, and Google Slides.
-
PART 1
Opening Year Routine
Launch the year with a shared routine for noticing and questioning science claims.
-
PART 2
Throughout the Year
Recurring openers that keep students practicing with real-world science claims.
-
PART 3
Capstone
Students bring their skills together to evaluate science claims on their own.
All lesson resources, including Google Docs and Google Slides for classroom use, live inside the Instructional Model.
A Shared Library of Science Claims
Claims Database
Science Claims in Media Artifacts
A curated collection of real-world science claims from social media, news outlets, and other public sources. Teachers can browse and select science claim phenomena for their science media literacy lessons from this shared library of examples. Teachers can also propose new claims to grow the collection.
Classroom Routines and Tools
Engaging routines and interactive tools that students can return to again and again as they practice evaluating science claims.
Classroom Routine
The LIARS Strategy
A strategy for recognizing common deceptive tactics used to make unreliable science claims appear credible. Developed by Douglas Allchin as a tool for building science media literacy, LIARS helps students and teachers identify the tactics rather than evaluate every individual claim. A ready-to-use LIARS Game slide deck is also available for classroom play.
Interactive Resource
Correlation vs. Causation
An interactive resource that helps students distinguish between correlation and causation in scientific claims. Understanding this distinction is a foundational skill for evaluating science-related arguments encountered in media and public discourse.
Student Tool
Evaluating a Science Claim
An interactive decision-tree tool based on the Fast and Frugal Heuristic for evaluating science claims. This tool gives students a practical, step-by-step approach to quickly assess the credibility of science-related information they encounter online and in the media.
Climate Science and Climate Denial
These resources help teachers and students recognize and make sense of the rhetorical strategies used to deny climate science and delay climate action. You will also find them on our Climate Champions page, alongside units, data tools, and routines for teaching climate science.
Interactive Tool
FLICC Taxonomy Tool
An interactive exploration of the 34 techniques of science denial organized across the five FLICC categories: Fake Experts, Logical Fallacies, Impossible Expectations, Cherry Picking, and Conspiracy Theories. Based on the FLICC framework developed by John Cook (Cook, 2020) and the Denial101x course from the University of Queensland and Skeptical Science. Each technique includes a climate example, tips for spotting it, and classroom connections.
Interactive Tool
Understanding Climate Denial Tool
Analyze real-world examples of climate denial and delay as they appear in public discourse. This tool supports teachers and students in identifying and categorizing the rhetorical strategies used to undermine confidence in climate science and delay action.
Research Article
Discourses of Climate Delay
The original research article by Lamb et al. (2020) identifying 12 discourses used to justify inaction on climate change, organized into four strategies: redirect responsibility, push non-transformative solutions, emphasize downsides, and surrender.
Additional Resources
Explore Further
Curated external resources for deepening your understanding of science media literacy, climate denial, and the nature of science.
Tools and Courses
-
Denial101x: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial
Free online course from the University of Queensland that uses the FLICC framework to examine the most common myths about climate change and the techniques used to distort climate science.
-
A comprehensive resource that examines the science behind climate change and addresses the most common arguments used against climate science, organized by scientific topic.
-
Teaching Science Media Literacy (SHiPS Education)
Douglas Allchin's teacher-facing resources on science media literacy, including the conceptual overview and classroom activities for teaching students to evaluate science claims.
-
John Cook's inoculation-based game where players learn to identify science denial techniques by becoming a cranky uncle. Available as an app for classroom use.
Research Foundations
-
Allchin, D. (2023). Ten competencies for the science misinformation crisis.
Science Education, 107, 261-274. The foundational framework for the ten competencies that guide this workshop's approach to science media literacy.
-
Lamb, W.F. et al. (2020). Discourses of climate delay.
Global Sustainability, 3, e17. Identifies 12 discourses that justify inaction on climate change, organized into four strategies: redirect responsibility, push non-transformative solutions, emphasize downsides, and surrender.
-
Cook, J. (2020). A history of FLICC: The 5 techniques of science denial.
Cook, J. (2020). A history of FLICC: The 5 techniques of science denial.
California Policy Context
-
Science Media Literacy Legislation
An overview of California and national legislation supporting science media literacy and climate education in K-12 schools, including AB285 and related policy context for teachers and administrators.
-
California AB285: Climate Change Education
California law requiring the inclusion of climate change science in the state's Next Generation Science Standards curriculum framework, supporting instruction on climate science across grade levels.