On Thursday, I will sporting my Lab Out Loud T-shirt, and Dale will be wearing his on Friday – come talk to us as we are out and about during the conference.

You can also follow our tweets to see what we’re doing at twitter.com/laboutloud (or twitter.com/bbartel and twitter.com/basler).

Bad Astronomer

Today’s guest calls himself the Bad Astronomer. Phil Plait is an astronomer, an author, and a well-known blogger at www.badastronomy.com. Phil talks to us about myths and skepticism in the science classroom.

Preview from the show:
Plait: I am in fact a skeptic. In the public mind – if you ask somebody “what’s a skeptic” – most people think it’s a cynic or a denier, somebody who just doesn’t believe in anything. And that’s not strictly true. All a skeptic is, is someone who demands evidence for a claim. If you come up to me and say the sky is pink, I’m going to say “what is your evidence for this?”. Or I’ll say, “that’s an interesting claim, but here’s the evidence against it.” It’s someone who applies critical thinking, logic, evidence, observation, the scientific method to any sort of claim.
Science is all about skepticism. They are hardly different – I mean skepticism is a tool of science. Richard Feynman (the physicist) said “science is a way of not fooling ourselves. It’s a way of figuring what’s out what’s really going on”. And skepticism is just a way of looking at things. It’s making sure that if you’re thinking about something, if there’s a claim that’s being made – whether it’s by a person or even yourself, there’s a way of examining it so that you can test its reality or not. And the problem is, it’s not something we teach our kids. In fact, we teach them exactly the opposite. We teach them to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. We go to movies where the skeptic is always a jerk, and the end is always the supenatural cause or trust in humanity or whatever.”

Plait: Scooby Doo was a great cartoon because in the end, it really wasn’t a ghost or whatever, it was always old man Marley wearing a mask, who didn’t want the developers to come in and destroy his farm or whatever.”

Plait: When you’re teaching kids to the test, and you’re saying “here’s how you do the math” without explaining why, “here’s what you’re supposed to get in the results in the lab” without explaining why, we’re not teaching our kids science. We’re teaching them nothing, we’re teaching them belief, faith – and that’s not what science is about. Science is not about belief, science is about evidence.

Follow the Bad Astronomer:

• Bad Astronomy Blog
• Contact Info
• Twitter
• Facebook Group

Posts from badastronomy.com discussed on the show:

• Standing an Egg on End on the Spring Equinox
• Are Apollo Moon Photos Fake?
• Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing “Hoax”

Books:

• Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing “Hoax”
  • read NSTA’s recommendation of the book
    
• Death From the Skies (pre-order from Amazon.com)

Skepticism on the Internet:

• The Skeptics Dictionary
• James Randi Educational Foundation
• PZ Myers: Pharyngula Blog
• Point of Inquiry Podcast
• Skeptical Inquirer Magazine
• Skeptoid Podcast
• Skepticality
• Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe

Direct download: nstalol12.mp3

Get a preview of what’s in store for you at the 2008 National Conference on Science Education, as we chat with conference chair Joyce Croce.

New to an NSTA Conference?

Direct download: nstalol10.mp3

Wired Science

Adam Rogers discusses the new PBS show titled WIRED Science.

Links

• WIRED Science
• WIRED Magazine
• Twitter
  • Dale’s account
  • Brian’s account
  • Dale’s Twitter project
  • Other educators on Twitter

Direct download: nstalol6.mp3