Science in the News: Using existing media sources to help students navigate socio-scientific issues

[...]epistemological beliefs are beliefs about the certainty and justification of knowledge and are important in developing one's functional scientific literacy (Allchin 2022), dispositions toward learning (Kruse et al. 2022a), and research capabilities (Woodward and Cho 2020). [...]when students are presented with a scientific diagram, we ask them, "In what ways does this diagram help you understand the process that is happening? Considerations for implementation When implementing these modules in a classroom, it is important to remember that these activities are opportunities for discussion and reflection on key disciplines related to functional scientific literacy, and there are not necessarily right answers or opinions. [...]we focus on providing students with time to read and discuss the embedded questions in small groups and move toward whole-class discussion, encouraging students to recognize the complexity of the issue and consider multiple perspectives. [...]we ask students to summarize the main points of the article to create a shared understanding of the text before discussing the embedded questions.