Re: April Fools?

[Beth Benoit]

(I'm leaving the original offering of this from Rory McElwee, but following the excellent advice of a TIPSter requesting that we remove as much extraneous listing as possible, I eliminated the original request for an April Fool's activity.)   Just FYI, this got its greatest publicity as the science project of a student named Nathan Zohner, in Idaho Falls.  Here's the usual carefully investigated information from snopes.com, the Urban Legend debunker website:    In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls, based his science fair project on a report similar to the one reproduced above. Zohner's project, titled "How Gullible Are We?", involved presenting this report about "the dangers of dihyrogen monoxide" to fifty ninth-grade students and asking them what (if anything) should be done about the chemical. Forty-three students favored banning it, six were undecided, and only one correctly recognized that 'dihydrogen monoxide' is actually H2O � plain old water. Zohner's analysis of the results he obtained won him first prize in the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair; garnered him scads of attention from newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, universities, and congresspeople; and prompted the usual round of outcries about how our ignorant citizenry doesn't read critically and can be easily misled. In other words, a tempest in a teapot. Zohner's project wasn't original: spoof petitions about dihydrogen monoxide and other innocuous "dangers" have been circulating for years, and Zohner based his project on a bogus report that was already making the rounds of the Internet. Moreover, Zohner's target audience was ninth-graders, a group highly susceptible to allowing peer pressure to overwhelm critical thinking. Thrust any piece of paper at the average high school student with a suggestion about what the "correct" response to it should be, and peer pressure pretty much assures you'll get the answer you're looking for. Someone that age isn't very likely to read a friend's petition calling for the banning of whale hunting and critically evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impact of such a regulation. Instead, he's probably going to say to himself, "This issue is obviously important to my friend, and he must have some good reasons for circulating the petition, so I'll sign it." That said, this example does aptly demonstrate the kind of fallacious reasoning that's thrust at us every day under the guise of "important information": how with a little effort, even the most innocuous of substances can be made to sound like a dangerous threat to human life. The next time you receive an ominous message such as the one warning you that sodium lauryl sulfate (a common foaming ingredient used in shampoos) causes cancer, with the "proof" being that this caustic chemical is also used to scrub garage floors, keep in mind that the very same thing could be said of another ubiquitous cleaning agent . . . dihydrogen monoxide. Update:   In March 2004 the California municipality of Aliso Viejo (a suburb in Orange County) came within a cat's whisker of falling for this hoax after a paralegal there convinced city officials of the danger posed by this chemical. The leg-pull got so far as a vote having been scheduled for the City Council on a proposed law that would have banned the use of foam containers at city-sponsored events because (among other things) they were made with DHMO, a substance that could "threaten human health and safety." ----- Original Message ----- From: Rory McElwee To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 11:31 AM Subject: Re: April Fools? I will share this activity with the caveat that I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I GOT IT -- maybe from TIPS?  Anyway, it is not my own creation but I have used it several times.   When I begin the reasoning unit in either intro or cognitive, I say, "Before we begin today, I want to make an annoucement. Some students on our campus are concerned about environmental issues and they asked me to present this information to you. There is a petition you can sign if you want to join their cause."  Then I put the following up on the overhead projector:   The Association for a Chemical-Free Environment wishes to inform the American public of the imminent dangers in our environment from a chemical called dihydrogen monoxide.  Just a few of the harmful effects of this chemical:   1.  It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting 2.   It is a major component in acid rain 3.   It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state 4.   Accidental inhalation is often fatal 5.   It contributes to erosion 6.   It decreases the effectiveness of automobile brakes, contributing to hundreds of fatalities annually 7.   It can reduce the nutrient content of our food supply 8.   It has been found in the tumors of terminal cancer patients 9.   Its presence can be detected in both human and nonhuman animals   I then ask students for their reactions and typically get "We really need to do something about this" and "Is this really all over the place?" until someone says, "It's water." Anyway, it is fun and it makes them think.   Rory McElwee --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]