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Ironically, flat-Earthers, anti-vaxxers, and climate change naysayers trust in science. Unfortunately, they trust thewrongscience. That conundrum lies at the heart of scientific literacy in an age of well-funded commercial and ideological interests and overwhelming digital information. The core question for the citizen-consumer is not philosophically “why trust science?” (Oreskes 2019) but sociologically “who speaks for science?” Teachers can help students learn how to navigate the treacherous territory of inevitably mediated communication and the vulnerabilities of epistemic dependence. Students need to understand the role of science communication practices (media literacy) and the roles of credibility, expertise and honesty and the deceptive strategies used by imitators of science to seem like credible voices for science.

As another school year begins, we often reflect on what we teach and why we teach it. Students are eager to engage in learning, but they often find the typical content irrelevant. Even skilled instructors with buoyant enthusiasm may fail to inspire them. However, students respond to authentic challenges. They readily invest effort in learning about real, substantive issues related to personal and public decision-making, often characterized as central to scientific literacy. Such cases typically revolve around understanding not just scientific concepts, but how science works. They are gateways into learning about the nature of science, or NOS. First, survey the news. What is going on that matters to a better society, to our daily lives, and to students? Here is a sample list of topics rich with NOS potential from just one week (from the March 29 issue of Science magazine)