Thread by @kellilovesrocks

I gave my Geologist Disasters online students an assignment on finding sources of information: Find three scientists on Twitter that are reliable sources for information about geologist hazards. They had to find a seismologist, a volcanologist, and a hydrologist. #scicomm

It's an interesting look into their thought process. They were also tasked with assessing two stories about Yellowstone and a possible eminent eruption. I'll come back to that. But the people on Twitter they found were really interesting.

I graded them based on how "good" the Tweeter they found was- working in the field currently, actually Tweeting about geology, I could verify them through other avenues or already knew them. I'm sharing the lists here to give a shout out to y'all.

Seismologists:
@hypocentre
@Earthquakeguy
@DrLucyJones (The most common answer)
@earthquakesSF
@LastQuake
@geophysichick
@NatsSeismology

Volcanologists:
@ultraplinian
@Simoncarn
@janinekrippner
@lava_ice
@Volcanologist
@BGSvolcanology
@subglacial
@kaylai
@USGSVolcanoes
@geophysichick
@simoncarn
@volcanodoc (the recent notoriety might have helped)

Hydrologists:
@lanre_olagunju
@Hydrologistpete
@WaterPotential
@Tessa_M_Hill
@younghydrology
@LeonKauffman
@Geogest1
@GroundwaterAct
@jsaysitall
@FloodHydrology
@HydrologistPete
@ChandraLMiller
@hepexorg
@waterhunk

I also had one person answer "twitter isn't a reliable resource." Because I follow so many people doing great #scicomm , this student got a bit of a lecture.

From my comment to the student: "If you'd like to see some amazing scientists who are on Twitter, I'll give you a big ol' list because they are there."

Part II of the assignment (since @USGSVolcanoes is curious): I told students that they were looking for information about volcanic hazards in Montana and found two articles on Yellowstone erupting. They were to assess both using the CRAP test.

CRAP Test Info because it's short, easy to remember, and makes a lot of sense for intro students who are nonscience majors- ccconline.libguides.com/c.php?g=242130…

I know that they'll probably just Google "Yellowstone eruption" and go with the first result, so I tried to find articles that reflected this. Article #1 was from Express express.co.uk/news/world/106…

I was hoping the click bait title would be a clue to it's usefulness: "Yellowstone volcano WARNING: Eruption IMMINENT when 'nature provides key clue'

Article #2 of the assignment was from @DiscoverMag and written by @eruptionsblog blogs.discovermagazine.com/rockyplanet/20…

I was hoping they'd pay attention to who wrote each one (the A of the CRAP Test) and realize that Dr. Klemetti is legit.

What I ended up seeing is that the sites having pop-ups was a huge red flag for the students and they didn't trust either of them because of that. They also have never apparently heard of Discover Magazine. And the fact that @eruptionsblog is a BLOG was problematic for them.

My favorite was the fact that article #2 was written in 2012 apparently means that it was horribly out of date. "The date of publish is not updated so the currency is not current, so those future eruptions now are old eruptions"

Dr. Klemetti's light-hearted tone seemed to make a few think that it wasn't credible information but "this one is like a scientific journal for fun." More than one student said that the first article just stated "facts."

The most important part of my feedback to pretty much all of them "The first article is nothing but click bait."Though to be fair, a couple actually figured that out and one even called Express a tabloid, so all is not hopeless.

This exercise did reinforce to me how important it is for me to point them in the right direction when looking up information for their semester project (they pick a house in the US and assess the geologic risk). I point them to the USGS and state geologic surveys.

Good science research is often unfamiliar to my students and not as easily accessible as just doing a Google search. Plus reading some of the publications can be tough for a non-scientist. Which really is the strength of the whole project in the first place since it's important.