Why should we trust scientific experts? Who exactly counts as an expert? These questions apply equally to doctors, airline pilots, and car mechanics. This inquiry activity invites students to think about expertise among their own classmates and in their own lives, and then leads them to generalize those concepts to the larger society around them, where individuals develop diverse forms of expertise not shared by others -- including science. What constitutes expertise, in science and elsewhere? How do we recognize experts? Through guided inquiry, students answer these questions themselves, and then apply them to understanding who to trust about scientific claims.

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Instructor's Narrative:

Zemplen, G.A. & Allchin, D. 2024. Inquiry into expertise. The Science Teacher.

Background Reading

Allchin, D. 2012. Skepticism and the architecture of trust. American Biology Teacher.

Further Reading

Allchin, D. 2022. Who speaks for science? Science & Education.

Zemplen, G.A. 2009. Putting sociology first. Science & Education.