Scientific misinformation and conspiracy theories
The Rayuela project delivered an invited workshop in the the Platon – Polar Star Summer School 2021. The event focused on the spread of scientific misinformation with an emphasis on conspiracy theories. The Summer School was organised as part of the European School Innovation Academy (ESIA) and the European project Polar Star project.
This RAYUELA workshop focused on the effects of scientific misinformation and conspiracy theories in the classroom and their relation to online criminal behaviour, such as hate speech campaigns, deception, etc., and how they can undermine both scientific literacy and student wellbeing in a sensitive ecosystem such as the school. The approach involved short presentations and a rather exciting exercise, in which participants tried to collaboratively dismantle a number of scientific conspiracy theories, using the Miro board application. They even tried to build some of their own! At the end of the session, participants answered a short evaluation questionnaire in which nine out of ten have stated that misinformation and deception affects classrooms significantly.