Background: The purpose of this assignment is to practice vetting claims about archaeology in popular media outlets and to differentiate information presented in popular versus scholarly sources. You will pretend to be a science editor for a popular news magazine featuring a new piece on an archaeological discovery in your magazine. Although you want to impress your readers, your magazine must maintain its reputation for publishing accurate, scientifically supported claims. For this assignment, you will locate an interesting story from a popular news source, locate the original research study on which the article is based, and conduct a guided comparison of the two to vet the scientific validity of the news reporting.

Anticipated Time Required: 8-10 hours

Instructions:

(1) Read these instructions to the end. Then return to step 2 to get started.

(2) Browse the internet or library for an interesting report of an archaeological discovery in a popular news outlet. You may use a story you’ve heard about previously or Google “archaeological discovery” or “archaeology science news” for some ideas. Be sure to choose a story that references an original research study. Look for a phrase such as “According to a study…”

(3) Locate the original study on which the article is based and fill out attached sheet.