Educator Melanie Trecek-King to speak on misinformation

KEARNEY — While teaching general education biology classes, Melanie Trecek-King realized that her students cared little for learning about the stages of mitosis and protein synthesis, or even how the process of science works.

She wondered what the average person needed to know about science.

To that end, Trecek-King started over and began teaching a course she called "Science for Life." On her website, she wrote, "Instead of teaching students to memorize facts — which are forgettable, can change, are readily available on our phones, and ultimately give students the wrong impression of what science is — the class focuses on three essential skills: science literacy, critical thinking, and information literacy."

Trecek-King developed her class after a decade of teaching science the traditional way. She also developed a strong social media presence where she gave daily mini lessons in critical thinking.

The author, educator and speaker will present a talk at the 2024 Fall Conference of The Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science, 9 a.m. Friday in the Ponderosa Room in the Nebraska Student Union.

"I'm going to be giving the keynote address which is about my 'Teach Skills, Not Facts' approach," Trecek-King said in an interview from Beatrice where she was visiting family members. "I will talk about the importance of understanding our thinking so that we're better able to be wise consumers of information and to better understand the process of science."

She also plans to present a workshop on Saturday highlighting falsehoods.

"I'll be talking about how to inoculate minds against misinformation by having students create it," Trecek-King said. "I'll be giving some examples about activities I've designed that allow students to play as conspiracy theorists or science deniers."

Now based in Boston, Trecek-King grew up in western Iowa and attended the University of Nebraska – Omaha.

When considering misinformation, the educator quoted theoretical physicist Richard Feynman.

"He said the first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool," she said. "To me, that underscores the importance of everything I'm doing. I want people to understand that it's not just about the information out there, it's about what's happening inside of our heads and how we interpret that information — and what information we choose to accept."

Real empowerment comes from understanding how easily we can be fooled.

"Intellectual humility is one of the most important skills when it comes to critical thinking," Trecek-King said.

She recalled a quote by Bertrand Russell, "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

"There actually is a correlation between overconfidence and a lack of knowledge," Trecek-King said. "For me, it's helping people understand that you might not know as much as you think you do."

In her classes, she starts off not explaining the scientific method. Instead, she talks about witches.

On her website, Trecek-King writes, "Centuries ago, being accused of witchcraft and 'confessing' under torture were sufficient evidence to convict and sentence a person (usually a woman) to death. Since most students today don't believe that diseases and storms are caused by witches casting spells, they are able to more skeptically examine the supposed evidence and explore why people at the time had such strong beliefs."

As to why people latch on to false information so quickly, Trecek-King has an understanding of the reasons.

"Our brains are trying to determine if something is true," she said. "There is both true and false information coming at us. Our brains are very quickly trying to figure out 'yes' or 'no.' Often times the shortcuts that our brains use to make those decisions are things like, does this fit with how I already know the world works? Confirmation bias is one of the biggest reasons we fall for misinformation."

Information that triggers a strong emotional response also can cause us to believe misinformation. Anger, fear or even satire can lead us to accepting misinformation.

"Part of the reason we fall for satire is that it confirms our biases and makes us laugh," Trecek-King said. "The more we hear misinformation repeated, the more likely our brains are to assume it's true. Basically our brains are assuming that the ease of process fluency is the same as truth."

The idea of an echo chamber, an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, can also lead to trusting false information.

"There are characteristics of misinformation that are important to recognize," Trecek-King said. "The misinformation itself tends to appeal to emotion, commit logical fallacies, use hyperbolic and sensational language — but we fall for misinformation largely because of what is going on in our heads. If we want to not fall for misinformation, we need to recognized both the characteristics of it and also, what are my vulnerabilities? What kind of misinformation am I prone to falling for?"

To learn more about the teaching methods Trecek-King uses, visit her website at ThinkingIsPower.com .