Evolution. Vaccines. Global Warming. Regardless of one’s choice of news media, it is nearly impossible to navigate today’s information-heavy world without coming across stories on evolution, vaccines, and global warming. Each of these topics is the subject of various conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns. How do we make sense of what we hear on the news when so much information comes from unvetted and non-neutral sources, such as the Internet and the media? This course is a non-technical introduction to these three critical matters in modern science. We will examine what scientists know, how they know what they know, how certain they are, and why there is such a disconnect between scientific understanding and the public’s perception of the science. Your instructor: Kjir Hendrickson, PhD Kjir Hendrickson, PhD is a teaching professor in the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU). They hold a PhD in chemistry and authored the textbook Chemistry in the World. As an erstwhile quantum chemist, their academic work focuses on science communication, the reciprocal relationship between science and society, matters of workplace climate, and matters of DEIJ in STEM. Hendrickson is an associate researcher with the ADVANCEGeo Partnership and is pursuing research on functional scientific literacy in partnership with OLLI at ASU.