Class Discussion:

Turn to your neighbor or get into a group and discuss these questions.

-What is a metabolism?

-What does it mean when a person says "I have a slow metabolism" or "I have a fast metabolism"?

In every day life, we use the word metabolism to mean how fast we break down food or burn the calories we have consumed. More often, we associate metabolism with weight gain. The inference is that a faster metabolism burns calories faster and a slower one burns calories slower which adds to calorie storage (fat). That is a complete over simplification of what a metabolism is. 

Student activity/research:

How much does metabolism speed really affect weight gain?

How different/varying are people's metabolism?

Is your research peer reviewed? Divide your paper in half, put non-peer reviewed research on one side and peer reviewed research on the other. Properly label them. Did you find any differences in the peer reviewed research vs the non-peer reviewed research? Lets talk about those differences in class.

Why we use the peer review process in science

Anytime we read something on the internet we need to keep in mind who wrote it, was it reviewed, and what was the data or studies that inspired it. Most of the time, what is written on the internet is written by an average person that is not an expert in that field. We should always keep that in mind when reading material online.

What does peer reviewed mean? 

When an expert conducts research, they might collect data from a number of places. It could be by conducting their own experiments, it could be by collecting data from numerous other studies and combining them. Researchers cannot ethically write how they feel, what is their thoughts, suspicions, assumptions, but they do interpret data and try to do it as unbiased as possible. Once the paper is written, the peer review process begins. The paper is sent to at least 3 other experts in the field to review. These experts check the data, the research, and sign off if the information in the paper was collected and reported in the proper way. These checks and balances of peer reviewed research gives the readers and the community a stronger sense of validity rather than an individuals thoughts on the topic.

Good researchers do not simply collect data that helps their findings, they try to collect data to disprove their findings. If they can find data that disproves their findings then they might be wrong. If they cannot disprove their findings then that will support their findings.

Can we always look for peer reviewed articles when we are searching for answers? No, so what do we do?

If you are reading something on the internet how do you discern its validity? This is no easy task but it is your responsibility to your community to not spread misinformation. You need to look at who wrote it, do they seem like a credible source? For example if a university professor of nutrition is writing about dietary needs, even though it is not peer reviewed, they are probably a credible source. If however a computer programmer has a nutrition YouTube channel they might not have the proper background to be a credible source.

One of the reasons we all learn science in high school is to develop a level of scientific literacy. Also question whether or not the information you are reading or hearing makes sense with previous information you have learned.

Student Assignment:

In your group you are going to pick a topic maybe a health question you have always wondered about. Or the teacher will assign you a topic. Half your group will research the answers using only non-peer reviewed sources. The other half of your group will research the answers using only peer reviewed sources. Then you will compare. You will submit your findings as a group assignment.