From misinformation to information: fake news in chemical teaching

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze some “fake news” related to chemistry, as well as to science and its relationship with the teaching of chemistry. For this, further works and videos were analyzed, in which questions related to the “pink salt of the Himalayas” and about purell versus vinegar for the prevention of coronaviruses were analyzed. In order to analyze these materials, a documentary analyses methodology was adopted. From the analysis of “fake news”, it was possible to see that they can be adopted by students as resources to awaken critical thinking about the dissemination of scientific knowledge and the need to appropriate systematic knowledge that was and is built throughout human evolution. Furthermore, it was possible to conclude that it is the role of school institutions to provide instruments that allow students to appropriate this knowledge and critical view of the world.