Highly Confident but Slightly Uncertain: A Long Overdue Reinvention of the School Scientific Method, Confidence - Volume 2

Authors

• Stephen DeMeo, CUNY Hunter CollegeFollow

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

Summer 7-2026

Abstract

Focusing on the psychology of empirical science, Volume 2 is an in-depth exploration of how students can build confidence in scientific data. Central to the text are twelve Confidence Indicators, a comprehensive set of approachable strategies and methodologies that help investigators produce, evaluate, and argue for reliable and valid empirical data. They include:

Good (and Ethical) Laboratory Practices

Repetition

Peer Replication/Review

Secondary Tests

Comparisons with Standards

Plots and Patterns

Conceptual Support

External Data Sources

Precision

Accuracy

Checking Calculations

Redesign/What-If Ideas

This volume includes numerous school science experiments that demonstrate how these indicators are applied across a wide range of educational grade levels. Statistical tools (e.g., frequency distributions, mean, median, mode, range, average deviation, etc.) and graphical analysis (i.e., bar charts and x-y scatter plots) are used to compare data sets, determine relationships, and construct equation-based mathematical models.

I also describe a new approach to laboratory instruction, termed the Data Quality (DQ) program. As the name implies, the program emphasizes teaching students how to collect high-quality data by applying the Confidence Indicators. My discussion of this program centers on research that I conducted with undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory chemistry laboratory course. The findings were very encouraging: Students enrolled in the DQ lab program reported higher engagement, understanding, and confidence than those students participating in a traditional laboratory course.

Taken together, the Confidence Indicators and the DQ program are a significant step toward developing and evolving the methodological side of school laboratory science into a deeper, more authentic experience for learners as they qualify and quantify the natural world.