Information Hierarchy & Sources
In the Information Hierarchy, which tier includes peer-reviewed empirical research written by the actual scientists who ran the study?
What is Tier 1: Primary Academic Sources?
In the CER framework, what component provides the "Causal Mechanism" or scientific principle explaining WHY the evidence proves the assertion?
What is Reasoning?
Natural questions ("Does air pollution cause asthma in kids?") don't work well in research databases. What technique requires you to strip out filler words and search core terms instead?
What is Concept Splitting?
According to Ms. Hudnall's analogy, a literature review shouldn't be a shuffled playlist of isolated song reviews. Instead, it should be like what?
What is a curated DJ set or playlist?
Large Language Models operate by predicting word patterns rather than searching live facts. What is the term for when an AI invents a fake study or author?
What is an AI hallucination?
Systemic reviews and meta-analyses fall into Tier 2. What type of sources are these called?
What are Secondary Academic Sources?
True or False: If Variable A and Variable B correlate, it proves that Variable A directly caused Variable B.
What is False? (Correlation $\neq$ Causation; there could be an unseen Confounder/Variable C).
Which Boolean operator (AND, OR, NOT) narrows your search results by requiring both search terms to be present in the paper?
What is AND?
When performing a "Vertical Scan" down your group's Synthesis Matrix, what tag do you assign when 2 or more studies share a common agreement or finding?
What is a Pattern tag?
What is Step 1 of the 5-Step "Verify, Don't Trust" Audit Protocol?
What is an Existence Check (verifying if the paper/author exists in Scholar or PubMed)?
Popular science media (news, podcasts, blogs) should never be used as primary evidence, but they are great for finding author names, institutions, and journal titles to track down original research. What do we call these clues?
What are metadata breadcrumbs?
In "The Prime Energy Drink" court case, an influencer tested 6 of his own Twitch moderators during a stream. Name TWO methodological red flags present in this setup.
What are small sample size (n=6), lack of a control group, influencer/funding bias, or selection/volunteer bias?
What search technique involves looking at a core paper's bibliography to find past foundational studies, or clicking "Cited By" to find newer follow-up papers?
What is Citation Chaining (Backward & Forward Chaining)?
Name at least 3 of the "5 Lenses of Synthesis"
What are Patterns, Contradictions, Methods, Limitations, and Gaps?
Why is AI considered a "language synthesizer" rather than a true scientific research database?
What is because it predicts likely text based on statistical training patterns rather than searching live verified databases?
What is a "Research Gap"?
What is an unanswered question, unexplored area, or limitation in existing literature that a new study aims to address?
In the "Scientific Courtroom" activity, instead of asking "Is this source 100% true or 100% trash?", what mindset shift are researchers supposed to use when evaluating studies?
What is a 1-to-10 Scientific Confidence Rating (or evaluating its specific usefulness and limitations)?
According to the Article Group Search guide, what 4 specific source types (or layers) does a group need to justify their research topic?
What are: 1) Macro/National Data, 2) Sub-Problem Focus, 3) Local/Urban Impact (e.g., Baltimore), and 4) Citation Chain Source?
What is the hallmark of a true "Synthesized Sentence" in academic writing compared to a basic summary sentence?
What is combining multiple authors/sources in the same sentence (Smith, 2022; Jones, 2023) to show consensus or contrast?
What is the golden rule every student researcher must follow before including any AI-suggested citation or statistic in their paper?
What is opening, reading, and verifying the primary source yourself?
In a standard scientific paper, if a researcher wants to know why the study matters and what final conclusion the authors reached, which two specific IMRAD sections should they read?
What are the Introduction (Rationale) and the Discussion (Conclusion)?