Study aims to enhance citizens' understanding of COVID-19 data
From the White House and the CDC to CNN and the New York Times, media coverage of COVID-19 continues to surge, with many outlets using mathematical models, including graphs, percentages, and exponential growth, to relay information to the public.
However, existing STEM education research shows that mathematical topics commonly used in media representations are difficult to understand for a large portion of the U.S. population. To address these issues, researchers at the University of Georgia and across the nation are conducting a qualitative study to investigate people’s understanding of data representations in COVID-19 media coverage and how these outlets can re-design current representations to enhance the public’s understanding of crucial information.
“A lot of data are presented on logarithmic scales by media outlets,” said Cameron Byerley, assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Science Education and principal investigator on the study. “Logarithmic scales are not taught in high school Common Core standards, and so our goal is to present data in ways that make sense to people who’ve just gone through the Common Core standards.”