The Young Skeptics Program is sponsored
by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims
of the Paranormal (CSICOP),
publisher of Skeptical Inquirer Magazine.
The Young Skeptics Program aims to develop and
foster an understanding of the world through inquiry-based
learning. We provide material to complement and enhance existing
science and educational programs. This supplemental material
focusses on subject matter that falls within the realms of
pseudoscience and the paranormal, ideal subjects on which
to turn the searchlight of skeptical thinking. We show how
to employ the tools of creative and critical scientific inquiry,
and we encourage the development of a set of thinking skills
that can be used to help us to understand the ideas, claims
and phenomena we encounter in our lives. In other words, skills
that help to make sense of the world around us. The program
offers content and activities for all ages, for students,
educators and parents, for community groups and for other
science outlets.
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The goals of the Young Skeptics
Program are:
- To ask questions, be skeptical and take nothing on face
value.
- To encourage inquiry-based learning and critical thinking.
- To show how to deal with evidence how to recognise it,
collect it, figure out its value, and act on it.
- To show how to navigate the minefield of ideas, claims
and phenomena, we encounter in daily life.
- To nurture a sense of curiosity and wonder at the universe
we inhabit.
- To provide guidance in who to ask, where to go, how to
get involved.
- To encourage the young to keep the flame burning.
- To show how much fun we can all have, young and old, doing
these things.
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