Protecting physics students from pseudoscience — combining strategies for a comprehensive teaching approach

Abstract Given the presence of fake news and pseudoscience (often disguised as physics), the importance of inoculating citizens against this type of misinformation has gained increasing attention in education. This is a goal that all subjects should pursue equally from their respective disciplinary perspectives. The paper presents a teaching approach to protect physics students from misinformation and pseudoscience by combining these three common strategies: first, understanding the fundamental principles of the Nature of Science. Second, identifying techniques of Science Denial. And third, applying heuristics for evaluating (supposedly) scientific information. Finally, the paper offers practical suggestions for applying these strategies in a master’s-level physics course, using examples from the field of physics.