Undergraduate Chemistry Students’ Ability to Evaluate Online Chemistry Claims, Evidence and Soil Management Practices: A Perspective of Scientific Misinformation on Social Media

Scientific misinformation on social media presents a growing challenge for undergraduate Chemistry students, as online claims about chemical processes, fertilisers, soil acidity and soil-management practices may appear credible without adequate scientific evidence. This study examined students’ ability to evaluate online Chemistry claims, supporting evidence and soil-management information, focusing on the relationship between Chemistry knowledge and evaluation ability. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted, involving 250 Nigerian undergraduate students selected through multistage sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire addressing scientific misinformation, online Chemistry claims, evidence and soil-management information. Mean, standard deviation and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis at the 0.05 significance level. The findings indicated that students demonstrated a high ability to evaluate online Chemistry claims and evidence (M = 3.30, SD = 0.74). Their ability to evaluate Chemistry-based soil-management information was also high (M = 3.28, SD = 0.55). ANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference in evaluation ability according to Chemistry knowledge level, F(2, 247) = 45.67, p < .001. Students with high Chemistry knowledge achieved the highest evaluation score (M = 3.56, SD = 0.39), followed by those with moderate knowledge (M = 3.21, SD = 0.43) and low knowledge (M = 2.84, SD = 0.48). The study concluded that Chemistry knowledge plays an important role in students’ ability to scrutinise online scientific claims and soil-management information. It recommended that Chemistry departments integrate regular social-media-based evaluation activities into undergraduate courses to strengthen the application of chemical principles, source verification and evidence-based judgement.