Arguing about Synthetic Biology in 140 Characters or Less: Affordances of Microblogging for High School Students Discussions of Socioscientific Issues

Abstract

As synthetic biology becomes more prevalent, there is a call to critically and publicly evaluate the benefits and risks of such technologies. Microblogs like Twitter have the potential for engaging citizens in civic discourse about such issues but also pose challenges due to partisan behaviors and length limitations. Given the saliency of social media in young people's lives, we examined in an exploratory study whether integrating a 140-character limit within an audience response system supported high school students' argumentation about socioscientific issues during a synthetic biology workshop. After analyzing students' anonymous online responses, worksheets, and observations, we found that students generated diverse evaluative claims as well as used argument-based rationales and weighed counter arguments when assessing their peers' claims. In our discussion, we address the affordances and constraints of microblogging in supporting students' argumentation of socioscientific issues about synthetic biology.