How do we teach CER (Claim Evidence Reasoning) in a fun, engaging way? Whether you’re introducing CER (Claim Evidence Reasoning) for the first time to your students or looking for ways to reinforce it, it’s easier to do if we use real life examples. And, on top of being fun and interesting, it would be great if the examples were quick to do too. But, what’s a good place to find fun, real life examples we can use quickly? What are some fun ways students can get CER practice or an introduction to it?

One source for fun examples to use for CER is in the advertising world. Specifically, we can use advertising claims with students to practice CER. And, to make things more fun, we can use phony ad claims because it’s a fun challenge for students to provide evidence and reasoning for something that may be too good to be true.

In this post, I present some real, phony advertising claims I like to use for CER practice  For each claim, I ask students to brainstorm scientific evidence and reasoning that may help support those outrageous claims. At the end of this post, I provide a quick handout that provides CER sample responses for our first example, Weekday Eggs.

The Canadian egg farmers & Weekday Eggs

The Canadian Egg Farmers put out an ad promoting a new kind of egg known as the weekend egg. The weekend egg – as opposed to normal eggs – cook quicker and, therefore, eggs no longer need to be a weekend treat. Refer to the following video clip:

This claim is actually purposefully bogus – the ad agency who produced the ad wanted to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to advertising eggs. But, it did make me pause and think if there was such a thing as “weekend eggs”. And although there really isn’t a thing as “weekend eggs”, it would be a fun activity for students to use CER to analyze those claims.

CER Practice with the Weekend Eggs Ad Campaign

1. (optional) Show the weekend eggs video clip

2. Put up the claim on the overhead projector (or infocus projector)

Claim: New “weekday eggs” are easier and quicker to cook.

3. Ask students to provide evidence to support the claim. If they can’t think of any evidence, ask what experiments could be done to support the claim?

Example: Weekday eggs have a unique shape giving them a greater surface area

4. Ask students to provide reasoning to connect the evidence to the claim.

Example: Eggs with greater surface area have more contact with heat sources, thereby allowing more heat to transfer resulting in a quicker cook time.

Other Phony Ad Claims for CER Practice

The following ad campaigns are real campaigns. And, they are all bogus. However, similar to “weekend eggs”, these campaigns make for good CER practice.

1. Nivea (My Silhouette Cream) firming cream

Claim: Cream will slim and reshape the body and reduce specific parts of the body like the thighs, hips, waist, and belly.

2. Reebok toning shoes

Claim: Toning shoes can strengthen muscles in the legs, thighs, and buttocks

3. Nutella

Claim: Nutella is a healthy food

4. Listerine

Claim: Listerine will help prevent colds or sore throats or lessen their severity

5. Cold-FX

Claim: Cold-FX stops colds or flu it its tracks.

6. Yogurt maker Dannon

Claim: Probiotic bacteria in Dannon yogurt can aid regularity and prevent colds or flus.

Implementation Tips

1. Put up a copy of the company’s original ad
2. Put up a headline of the company’s claim
3. Ask students to provide evidence to support the claim.
4. Ask students to provide reasoning that connects the evidence to the claim.

Source: “8 Advertising Claims too good to be true” (cbc.ca)

Wrap Up

CER practice or an introduction to CER doesn’t have to be boring – full of hypothetical or boring science experiments. CER practice can be fun and relevant. In resource #12, students find ways to support the claim that red jellybeans are the best ones (and other interesting claims). In this resource, students have fun doing the same – but by finding ways to support bogus ad campaigns. If you want to download our handouts to this resource, click the link below. And, if you found the resource helpful, share it with others and leave a comment below. Thanks!

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 33 – Weekend Eggs Discussion Notes

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