Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Theses

My semester is winding down. Here at UT, I'm teaching two sections of a research writing course for the first time. The entire semester is devoted to a single research project; faculty get to theme their courses how they like. I did "science and society," which is to say, students can't do science research papers, but they can do research papers on any aspect of how science is used in society. I have papers coming in about how the NFL ignores CTE research, what WALL-E teaches us about modern society, what the best method for teaching science to primary school students is, why the Church was opposed to Copernicus and Galileo, why Trump denies the existence of climate change, and so on.

I'm kind of convinced that if the students are succeeding, it's in spite of me. Teaching a course for the first time is always a bit of a crapshoot; this one has been rougher than most. A lot of the best parts of the research process don't happen in a classroom space. They happen when you notice something and chase down its significance. I haven't figured out how to teach students how to find those moments yet.

Anyway, my students are doing presentations this past week and the next one. Four to five per day, 13-17 minutes in length (supposedly, anyway). I arranged them into panels based on common themes; yesterday, there were multiple students dealing with conspiracy theories. One paper on 9/11, one paper on the moon landing, one paper on What the Health. My issue here isn't that the papers were good or bad, it was that in the Q&A afterwards that it became really obvious that the students involved were 9/11 truthers, or lunar truthers, or whatever, and many of the students in the audience were sympathetic to these claims.

My problem is that I keep asking myself, "Have I failed as a teacher of research if my students come out of the class believing in what is (to me) very obviously bullshit?" I think so. But on the other hand, I'm not sure what I could have done. But if college in general and academic writing courses in particular are meant to teach critical thinking skills, these students have been failed by someone, and I'm part of the problem.

But what would have worked? I'm not convinced standing up after the presentations and decrying my students for being foolish is a good idea. My attempts to ask probing questions during the writing process haven't done much. "Do you have peer-reviewed sources to back this up?" Now I'm worried that all I've done is reinforce poor thinking in the minds of the students who did the projects, and the students who were listening.

Maybe the answer is to ban these topics. But I'm not convinced that's it, because I think a really interesting paper could be written about these topics. I dunno. And what the students could perceive as close-mindedness might just lead them to double down on their beliefs. (The great thing about conspiracy theories is that all evidence against them can become evidence for them.) I have a lot of questions here, but no answers. How do we teach students to think critically? You can tell them whatever you want to tell them, but how do you get them to actually think?