I tried doing this once in an Honors course on critical thinking. I have not taught the course again so I've not thought through the syllabus and if I'd do this again. I think the key here is making sure they understand the science first then do the misuse/abuse paper. From my one experience it seems that you need to be pretty specific, I'm certain that my assignment was too open ended. It would probably work best if you supplied the science topic and some examples of misuse that they could then track down the details from.
John
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John E. Sohl, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Weber State University
2508 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408-2508