Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Scientific breakthroughs

20 minutes

Find Out: Influencing factors

25 minutes

Take Action: Coal versus solar

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

examine historical examples of scientific knowledge being adopted by society
identify key factors that influence the acceptance and use of scientific practices.

Success criteria

Students can:

analyse case studies and identify factors influencing the adoption of scientific knowledge
explain how these factors apply to current clean energy solutions.

Tune In: Scientific breakthroughs

Step 1

Pose the following question to students and ask them to participate in the thinking routine ‘Think, Pair, Share’:

What scientific breakthroughs have occurred throughout history?

Some possible responses from students may include:

understanding gravity (physics)
discovery of electricity (physics)
light bulbs (technology/physics)
vaccines (biology)
telephone (technology)
penicillin (chemistry)
quantum mechanics (physics)
people in space (technology)
internet (technology)
solar panels (technology)
nuclear power (physics/chemistry)
artificial intelligence (technology)

Invite students to share their responses with the broader class and record them on a whiteboard.

Step 2

Explain to students how scientific breakthroughs in an area can influence more scientific breakthroughs, and how a breakthrough can influence society over time. Using the bank of scientific breakthroughs on the board, point out to students the links between breakthroughs and/or inventions that have directly or indirectly led to the next one.

For example, the following breakthroughs may be linked:

understanding of gravity → people in space
discovery of electricity → light bulbs → telephone → internet → artificial intelligence
vaccines → penicillin (indirect link; vaccines advanced our understanding of disease and immunology, but vaccines specifically did not play a role in the discovery of penicillin).

Find Out: Influencing factors

Step 1

Show students the Visual Explainer and discuss the social, political, cultural, accessibility, and cost factors that affected the adoption of both electrical technologies and the COVID-19 vaccine as outlined on the slides.

Step 2

With the aid of the Visual Explainer, create a Venn Diagram on the board showing the challenges and strategies for accepting each scientific breakthrough. See the example below:

Take Action: Coal versus solar

Step 1

Explain to students that they will complete a similar activity independently by comparing a historical example of energy production, coal, against a modern clean energy technology such as solar panels.

Step 2

Students will be investigating societal factors, such as accessibility, cost, social attitudes, politics, environmental factors, etc, that influenced the adoption of each energy type. Students can choose how they wish to display their comparison. Some examples could include:

Venn diagram
T-chart
concept map
infographic
poster

Provide students with the following websites to get them started on their research, if necessary:

You may like to show the following worked example to students:

Step 3

Have students display their comparisons on their desks. Provide each student with 2 sticky notes. Then, have students conduct a gallery walk, reading each other's work.

Step 4

Students must use each sticky note to provide 1 piece of feedback to 2 other students. Ensure that each student has no more than 2 pieces of feedback to ensure the sticky notes are distributed evenly.

Reflection

Step 1

Split the class into 2 groups and ask each to line up for a whiteboard race. Students will have 3 minutes on the clock. The person at the front of the line writes down something they learned during this lesson and then hands the marker to the next person.

The group that gets through the most people or finishes first wins.

Exploring Science Adoption Through History

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Summary

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