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What is Science Good For?...Everything!

Learning Experience 2

Big Idea

Science helps us understand the world around us.

Summary

Science is an integral part of our lives so let’s take time to understand what it is and what it is good for

Engage

What do we know about what science is?–draw from what we have done so far:

Ask students to: Review and discuss all the things they have done so far and go back to the Science Toolkit and check off all the scientific processes they have used thus far that characterize “doing science” and explain how each was used.

Students will watch the Powers of Ten video from 1977. There is also an updated version of the video (2022) available. The videos and questions are included in the slide deck.

The key understanding here is to help students understand that scientists investigate areas of science at the MACRO and/or the MICRO level based on their interest and training. Have students think about what scale level they are most interested in.

Students might discuss or write a response to: Which scale did you find most intriguing? Why?

Explore and Explain

Students are presented with 3 phenomena and are asked to look at the scientific processes used, public reactions, and how science explains events in the natural world.

1) Solar Eclipse – Watch a short video of a total solar eclipse (Eclipse video)(updated from 2024 event) and share answers to a few short questions outlined on the deck.

2) Cholera outbreak – Investigate a second phenomena – the Cholera outbreak in London in 1854. Video and questions are linked in the deck.  There is also an ArcGIS Storymap of Dr Snow’s work available.

Students will describe how this discovery, and way of thinking, could help stop outbreaks, prevent future disease and maybe eliminate certain diseases.

3) Skin Color – Watch the video Skin color and the environment

The questions outlined in the deck ask students to explore how the lack of scientific understanding can lead to negative impacts on how people interact in society.

Have them use the Science Toolkit (go to slide 4 Learning Experience 2) to check off the different scientific processes they see being used in Dr. Jablonski’s research

Draw on the videos and our discussion in this Learning Experience to address the following question:

How do you think the world would be different if everyone understood the science of skin color variations?

Extensions

Watch this video of how Charles Darwin presented criteria that led to the understanding of evolution. Students can discuss what issues they see that prevented people from accepting his ideas.  The video is long (16 min)

Teacher Support

Essential Question:
Why do we all need to understand what science is, how we do it, why it changes and what it’s good for?

Guiding Questions:

What is science? What isn’t science?

How is it done?

Why does it change?

What is it good for?

What happens when you don’t have science to inform your decisions?

Students will be able to:

      • Define science in your own words and from their own experience
      • Predict what the world would be like without science

Observe verb
To view or not a fact or occurence for a purpose

List, Categorize, Classify/Re-Classify verb
To organize data and group it according to a set of characteristics

Ask Questions verb
To express curiosity about something by requesting information

Hypothesize verb
To propose an explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation

Infer verb
To deduce or conclude (information) from evidence and reasoning

Build a Model verb
To make a likeness of something, similar in form and function, that imitates what it is and how it works, and helps us observe and predict real world outcomes

Study Phenomenon verb
To observe and explore and occurrence, situation or event in the world around me

Investigate verb
Quest to follow a lead or clue, to discover and uncover the answers to question

Research verb
To rigorously study something of interest by identifying and using valid sources in order to establish facts and learn about it

Experiment verb
To use scientific procedure to make a discovery, test a hypothesis or demonstrate a known fact

Document verb
To make a written, drawn, or photographed record that provides proof or evidence of a process, and observation or results

Replicate verb
To repeat experimental conditions until desired results are achieved

Iterate verb
To continually modify experimental conditions until desired results are achieved

Explain/Communicate Results verb
To share findings with others

Peer Review verb
To share a process or results in order to validate one’s work by inviting critique or confirmation from other scientists

Ask student to summarize the answers to the following questions in your own words and from their own experience:

  • What is Science?
  • How is it done?
  • Why does it change?
  • What is it good for?

Define science in your own words and from their own experience

Predict what the world would be like without science

Final Reflection: How do you think the world would be different if everyone understood the science of skin color variations?

PA STEELS Standards

Environmental Literacy and Sustainability

3.4.9-12.D Environmental Literacy Skills: Apply research and analytical skills to systematically investigate environmental issues ranging from local issues to those that are regional or global in scope.

Related Standards

NGSS

HSLS2-6 Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.

Education for  Sustainability

EfS C48

Student Materials

Student Worksheet

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