General Guide for Teachers

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY R L GUIDE FOR TEACHERS • • mI A 507.12 HOl Science and Technology in Society General Guide for Teachers Illilill~1 N19230 Science and Technplogy in Society General Guide for Teachers ]OHNHOLMAN Project Organizer ASSOCIATION FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION ©The AssoCiation for Science Education 1986 First published 1986 by The Association for Science Education College Lane Hatfield HERTS ALI0 9AA Tel: (07072) 67411 ISBN 0 86357 044 5 Designed by P & PS (Cambridge) Ltd Tel: (0353) 740389 Contents Foreword 7 About this book 9 1 AboutSATIS 1 How SATIS started 11 2 Why teach about science and technology in society? 13 3 Aims of the project 17 4 About SATIS units 18 5 Using SATIS units 19 6 SATIS isn't the only way 22 2 Guidance on some of the SATIS teaching methods 1 There isn't always a right answer 24 2 Discussion 26 3 Working in groups 29 4 Role-play 31 5 Problem-solving activities 34 6 Reading activities 35 7 Practical work in SATIS 39 3 Beyond SATIS: further ways of making the science curriculum more relevant 1 Write your own units 43 2 Visits 43 3 Linking with industry 48 4 Visitors 49 5 Using the media - television, newspapers and magazines 51 6 Making the most of audio-visual material 54 7 Science trails 57 8 More ideas 60 Contents 4 Assessmept 1 Why assess social and technological aspects? 65 2 What are 'the appropriate assessment techniques? 66 S Other usefq1 sources 1 A list of lists: a directory of where to find sources 72 2 Published·courses and textbooks . 73 3 Useful references for teachers 76 4 Sources of statistics 78 ContributorS to SA TIS 80 7 Foreword Making decisions about the need for change is rarely difficult. Agreeing the direction of change may be more contentious, but implementing change is quite the most taxing step. There is a clear consensus within the science education community about need and direction - students in schools will benefit from science courses which are set in the real world, which do relate concepts and content to social, economic and technological contexts. There is agreement too that motivation and learning are influenced for the better by teachers who use a variety of styles and approaches in their day-to-day work. Promoting and supporting, and in this sense enabling, just such shifts in practice is at the heart of the SATIS Project. Given the emphasis evident in the new GCSE syllabuses, its publication could not be more timely. The Association for Science Education is not unused to success. We have initiated, supported and published a number of influential curriculum projects - some, like the LAMP materials, low cost, in-house publications; others, like Science in Society, produced in cooperation with a commercial publisher. All ventures have had a common feature - they have depended upon the drive, expertise and sheer professionalism of ASE members. SATIS is no exception. Its close sense of the realities of schools and its relevance to existing and emerging syllabuses in the sciences reflect clearly the classroom roots of its writers. As the Chairman of ASE I count myself fortunate that my year of office coincides with the formal launch of the SATIS materials. I have seen something of the team at work and have been very impressed - but the products speak for themselves. We should not be slow to let the community at large know that science teachers, given even minimum space and resources, can be creative, innovative and, not least, hard working in the interests of their students. The Association, and I am sure the science teaching profession at large, owe a considerable debt to John Holman, the Project Organizer and his team. If we are looking to change, the SATIS publications are a well judged and readily usable resource supporting change. I commend them to you. JOHN NELLIST Chainnan AS£' 1986 9 About this book This General Guide for teachers complements the Teachers' Notes published with individual SATIS units. It gives more general information about the project, about some of the teaching methods involved, and about other ways of introducing social and technological aspects into the secondary science curriculum. At various points in this book, we have inserted quotations from teachers and students who took part in trials of SATIS units. These quotations appear in italics. Many of the SATIS central team contributed to this Guide, and their names are listed at the end. Particular acknowledgement is also due to Peter Borrows for the part on 'Science trails' in Section 3. 11 Section 1 About SATIS 1 How SATIS started The Association for Science Education set up the SATIS Project in September 1984. The Association had already published two successful sixth-form courses, Science in Society and SISCON in Schools. Both these General Studies courses looked at the interactions between science, technology and society, but it was difficult to adapt them for use with younger students. The Association set up a working party to consider the needs of the younger group, and it was from the report of this working party that the SATIS 'Project grew. There was little doubt of the need for a project of this kind. Policy statements from the Department of Education and Science (Science 5-16: a Statement of Policy)) the ASE (Education through Science) and other authorities agreed on the need to relate science to its social and technological context. The problem was the shortage of resources to enable teachers to do this. SATIS gets under way Thanks to generous support from sponsors, the SATIS project team was able to set to work to develop such resources. Writing of students' units began in September 1984, and continued until December 1985. Each unit was written by an experienced teacher, often in association with an expert from industry, the universities or the professions. This draft was then edited and produced in its trial version. The trial units were circulated for three kinds of comment. First, each unit went for trial in schools. A list giving some of the wide range of SATIS trial schools appears at the end of this book. Trial schools were invited to comment on the level of the unit, with regard to demands made in terms of language, concepts, skills, etc.; the layout and presentation of the students' 12 About SATIS materials; the general effectiveness of the unit, and students' reactions to it; and the ease of use of the unit and the time it required. School trials - four students working on the uni~ Living with Kidney Failure Each unit was also circulated to members of the SATIS team for detailed comment on its suitability for students of this age and level. For the third level of comment, each unit was sent to one or more experts in the field concerned: doctors, industrialists, university specialists and so on, as appropriate. As a result, many different people from many walks of life have contributed to the students' units. A list of contrib,utors appears at the end of this book The abundant feedback produced by this process of trial and consultation was invaluable when the units came to be revised prior to publication. By covering origination costs out of project funds, and by publishing and distributing through the ASE, it was possible to keep the price of the final publications low. Why science and technology in society? 13 2 Why teach about science and technology in society? We are all born scientsts, with an innate curiosity about the things around us, the materials that make up the world and about other living things. Some retain this curiosity all their lives, but others lose it - perhaps' because the science they study is too esoteric, too academic or too far removed from their everyday lives and experience. Much has been written and said about the lack of relevance of the . secondary science curriculum: its dryness, its impersonality and its excessively academic content. Introducing social and technological aspects into the science curriculum helps to make science more relevant in a number of ways. Relevant to the future citizen Our students will all be living in a world dominated by the manifestations of science and technology. In the food cupboard, in the car, on clothing labels, in electric lights ... science is everywhere. But how much understanding of these everyday aspects does today's citizen have? Tomorrow's citizens, like today's, will be surrounded by science-related issues such as nuclear power, food additives and fluoridation of water supplies. Surely, if there is one thing a science education should be doing for these citizens of tomorrow - most of whom will study no science beyond the age of 16 - it is to equip them with the means to consider such issues in a rational, informed way. Yet a traditional, academic science curriculum often has little time for consideration of such matters. A comprehensive school teacher from the South of England , reporting on Test-tube '., Babies: Well received by all. Some of the group started with a purely emotional response to AI, spare embryos, surrogate motherhood, etc. But after hearing the views of others, 14 About SATIS they tempered their emotional feelings with factual knowledge, to arrive at a more mature point of view. Relevant to the future worker For those students who will enter employment, it is likely they will be working in an industry or activity based on science and technology. If the science these children learn in school is to be of help to them in this work, it clearly needs to be closely related to the real-life things of the working world.

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