Science and Current Events

Making Science Relevant with Current Events: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-science-with-current-events

This five-minute video shows an instructor and eighth-grade students discussing scientific studies and looking for key ideas, independent and dependent variables, controls, and constants.  The topics under discussion are taken from current events and recent publications.   My view is that this can be a good  example for adult education instructors in finding ways to integrate current events with science, discussions, reading and writing.  So, the video could be a short bit of professional development, but not something that would necessarily be shown to adult students. For example, using some of the ideas in this video, an instructor could lead students in an analysis of the comments about climate change made by President Obama in his State of the Union message (and the response by Congress).  Could that be a springboard to more study of climate change issues?  Would that be a motivating strategy toward further study?  What do you think?

 

Comments

Hi, Susan and Science CoP Members,

Thanks for posting this link.  I think that making connections with current events is especially important.  It helps address CCR standards by bringing a variety of formats into the classroom.  I also think it's good practice in helping learners to think more deeply about audio-visual media.  Many of us consume large amounts of our daily information intake through the media.  Having students use these resources to explore language and develop content knowledge is a powerful tool.  Providing perspectives on the same events from different media outlets is a good way to demonstrate point of view to learners.  Climate change is a great example of a topic with differing viewpoints in the media, which makes the science behind it even more important for learners to be able to question, understand and explain their own point of view.

Best,

Mike 

Hello, Mike,

Thanks so much for your comments.  I appreciate the way in which you say that "...providing perspectives on the same events from different media outlets is a good way to demonstrate point of view to learners".  And as you indicate, climate change is definitely a topic with differing points of view, as shown in various media!  Not only does climate change lead to a discussion of point of view, but it also is a good topic for evaluating comments on the basis of evidence versus comments based upon opinion.

I wonder if Science CoP members  have seen a good resource that appears on the LINCS Resource Collection.  It is Climate Literacy—the Essential Principals of Climate Science: https://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-517

Mike and others, what additional topics would lead to good discussions of points of view from a variety of media?

Cheers, Susan

 

On a related note (in my mind) is a very impressive graphic on energy consumption that you can find in another science resource from the LINCS Resource Collection:  Energy Literacy (http://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-771).  On page 4 of the publication is a graph titled, U.S. Primary Energy Consumption Estimates by Source, 1775-2012 (yes, that's 1775!). It's pretty startling and I feel I need to give a warning to prepare people.  I was wondering what other teachers do to help students think in terms of action rather than despair as they unpack some of the graphics that turn up in current events.

By the way, for teachers looking to connect principles of physical science and skills in reading graphics for their students preparing for a high school equivalency exam, this is a really helpful publication.  Like Climate Literacy, it's timely.

Cynthia

Thank you for sharing that video Susan, I loved how he integrated some wonderful discussion tools into his class and brought key concepts out in the discussion. I also liked his labeling of the students short summary as a tweet, that is very timely and the younger students in our classes could grasp that concept more easily if referred to as such. In our science class, I always try to keep up to speed with pertinent current event for the subjects we are covering in class so that students will see the relevance of the discussion in their everyday lives as well as for an assessment. For example in the process of learning about the cell cycle and mitosis today, we read about current cancer treatments that affect the formation of spindle fibers, thus halting the division of the cancer cell, and cessation of metastasis. We are going to learn about GMO's vs hybridization with the evolution of corn and the now available different varieties. These topics are rampant in current events and students want to know. Keeping current is integral for good science teaching and applying what is learned in science class to current events is a huge engagement tool especially for adults who are craving to understand what is going on in their world. I love your idea about using the Presidents message as a spring board for study. When students get to think about and choose a discussion topic because of interest in something they have heard, the learning seems to be richer.