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Teacher Resources

Activities

1. Models are important in every area of science. For scientists, models are not simply explanatory tools. Scientists also use models to make and test predictions. Most middle school and high school students will be familiar with models of various sorts, but they will rarely have thought about the range of meanings of the word “model” and will not usually have a deep understanding of the role of models in scientific progress. The following activity will give students an appreciation for how many different types of models exist in science (and daily life) and the strengths and limitations of different types of models.

The Role of Models in Science (PDF)

2. Science and the Media. Most people get their health information from the media, either through journalists or through advertisements from drug companies. It isn’t unusual for the latest health advice put forth by the media to be in conflict with long-accepted notions about health (e.g. about diet and cancer/ heart disease or sunshine and cancer). Ask students to examine recent stories about health issues in various types of media, and reflect on the following questions. This could be done in group and whole class discussions and/or individual reflective writing assignments.

a) What health stories are covered in the media? Are there particular themes that are common?
b) Are there any direct conflicts between the different stories?
c) What background science knowledge do the stories assume the reader has?
d) What knowledge of scientific concepts would be useful for understanding the stories and critiquing them? What knowledge about the process of science would be useful?
e) What is the role of the media in covering health stories? What should the role of the media be?

The following article provides some useful ideas to bring into the class discussion:
What Are the Roles and Responsibilities of the Media in Disseminating Health Information?” Public Library of Science Medicine, July 2005, Volume 2(7).

3. Tools and the Process of Science. As Professor Spitzer discusses in the lesson video, new scientific tools make it possible to address new scientific questions. Ask students to research one particular tool to see how its development changed the questions that could be answered. (Possible examples are: brain scans, electron microscopy, the polymerase chain reaction, cell culture techniques, advanced computers, the existence of stock centers that can supply fruit flies with mutations in particular genes or the availability of purified neurotransmitters from chemical supply companies.)

4. Laboratory Activities Involving Green Fluorescent Protein. One of the neatest tools to revolutionize biology in the past decade is green fluorescent protein (and its color variants). Unlike many of the other tools revolutionizing brain research, it is suitable for use in the high school classroom. Activities can be obtained from:

-East Bay Biotechnology Education Program
-American Society for Cell Biology

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California State Standards

Grades 9-12

Investigation and Experimentation

1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

b. Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results, such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions.
d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence.
f. Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms.
g. Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models and theories as scientific representations of reality.
j. Recognize the issues of statistical variability and the need for controlled tests.
k. Recognize the cumulative nature of scientific evidence.
l. Analyze situations and solve problems that require combining and applying concepts from more than one area of science.
m. Investigate a science-based societal issue by researching the literature, analyzing data, and communicating the findings. Examples of issues include irradiation of food, cloning of animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer, choice of energy sources, and land and water use decisions in California.
n. Know that when an observation does not agree with an accepted scientific theory, the observation is sometimes mistaken or fraudulent (e.g., the Piltdown Man fossil or unidentified flying objects) and that the theory is sometimes wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of the movement of the Sun, Moon, and planets).

National Research Council Standards

Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry

UNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

• Scientists usually inquire about how physical, living, or designed systems function. Conceptual principles and knowledge guide scientific inquiries. Historical and current scientific knowledge influence the design and interpretation of investigations and the evaluation of proposed explanations made by other scientists.
• Scientists conduct investigations for a wide variety of reasons. For example, they may wish to discover new aspects of the natural world, explain recently observed phenomena, or test the conclusions of prior investigations or the predictions of current theories.
• Scientists rely on technology to enhance the gathering and manipulation of data. New techniques and tools provide new evidence to guide inquiry and new methods to gather data, thereby contributing to the advance of science. The accuracy and precision of the data, and therefore the quality of the exploration, depends on the technology used.
• Mathematics is essential in scientific inquiry. Mathematical tools and models guide and improve the posing of questions, gathering data, constructing explanations and communicating results.
• Scientific explanations must adhere to criteria such as: a proposed explanation must be logically consistent; it must abide by the rules of evidence; it must be open to questions and possible modification; and it must be based on historical and current scientific knowledge.
• Results of scientific inquiry--new knowledge and methods--emerge from different types of investigations and public communication among scientists. In communicating and defending the results of scientific inquiry, arguments must be logical and demonstrate connections between natural phenomena, investigations, and the historical body of scientific knowledge. In addition, the methods and procedures that scientists used to obtain evidence must be clearly reported to enhance opportunities for further investigation.

Content Standard E: Science and Technology

UNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Scientists in different disciplines ask different questions, use different methods of investigation, and accept different types of evidence to support their explanations. Many scientific investigations require the contributions of individuals from different disciplines, including engineering. New disciplines of science, such as geophysics and biochemistry often emerge at the interface of two older disciplines.
• Science often advances with the introduction of new technologies. Solving technological problems often results in new scientific knowledge. New technologies often extend the current levels of scientific understanding and introduce new areas of research.
• Creativity, imagination, and a good knowledge base are all required in the work of science and engineering.
• Science and technology are pursued for different purposes. Scientific inquiry is driven by the desire to understand the natural world, and technological design is driven by the need to meet human needs and solve human problems. Technology, by its nature, has a more direct effect on society than science because its purpose is to solve human problems, help humans adapt, and fulfill human aspirations. Technological solutions may create new problems. Science, by its nature, answers questions that may or may not directly influence humans. Sometimes scientific advances challenge people's beliefs and practical explanations concerning various aspects of the world.

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science

SCIENCE AS A HUMAN ENDEAVOR

• Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise. Doing science or engineering can be as simple as an individual conducting field studies or as complex as hundreds of people working on a major scientific question or technological problem. Pursuing science as a career or as a hobby can be both fascinating and intellectually rewarding.
• Scientists have ethical traditions. Scientists value peer review, truthful reporting about the methods and outcomes of investigations, and making public the results of work. Violations of such norms do occur, but scientists responsible for such violations are censured by their peers.
• Scientists are influenced by societal, cultural, and personal beliefs and ways of viewing the world. Science is not separate from society but rather science is a part of society.

NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

• Science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing and from other bodies of knowledge through the use of empirical standards, logical arguments, and skepticism, as scientists strive for the best possible explanations about the natural world.
• Scientific explanations must meet certain criteria. First and foremost, they must be consistent with experimental and observational evidence about nature, and must make accurate predictions, when appropriate, about systems being studied. They should also be logical, respect the rules of evidence, be open to criticism, report methods and procedures, and make knowledge public. Explanations on how the natural world changes based on myths, personal beliefs, religious values, mystical inspiration, superstition, or authority may be personally useful and socially relevant, but they are not scientific.
• Because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available. The core ideas of science such as the conservation of energy or the laws of motion have been subjected to a wide variety of confirmations and are therefore unlikely to change in the areas in which they have been tested. In areas where data or understanding are incomplete, such as the details of human evolution or questions surrounding global warming, new data may well lead to changes in current ideas or resolve current conflicts. In situations where information is still fragmentary, it is normal for scientific ideas to be incomplete, but this is also where the opportunity for making advances may be greatest.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

• Usually, changes in science occur as small modifications in extant knowledge. The daily work of science and engineering results in incremental advances in our understanding of the world and our ability to meet human needs and aspirations. Much can be learned about the internal workings of science and the nature of science from study of individual scientists, their daily work, and their efforts to advance scientific knowledge in their area of study.