The Nature of Science strand

Planet Earth and Beyond

Students experience the ambiguities that can be involved, and the importance of open-mindedness, when determining which evidence supports which claims. 

This Science Online activity already has a focus on working out which evidence supports which of four different theories about how the Moon originated. Students weigh up the evidence and then come to a conclusion about which theory is best supported by all the evidence currently available. A full set of instructions and student materials is provided on the website. 

Adapting the resource

The existing reflection questions are focused on challenges for scientists’ work. For some students this might be a first personal experience of dealing with the sorts of ambiguities that scientists often face. You could make this a more direct experience of how it feels to deal with conflicting theories/evidence by adapting the process as follows:

• Assign small groups one theory only. Across the class, make sure each of the four theories has been distributed to about the same number of groups.
• Tell the groups that it is their job to select from all the evidence those pieces that best support their assigned theory. They need to build a case to convince a group that will be defending a different theory.
• Pair up groups for this second step when they are ready. Each group puts their case to the partner group. After that they decide between them which of their two theories is the more convincing and why.
• Finally pool results across the class – one or two “leading” theories are likely to emerge at this stage but the class will still need to collectively decide between these. As this discussion unfolds, keep directing the focus to the need to find the best overall match between theory and evidence. [All theories can be supported by at least some of the evidence and the same evidence can support multiple theories.]

Once the discussion has been settled (ideally in favour of the theory that scientists do currently accept as most strongly supported by evidence!) help students reflect on their experience by posing questions such as the following:           

• Does it feel easy or hard to acknowledge when a piece of evidence does not support a theory we thought might be true? [Confirmation bias is a well know phenomenon in which we tend to notice evidence that supports an idea and ignore evidence that does not.]
• Does it feel easy or hard to acknowledge that one piece of evidence can plausibly support several theories? [Students typically learn to look for the “right” answer so this sort of open-minded acknowledgement of multiple possibilities can feel “wrong”.]

Scientists need a lot of self-discipline to be open-minded when building new knowledge claims. Feelings of uncertainty need to be proactively managed, not brushed aside. Scientists need to be resilient and this is a useful learner quality for students to develop as well. Many socio-scientific issues do not have definitive answers, and the same evidence can be used to support different claims. Students need to learn what it feels like to weigh up competing claims, and to know that even when they do this, some uncertainties may remain and a “best judgement” call will need to be made. In this way students are supported to become scientifically literate, i.e., to participate as critical, informed, and responsible citizens in a society in which science plays a significant role. (This is the purpose of science in NZC.)

Can students identify and discuss what it feels like to manage uncertainty when the available evidence cannot as yet provide a definitive answer to a question?

For suggestions about adapting tasks in ways that allow students to show progress in using evidence to support ideas see Progressions .

The capability 2 resource, Charged! MacDiarmid’s Electroplastic , explores confirmation bias from a different perspective.

• The White-tailed Spider (L1 & 2) Ready to Read series, 2010, Guided Reading level: Gold 
• The Air around Us: Exploring the Substance We Live in (L1, 2, 3 & 4) Building Science Concepts, Booklet 30
• Floating and Sinking (L1, 2, 3 & 4) Building Science Concepts, Booklets 37 & 38
• Chemical Popguns (L1, 2, 3 & 4) Making Better Sense of the Material World
• Tomato – Fruit or Vegetable? (L2 & 3) Connected 2, 2000
• Solar Energy: Sun Power on Earth (L2, 3 & 4) Building Science Concepts, Booklet 29
• A Bird in the Hand (L3 & 4) Connected 3, 2007
• The Night Sky: Patterns, Observations, and Traditions (L3 & 4) Building Science Concepts, Booklet 28
• Food of wild cats (LW1019) (L5) Assessment Resource Banks
• Charged! MacDiarmid’s Electroplastic (L5) Applications, 2003
• Takahē: Back from the Brink (L5) Applications, 2007
• Speed and distance: It’s a drag (L5) Scootle