Science Communication and Decisions: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one Human Endeavour idea: evidence changes nothing until it is communicated, and the way it is shared, as advice each person can act on or as a rule for everyone, shapes what people think and the policies a community sets. Print the scaffolds once and slot them into the science lessons you already teach.

What a skill companion is

Human Endeavour ideas are not a topic of their own. They grow inside the science units a class teaches all year, such as Classifying Living Things, Energy Flow in Ecosystems, Earth, Sun and Moon, Balanced and Unbalanced Forces, The Particle Model of Matter, and Pure Substances and Mixtures. So this pack is not a full term of lessons. It is three reusable scaffolds, a map of where they fit, and a short stand-alone lesson for teaching the idea on its own first.

Start here: five minutes

1. Read the pairing map on the next page: it shows a piece of communicated science in each Year 7 topic.
2. Print the evidence-to-decision sheet whenever a topic meets advice or a rule, and the case-study sheet once per student.
3. Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year, whenever a class meets science in the news or in a rule.
4. Open the free interactive unit on your board when you want a worked example of the idea.
5. Run the one-page mini-lesson first if you want to teach the idea before folding it into a topic.

No science background needed

Each scaffold explains itself in plain words, and the answer sheet gives a model chain for the unit’s sun-safety evidence, the case-study answers, the card key with a reason for each, a model answer for every Year 7 topic and a quick three-level guide. In Year 6, students saw how communities use science to make decisions. The step up in Year 7 is the communication itself: how the form of a message, a slogan, a number or a rule, decides whom it reaches and what it can change, for each person and for the whole community, and how a message can mislead.

Slot the idea into your science lessons

Every science topic has evidence that reaches people as advice or as a rule. This map shows one example in each Year 7 topic, how it is communicated, and which scaffold to reach for. You do not run these as extra lessons; you fold them into the science you teach.

The three moves, and the picture that backs each one

When you want a worked example on the board, open the interactive unit and use the picture that matches the move.

• Weigh what each form of message does well and cannot do: “Communicating sun safety: each way gains and gives up something”.
• Check whether a message changed what people do: “Share of people who regularly protect their skin in summer”.
• Test a claim that a published rating helps: “Does a daily air-quality index help people?”.

How the scaffolds build the idea

The evidence-to-decision sheet turns one piece of evidence into a message for each person and a rule for the community, and asks how to check each one worked. The case study follows the national fire danger ratings, redesigned in 2022 after a survey showed most people did not understand the old ones. The cards sort communications by what they do: inform a person, set a shared rule, or mislead.

Turn evidence into action

Pick one piece of evidence from our topic. Plan two ways to share it: advice that each person can act on, and a rule for the whole community. Then compare them.

Teacher note: the unit’s sun-safety evidence fills the sheet well as a first go; a model is on the answer sheet.

Fire danger ratings: a message redesigned

Every day in the fire season, fire agencies rate the fire danger for each district from the weather and from how much dry plant material could burn. For decades the ratings rested on science from the 1960s and were shown on six levels. One of Australia’s largest community surveys then found that most people did not understand the levels, or what to do at each one.

On 1 September 2022 a new national system began. It has four levels, each with a short action, and days that need no action show “No rating”. Behind the levels, the new system models eight kinds of vegetation instead of only forest and grass, so each rating fits its district more closely. On the most dangerous days, communities act together: in some states, schools in high-risk areas close.

What does the message do?

Cut out the cards and lay down the three grey heading cards. Sort each communication by what it does: informs a person, sets a rule for everyone, or misleads. Be ready to say why.

Teacher note: four cards go in each pile. The answer sheet lists which is which, and why.

One fact, two messages

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the idea on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. Groups turn one piece of sun-safety evidence into advice for each student and a rule for the whole school, then swap and test each other’s messages.

We are learning to

• turn evidence into a message that suits its audience,
• tell advice for each person apart from a rule for the community,
• judge a message by whether it is true, clear and likely to change what people do.

Success criteria

• Our advice and our rule both stay true to the evidence.
• I can explain why a community might need the rule as well as the advice.

You need

• the evidence on the board: sun protection is recommended whenever the UV index is 3 or above, and in most of Australia the UV index is 3 or above for much of the year, even on cool or cloudy days,
• the evidence-to-decision sheet (scaffold 1), one per group, and the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table.

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Write the advice only, and draft the rule in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• Thinking a message works because it sounds good, without checking what people actually do.
• Dropping the condition that makes the advice true, such as “when the UV index is 3 or above”.
• Seeing a rule as unfair because it is not advice: a rule also protects people who never saw the advice.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give a sentence starter for the advice and for the rule.
• Bigger: survey another class before and two weeks after your poster goes up, and graph the results as in the unit.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has a model chain for the sun-safety evidence, the case-study answers, the card key, a model answer for each Year 7 topic, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

From evidence to decision: sun safety

Evidence: UV radiation from the Sun can damage skin, and protection is recommended when the UV index is 3 or above. Where it comes from: public health research, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s daily UV forecasts. Who needs to know: students, families and teachers.

1. The slogan and the daily number reach more people; the rule changes more of what students do at school. 2. Advice relies on each person choosing to follow it, while a rule protects everyone, including those who never saw the advice. 3. By dropping the condition (UV of 3 or above), by making UV sound like a summer-only problem, or by giving no source.

Case study: fire danger ratings

1. A rating protects people only if they understand it and know what to do, and most people did not understand the old levels. 2. One of Australia’s largest community surveys, which showed that most people did not understand them. 3. It turns the rating into an instruction, so no one has to work out what a level means in the moment. 4. A person: leave a bushfire risk area early, before any fire starts. A community: close schools in high-risk areas, or declare a total fire ban. 5. Gains: two fewer levels, each clear enough to remember and act on. Loses: some of the fine detail between levels. 6. Survey people’s understanding of the levels before and after the change, or count how many people acted on the advice on days of high danger.

Message cards

For each misleading card, ask students to rewrite it so it is true: name the study, start the scale at 0, or show the long record.

What a good answer sounds like

A quick three-level guide

A student at standard turns evidence into advice and a rule that each stay true to it, and says how to check that they worked. The idea grows all year, so keep the cards coming back whenever science reaches the news.