Science, Society and Ethics: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one Human Endeavour idea: science can describe the options for a problem, but choosing between them means weighing environmental, social, ethical and economic effects, and different people weigh them differently. Students map who gains and who pays, score options with weights and watch the best choice change, test a water plan for a town in drought, and attach conditions that reduce a cost. 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: every Year 8 topic meets a real decision, from treating burns and organ donation to quarries, wind farms, desalination and food waste. 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 gives a proposed response, with its gains and costs, for every Year 8 topic.
2. Print the decision sheet whenever a topic meets a real choice, and the case study when you teach mixtures and separation.
3. Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year, and the blank cards fit any topic.
4. Open the free interactive unit on your board when you want the quarry decision as a worked example.
5. Run the one-page mini-lesson first if you want to teach the idea before folding it into a topic.

The step up from Year 7

In Year 7 students sorted the effects of a response into environmental, social, ethical and economic, and weighed the options. In Year 8 they ask who gains and who pays, including people with little voice such as future generations; they weight the four kinds of effect and find that the best option depends on the weights, which come from values, not from the science alone; and they attach conditions that keep a response’s gains while reducing its costs.

A real decision in every Year 8 topic

Every Year 8 science unit meets a contemporary issue where science proposes a response. This map names one for each topic, with its main gains and costs, 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.

• See that every response has a gain and a cost: “Proposed responses to the quarry: what is gained, what is given up”.
• Name what kind of effect a concern is: “Which concerns are about the economics of the quarry?”.
• Watch conditions reshape a response as findings arrive: “How new findings reshape the proposed response”.

How the scaffolds build the idea

The decision sheet maps who gains, who pays and who has little voice, then scores options against the four kinds of effect with weights, and changes the weights to see the best choice move. The case study weighs four ways a town in drought could secure its water. The cards sort statements into gains, costs and the conditions that reduce a cost.

Who gains, who pays, and what matters most?

Science can say what each option will do. Deciding between them means weighing the effects, and different people give different effects different weight. Map the people first, then score the options.

A. The people

B. Score the options, then weight them

Score each option from 1 (poor) to 5 (good) for each kind of effect. Give each kind a weight from 1 (matters a little) to 4 (matters most). Total = each score times its weight, added up. The quarry scores are filled in as an example.

Water for a town in drought

A coastal town has had three dry years and its dam is low. Four responses are on the table. Several Australian cities, including Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, already run desalination plants, and Perth also tops up its groundwater with purified recycled water.

A. The options

B. Weigh them

C. Recommend

A gain, a cost, or a condition?

Cut out the cards. Lay down the three grey heading cards, then sort the statements. Then match each condition to the cost it reduces, and write a condition for any cost that has none.

Teacher note: the piles are not the same size. The answer sheet lists which card is which, and which condition reduces which cost.

A town meeting about a quarry

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the idea on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. The class holds a town meeting about the quarry in the interactive unit. Six people speak from their own point of view, the class sorts what they raise into the four kinds of effect, and then everyone sees how the weight they give each effect changes the decision.

We are learning to

• name who gains and who bears the costs of a proposed response,
• sort concerns into environmental, social, ethical and economic effects,
• explain how weighing the effects differently changes the decision.

Success criteria

• I can put a concern from the meeting into the right kind of effect.
• I can explain why two groups prefer different options from the same facts.

You need

• six roles written on slips, one per group: the quarry company, which wants to dig and employ local people; a family whose house is beside the planned truck route; a farmer downstream whose cattle drink from the creek; a Traditional Owner representative for whom part of the ridge holds meaning; a local builder who needs cheap stone to keep house prices down; the council planner, who must recommend a decision,
• the decision sheet (scaffold 1), one per student, and the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table.

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Hold the meeting and sort the concerns, and weigh the options in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• Thinking science alone can decide, without anyone weighing the effects.
• Treating one side as having no point at all.
• Forgetting people with little voice, such as future generations or the farmer downstream.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give each role one sentence starter, such as “The quarry would help me because ...” or “The quarry worries me because ...”.
• Bigger: write the council’s decision as three conditions, each tied to a finding from the unit, and say who checks each one.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has a model stakeholder map, the totals under three sets of weights, the water case study, the card key and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Decision sheet: the quarry

The same scores pick a different best option for each group: the council’s even weights favour approval with conditions, the families favour refusal, and the business group favours approval as proposed. The science sets the scores; values set the weights. A condition at standard: dust sprays and a tree buffer along the truck route, with the council checking monthly.

Case study: water in a drought

Environmental (dam): floods a valley’s habitat. Social (recycled water): some people dislike drinking it, so trust and explanation matter. Ethical (brine): is it fair to sea life near the outlet, and is the mixing checked? Economic (restrictions): cheapest, but businesses that use water may suffer. Little voice: future residents, sea life, farmers in the valley. A recommendation at standard names one option, a reason from the table (such as working in any drought), and a condition (such as renewable electricity for a desalination plant). Science can tell the town how each option works and what it does; it cannot tell the town how much weight to give each effect.

Trade-off cards

Matches: E reduces G, B reduces K, J reduces L. Card D has no condition: for example, place turbines out of the lookout’s main view.

A quick three-level guide

A student at standard names the effects and the people, weighs the options openly, and recommends with a condition. The idea grows all year, so keep the scaffolds coming back whenever science meets a decision.