Science Communication and Policy: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one Human Endeavour idea: evidence only informs people once it is communicated, and the same evidence can shape one person’s choice and a rule for a whole community. Students check who made a message and how they know, read the numbers behind an energy label, keep trust apart from readability, and follow a test result from a label to a minimum standard. 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, and every Year 8 topic meets science that reached the public, from food safety temperatures to tsunami warnings, energy labels and the ozone layer. 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 names one message for every Year 8 topic, what it lets a person decide and the rule it informs.
2. Print the message check whenever a topic meets a public message, and the case study when you teach energy.
3. Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year, and the blank cards take students’ own rewrites.
4. Open the free interactive unit on your board when you want the energy label 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 followed evidence to a decision and sorted messages into those that inform a person, set a shared rule or mislead. In Year 8 they read the numbers behind a message, such as stars against kilowatt-hours, ask who made it and how they know, keep trust apart from readability, because a clear message is not always a true one, and follow the same evidence from a label for each shopper to a standard for everyone.

A public message in every Year 8 topic

Every Year 8 science unit meets evidence that reached the public as a message. This map names one for each topic, what it lets a person decide, the rule it informed, and which scaffold to use. Fold them into the science you teach; they are not extra lessons.

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 the form of a message decides who it reaches: “Communicating an efficiency finding: each way gains and gives up something”.
• Follow evidence to a viewpoint and then to a policy: “How one finding moves a viewpoint, then a policy”.
• Judge what makes a message trustworthy: “Does a standardised energy label inform good decisions?”.

How the scaffolds build the idea

The message check asks eight questions of any public message, beside a worked column for the energy label. The case study reads three fridge labels, turns kilowatt-hours into dollars and applies a minimum standard. The cards sort features of a message into those that build trust, those that give a reason to doubt, and those that only make it easier to read.

Who made it, how do they know, and who does it reach?

Ask the same eight questions of any public message: a label, a warning, a news story or a new rule. The first column is done for the energy rating label on a fridge. Fill in the second for the message you are studying.

Reach or depth?

A simple signal reaches almost everyone but hides detail; the full report holds every figure but few people read it. Most good messages pair one thing to see at a glance with detail underneath.

Reading the energy rating label

Fridges, washing machines, dishwashers, air conditioners and televisions sold in Australia carry an energy rating label. Every model is tested in the same way. The label shows stars, where more stars means more efficient, and the energy the model used in a year in the test, in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Here are the labels of three fridges in one shop.

A. The labels

Figures made up for this pack, close to real labels.

B. Read the labels

C. Work out the running costs

Use 30 cents for each kilowatt-hour. Real prices differ between states and plans; this is a round figure for the sums.

D. From a label to a rule

Suppose a new minimum standard says a fridge of 520 litres may use no more than 450 kWh in a year.

Trustworthy, doubtful, or only easier to read?

Cut out the cards. Lay down the three grey heading cards, then sort the features of a public message. Then take a card from “A reason to doubt” and rewrite it on a blank card so that it would build trust instead.

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

Make a label, then set a rule

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the idea on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. Groups get the results of one test on eight showerheads, design a label that a shopper could read in a few seconds, and then act as the council and decide whether some models should not be sold at all. In Australia, showerheads already carry a water rating label with stars and the flow in litres per minute.

We are learning to

• explain why every model must be tested in the same way before results are compared,
• turn test results into a message a shopper can use, and say what it leaves out,
• explain how the same evidence can inform a person’s choice and a rule for everyone.

Success criteria

• I can design a label with one thing to see at a glance and one figure underneath.
• I can say who a limit protects that a label cannot reach, and what it costs.

You need

• the test results below, on the board or one copy per group,
• blank paper and pens for the labels, and the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table.

Test results: the flow of eight showerheads, each tested at the same water pressure (figures made up for this lesson).

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Design the labels, and set the rule in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• Thinking a label that looks official must be true, whoever made it.
• Thinking more stars always means less energy or water used, whatever the size of the product.
• Treating a label and a rule as the same: a label informs the people who read it; a rule applies to everyone.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give a label outline with a row of five stars and one box for the figure.
• Bigger: work out how much water a family of four saves in a year if everyone showers once a day for 7 minutes and showerhead 7 (12.8 litres per minute) is swapped for showerhead 2 (6.8 litres per minute).

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has a model message check, the case study worked out, the card key, the showerhead results with a sample star scale, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Message check: a model column for the engineered stone ban

Case study: the energy rating label

Most stars: Fridge Q (4.5). Least energy: Fridge P (300 kWh). P and R both have 3 stars, but R is more than twice the size: the stars compare models of a similar size, so a bigger fridge can earn the same stars and still use more energy. Q is efficient for its size but is much bigger than P. To compare different sizes, compare the kilowatt-hours, and buy the size you need. Running costs: P $90, Q $102, R $150 a year. Q costs $240 more to buy and saves $48 a year, so it pays for itself in 5 years. Over 12 years: Q $2,754, R $3,090, so Q is $336 cheaper in total. The standard (450 kWh for 520 litres) takes Fridge R off sale. It protects people who buy the cheapest model without reading the label, people who buy the fridge second-hand later, and everyone through lower demand for electricity. It can cost buyers the cheapest choice and a little more at the till, and makers must redesign.

Trust cards

Pairs worth comparing: A against J (one standard test, or a test nobody else uses), K against B (independent, or the seller), C against G (all results published, or some left out). A rewrite at standard: card B becomes “An independent scheme tests every heater the same way and awards the stars.” Clear is not the same as correct: a misleading claim can be just as easy to read.

Mini-lesson: the showerheads

The sample scale gives 5 stars for 6.0 litres a minute or less, then one star fewer for each step of 2.0 litres, down to 1 star above 12.0; any scale that gives fewer litres more stars is fine if the group can explain it. The limit takes 4 of the 8 models off sale. Bigger: 6.0 litres a minute less, for 7 minutes, 4 people and 365 days, saves 61,320 litres in a year, and less hot water to heat means less energy too.

A quick three-level guide

A student at standard checks who made a message and how they know, reads the figure under the headline signal, and explains how one piece of evidence informs both a person and a rule. The idea grows all year, so keep the scaffolds coming back whenever science reaches the public.