How Science Spreads in Society: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one idea about science: a sound finding becomes a common practice only when several human factors line up, from the strength of the evidence and clear communication to cost, trust and fit with how people live. Print the scaffolds once and slot them into the science lessons you already teach.

What a skill companion is

Ideas about how science works are not a topic of their own. They grow inside the science units a class teaches all year, from Body Systems to Chemical Equations. 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 practice for each topic, with what helped and what held it back.
2. Print the adoption analyser whenever a topic leads to something people do, and the rooftop solar case study as practice.
3. Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year.
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.

The step up from Year 8

In Year 8 students looked at how scientific knowledge changes. In Year 9 they ask what happens next: why some sound practices spread quickly and others stall. They analyse a practice against six factors, find the ones that drive it and the ones that block it, and suggest what would help it reach more people.

A practice to analyse in every Year 9 topic

Every topic leads to something people do. Asking why it spread, and why it has not spread further, shows students that science reaches society through people.

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 how one factor can drive or block a practice: “What drives, and what blocks, a practice spreading?”.
• Separate real factors from unrelated details: “Which factors helped handwashing spread?”.
• Watch factors add up over time: “How added factors carried handwashing into everyday life”.

Why has this practice spread, or not?

A sound finding is not enough on its own. Check the practice against each factor: is it working for the practice, or against it? A practice that fails on even one or two factors can stall.

The practice, and the science behind it

The six factors

The weakest factor, and what would fix it

Teacher note: a factor can help one group and block another. Cheap panels helped home owners, while renters stayed blocked: ask for whom each factor works.

Rooftop solar: from a few homes to one in three

The science of solar cells was settled long before most Australians had panels. What changed was everything around the science. For each moment, name the factor at work and whether it helped solar spread or held it back.

B. Which factor mattered most?

Choose the factor you think did most to spread rooftop solar, and give your evidence from the table.

C. Who is still left out?

Name one group that still finds it hard to use solar power, and suggest a change that would help them.

Drives, blocks, or not a real factor?

Cut out the cards. Lay down the three grey heading cards, then sort the statements under them. On the blank cards, write one from a practice in your own topic for each heading.

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

Why didn’t everyone wash their hands?

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the idea on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. In 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis showed that far fewer mothers died in a Vienna hospital ward when doctors washed their hands, yet the habit took decades to spread. The class analyses why, using six factors, then turns the same analysis on a practice from their own lives.

We are learning to

• name the factors that help a science-based practice spread, and those that hold it back,
• tell real factors from details that make no difference,
• suggest a change that would help a practice reach more people.

Success criteria

• I can explain why sound evidence alone did not make handwashing spread.
• I can find the weakest factor for a practice in my own life, and suggest a fix.

You need

• the adoption analyser (scaffold 1), two per student: one for handwashing in 1847, one for a practice of their choosing,
• the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table.

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Analyse handwashing in this lesson, and the practice of the students’ choosing in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• Thinking that good evidence is enough for a practice to spread.
• Blaming people who do not adopt a practice, instead of asking which factor is missing for them.
• Counting a detail, such as the colour of a bin lid, as a factor.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give the six factors as questions, such as “Can people afford it?” and “Do they trust who is telling them?”.
• Bigger: compare the same practice in two places, such as a city and a remote town, and explain why its take-up differs.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has the worked rooftop solar case study, the card key, a model analysis of handwashing, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Case study: rooftop solar

B. Most students argue for cost and accessibility (prices fell by about 90%, and payments for exported power made panels pay off), backed by the benefit neighbours could see. Any factor argued from the table is fair. C. Renters and apartment dwellers: shared panels on an apartment roof, or schemes that let tenants buy power from a community solar farm.

Adoption cards

The mini-lesson: handwashing, 1847 and about 1900

A quick three-level guide