For those who don’t already know Bad Science is a book, a a guardian newspaper column and a website by Ben Goldacre, an award-winning writer and broadcaster who specialises in unpicking dodgy scientific claims made by scaremongering journalists, dodgy government reports, evil pharmaceutical corporations, PR companies and quacks. It promotes a healthy scepticism as a way of detecting powerful and effective uses of science and misuses and abuses.
Ed Walsh, Science Advisor for Cornwall Learning, has taken eight of the case studies from the book and turned them into lessons aimed at GCSE students. The lessons are designed to engage and excite students and encourage them to think for themselves.
The “Bad Science is good for school science” project is a partnership between Bad Science author Ben Goldacre, publishers Harper Collins and Cornwall Learning.
Three lesson plans are available on the website now, with more to follow, along with video resources.
The Science of Scams was a set of hoax videos produced by Channel 4 in association with the amazing Derren Brown. In total there were 7 hoax videos which appear to demonstrate paranormal phenomena. In fact they’re all based upon real scientific principles.
This hoax footage was been posted all over the internet in an attempt to find out if people would either accept it as genuine or question it in an attempt to discover the real truth. These include evidence of ghosts, telekinesis and much more.
On the Science of Scams website they show the original hoax videos, then go through the process of explaining and debunking the scams behind them.
These videos could all be used to generate discussion around Critical Thinking skills for KS3 and Ks4 and promoting healthy skepticism of what they see on the internet. Would provide interesting discussion matter if handled correctly.
In addition, 5 of the videos could link themselves to Scientific Investigation in the classroom. Students could develop experiments to test and replicate these videos.
Here’s how you might link some of the videos to the Science curriculum
Ghost on Film
This is a great way to introduce the famous Peppers Ghost experiment – Recreate with model room and a toy plus a sheet a glass. Linked to Ks3/Ks4 Mirrors and Reflection. Investigate properties of glass / mirrors. ICT Opportunity – use video camera inside the model to recreate what an observer might see.
Psychic Wheel
Linked to KS4 – Convection currents & Energy transfer abd also link to particle theory – expansion of gases and density. Students could try and build their own wheel – try with different heat sources.
Brick Breaking
Linked to forces and pressure Ks3/Ks4. The experiment could be mocked up safely using a melon instead of someone’s head. Also linked to materials (using “fake” bricks that look same as normal brick)
Chi Energy
Linked to KS4 Chemical Reactions as an example of Exothermic reaction. Investigate experiments which generate heat – test out – measure heat of reaction. Datalogging opportunities in measuring temperature changes.
Telekinesis
Linked to Magnetism and Static Electricity. Look at how static can make objects repel / attract. Interestingly “psychic” Uri Gellar does a similar thing with a magnet in a false thumb tip (videos showing this keep getting removed) Coulc look at how different materials can hold different charges – insulators such as plastics
There are two other videos which cover Psychic Readings and the Ouija Board – would leave out as not linked to “Science” as such – but could still have criticial thinking component perhaps. It may be best to leave that Ouija boards alone in a school setting just to be safe from parental complaints.
Just a quick post to mention some of the pseudoscience that accompanies talk of Brain Gym in schools, and a request to try and not get sucked into the hype. Brain Gym can be a quick way of breaking up a lesson with a short fun activity, and it is in this way that I have used some little “brain gym” style games in the past. But there is a lot of rubbish spoken about it too.
Brain Gym is being taught with pseudoscientific explanations that undermine science teaching and mislead children about how their bodies work.
