The Environmental Issues section of EnviroSci Inquiry contains links
to Science-Technology-Society (STS) issues-based approach simulations.
These simulations present science education in a context that is appropriate
for all students and provide them with the experience of learning science
and technology in the context of human experience involving a real-life
controversial issue. Engaging in an authentic issues makes science instruction
current and part of the real world.
In STS issues-based approach simulations, students are presented with
a real-world controversial issue. Students investigate the issue from
different perspectives. After students complete their investigation,
they participate in a public forum or debate to determine the next course
of action on the issue. Classroom debates on STS issues offer students
a forum to think critically about the role that science plays in societal
issues. These simulations acknowledge the connection between science
and the decisions individuals make about social issues.
Below are descriptions of STS issues-based approach simulations that
are included and linked from LEO EnviroSci Inquiry:
Abandoned Mine Drainage in Pennsylvania is a science-technology-society
(STS) role playing debate simulation. In this activity, learners investigate
the AMD issue from differing perspectives. In their investigation, they
identify AMD problems, search for a solution, evaluate options, and
decide on a course of action to treat and clean up AMD in Pennsylvania.
The Shell Island Dilemma is a science-technology-society (STS)
role playing debatesimulation. Students investigate the issues concerning
the fate of the Shell Island Resort and then debate the future of this
and other oceanfront structures threatened by coastal erosion. As students
engage in the investigation, they identify the social, political, and
scientific issues with which different stakeholders must deal. Students
place themselves into the role of one of the stakeholders. Questions
are used throughout the simulation to focus students' inquiry during
their exploration. This Web site is maintained by Dr. Alec M. Bodzin
of the SERVIT Group.
Whole Hog is an inquiry-oriented educational resource designed
to help teachers and students learn about North Carolina's corporate
hog industry, explore issues (i.e., environmental, health, social/political,
economic) raised by the industry's rapid growth over the past decade,
and examine ways North Carolinians are working to address these issues.
Whole Hog's "A Family's Dilemma" is a classroom simulation
exercise in which a family must decide whether to sell the farm to a
large, corporate pork producer. Using selected web resources, students
investigate the hog industry and related issues from the perspectives
of various stakeholders. Then they discuss and debate the issues before
a simulated "family" which, in turn, makes the decision. During
a follow-up discussion, students express their own opinions on what
the family should do. This Web site is maintained by UNC-CH Environmental
Resource Program.