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The moon is made of cheese
Year Group:
8
Keywords:
Knowledge, Belief,
Space
Resources:
"The moon is
made of cheese" stimulus sheet.
Recording sheet.
Teaching and Learning Styles:
Group
Discussion, Class Discussion,
Values:
Truth, Trustworthiness
| Context in which the lesson is set |
During work on space and the
Earth, and in particular after studying the phases of the moon and lunar and
solar eclipses |
| What the lesson is about |
The purpose of the lesson is to
use the context of space as a vehicle for examining why we believe the
things we do, and the reasons we might trust certain sources of information
as being authoritative e.g. our teachers, parents, textbooks etc |
| Expected outcomes |
Pupils will have had the
opportunity to have questioned themselves and each other about the reasons
why they believe scientific ideas to be true They will have become more
aware of their own ability to think critically rather then to accept what
they are told without question |
| Details of Teacher and Pupil Activities |
Each pupil or group of pupils is
given a copy of the stimulus sheet, which has on it some statements which
are true, some which are blatantly untrue, and some of which sound as if
they could be true, but are not. This work could be done individually, in
pairs, or in small groups. They need to decide which statements they think
are true, and which they think are false. Most importantly, they need to
decide, for each statement, the reasons why they think it is true or false.
A table could be used to fill in their ideas, like the one shown. Following
on from this, the discussion should be opened out to the whole class, in
order to establish what kind of evidence we use to decide whether something
is true or not. What kind of evidence can we trust? Who can we trust to tell
the truth? Why do we no longer believe some things we once believed, and we
now believe things we did not used to believe? |
| Extension Work |
Having established the right to
question the nature of belief, this theme can easily be returned to in later
lessons. This may be particularly important when looking at the nature of
experimental evidence during practical investigations |
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