Suggested Learning and Teaching Activities
Lesson 9 Pseudoscience
Level of Students: S.1-S.2
Learning Objectives:
Students will
be able to distinguish between science and pseudoscience;
identify flaws in pseudoscience.
Suggested Lesson Time: 1 period (about 90 min.)
Focus Ideas:
It is important to be able to distinguish between science and pseudoscience.
Pseudoscience lacks the criteria of evidence, the design of meaningful
experiments, the weighing of possibilities, the testing of hypotheses, the
establishment of theories, the many aspects of scientific methods that make it
possible to draw reliable conclusions about the physical universe. From time to
time people are bombarded by the mass media of news and claims of
pseudoscience. People need a scientific habit of mind to distinguish between true
science and pseudoscience.
Prior knowledge of students:
Students often come across advertisements on topics like healthy foods and
weight reduction programmes. Many claims of such advertisements involve
science terminology. The teacher may ask the students a few related questions to
check their understanding on the reliability of such claims.
Suggested Learning and Teaching
Time
Activities:
allocation
Lesson 9 Pseudoscience
Approx.
The students are divided into groups of
90 min.
4-5 members to carry out the activities.
20 min.
(a). The focus of this activity is to let
Activity 1
(The Fifth Great Invention of China)
Remarks
students know how people can be
cheated by pseudoscience;
(b). Students are motivated to think
deeply on the characteristics of
pseudoscience.
Activity 2
(a). Students are required to act out the
(SUPER Water)
different roles (customers, salesmen,
scientists, representatives of the
Consumer Council) so as to have a
better understanding of pseudoscience;
(b). Students should be able to
distinguish between science and
pseudoscience after the lesson.