Engaging Students from Introductory Physics Courses in Socio-scientific Debates

Abstract

In this paper, we present a classroom strategy that allows high school teachers and university professors of introductory physics courses to use socio-scientific issues (SSIs) to engage students in constructive and meaningful debate. We present a rationale for why such activities should be used, a step-by-step method on how to apply them in a real classroom setting, and an illustrative case study conducted with sophomore students from a Brazilian public university in 2019. It is a consensus among educational researchers, science teachers, and policymakers that much can still be done to enhance the levels of scientific literacy of students of various age groups. Improving scientific literacy skills should be one of the primary goals of schools and universities in this century, since it helps make people aware of the achievements of scientific communities, it promotes scientifically based decisions about important daily matters, and it strengthens the fight against fake news, which is now a widespread rising trend in society.