Establishing priorities for solving problems
A Level 3–4 resource that asks students to assign priorities to a range of environmental challenges.
About this resource
In this activity, students consider the interactions between science and diverse community views and make decisions about which issues should be prioritised.
Establishing priorities for solving problems
Curriculum links
Level 3 and 4
Nature of science: Understanding about science
Students will:
- appreciate that science is a way of explaining the world and that science knowledge changes over time
- identify ways in which scientists work together and provide evidence to support their ideas.
Level 3 and 4
Nature of science: Participating and contributing
Students will:
- use their growing science knowledge when considering issues of concern to them
- explore various aspects of an issue and make decisions about possible actions.
Level 3 and 4
Planet Earth and beyond: Earth systems
Students will:
Develop an understanding that water, air, rocks, soil, and life forms make up our planet and recognise that these are also Earth’s resources.
Living world: life processes
Students will:
recognise that there are life processes common to all living things and that these occur in different ways.
Mātauranga Māori
Within te ao Māori, exploring group responses to challenges occurs through wānanga, a process of discussion through to consensus. The process may be long or short, but time is taken to thoroughly explore and consider the rationale to support any propositions being made. Wānanga recognises all voices and perspectives; however, the process continues until agreement is reached as to the group’s decision.
Learning intentions / success criteria
Students will:
- develop and use criteria to evaluate which problems should be prioritised (use evidence)
- explain, with reasons, the perspective of each statement (use evidence)
- appreciate that scientists may have differing criteria for prioritising research and taking action.
Learning activity
Six cards, each with a statement as follows:
- Get humans to Mars.
- Find out what causes asthma.
- Save the kākāpō from extinction.
- Provide clean drinking water for people in water-shortage areas.
- Find out whether mobile phones cause damage to the brain.
- Do something about lunch rubbish at our school.
Note: This is a focusing activity which could be used in preparation for an environmental studies topic.
1. Put forward the following questions to students to consider and discuss:
- How do you decide what problems need to be considered for solving? This is an opportunity to explicitly support students in developing criteria to guide decision making.
- Why can people have different views about what is important in problem solving?
- Will all problems concern all people? Why / why not?
- How do you decide which problems are more important than others?
- Why are some people’s views considered more significant or important than other people’s views?
2. Show students the cards and ask, "What do you think is most important for scientists to focus on immediately?" Emphasis on "immediately".
3. In small groups, students undertake research to find out more about these topics.
4. Once students know a little more about each topic, in groups:
- Decide how they rank the cards in order of importance, from 1 (most important) to 6 (least important).
- Present their ranking choices to the class and explain how and why they made their decisions.
- Explain what criteria they used when completing their ranking.
5. As a class, discuss what criteria scientists would use to come to an agreement. Discuss and choose a criteria, for example, ecosystem importance, technology, human survival, health, quality of life, longevity of life, and cost.
- Use the “fish bowl” style of debate. Students form a semicircle with one chair (the fish bowl or hot seat) in the centre. The person occupying the hot seat has the right to present their opinion / point of view. When another student wishes to speak, they pick up the speaking stick from the floor near the hot seat. At this point, the seated person may finish their sentence and then must vacate the hot seat for the incoming speaker.
- Groups discuss their rankings with each other and then share with the class.
- Groups record rankings on a blank sheet of notebook paper with a short paragraph explaining their reasoning to share with the class.
- Groups create a poster and prepare a presentation explaining their rankings.
- Bring groups together to try and reach an agreement in a larger group.
- Did everyone agree about the order in which the cards should be ranked, or do we all have different priorities? What do you think caused the differences in priorities?
- Do you think you would have responded differently if you were students in a school in _________? (Insert a location that has a different lifestyle to the area in which your school is situated. For example, for country schools, name a New Zealand city or an overseas city, for city-based schools, name a country area or a city in a different country).
- Do you think a different type of group would have responded differently? (For example, a group of students from a different year level or a group of adults).
- Was your opinion affected by what other people said?
- Do you think scientists from different communities would give different values to the cards, or would they all agree on the order for ranking the cards?
Ranking in different contexts: Reptiles and amphibians
Science Learning Hub:
- Article- Conservation rankings
- Activity- Conservation ranking in action
- Video- Conservation rankings
- Ranking Environmental problems