This activity expects students to carry out a piece of social science research i.e. a survey to find out their peers’ opinions on a scientific topic, and work as a team to gather the data.

You can use some class time (for researching and discussing the topic), but it would be best carried out as an on-going extra-curricular activity involving the whole school, assemblies, break and form time over a couple of weeks. Pupils can present their findings to the whole school.

Amongst young people ‘finding an interesting job outscored finding a well-paid or reliable one.’ From: ‘Ready for the Future’.

Certain topics in science are more popular amongst students, and it’s the subjects that they’re interested in that they’ll take further. (Wellcome Trust’s ‘Life study - Biology A-level in the 21st century’). So it’s important we develop their interests now...

Click here to see Science Curriculum & Useful Links for this activity.

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What You Will Need:

  • Pupils should have access to the school library, local library and Internet
  • Any other resources the pupils may need (materials, props, visual aids, access to other members of staff, local university experts)

Activity Instructions:

Ask the class to divide into teams of 6. Ask each team to pick a topic they would like to research. It might be an idea to get the team doing some team-building exercises at the beginning.

Broad categories are given below for the purposes of these guidelines: 

  • Environmental issues (for example: recycling, energy sources, climate change, carbon footprints)
  • Health and fitness (for example: how the body works, healthy lifestyles, obesity, smoking, drugs and alcohol, sports science)
  • Current scientific/technology research (for example in the fields of: nanotechnology, genetics, stem cell research, space travel)

Each team must first research their area to put together a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation for their peers. Research can be Internet based, but ensure students understand the importance of critically evaluating all sites: who are they written by and do Wikipedia entries have the appropriate citations?

They can give their presentation during a whole-school or whole-year assembly and outline their chosen area of interest. They will announce that they will be collecting everyone’s opinions on the subject and how everyone (including teachers and parents) can get involved.

There are various ways students can elicit the opinions of their peers:

  • Ask everyone to vote for what they believe in: e.g. should money be spent on space missions? Creative ideas such as giving everyone a sweet and asking them to put the wrapper in the box labelled with the statement they agree with. This usually gets the voters in!
  • Put a questionnaire together: and ask fellow pupils to fill them in during their break. All entries are automatically entered into a prize draw, perhaps?
  • Create a blog (weblog): this way pupils can ask the questions and anyone can answer by posting a comment. Pupils can publish their own thoughts on the topic and the research they have done so far. Ensure students are aware of Internet Safety: http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk.
  • Write and perform a play on the issues: and ask the audience to vote/feedback based on their opinions before and after the play.
  • Have a dedicated noticeboard at school: where everyone can leave information on the topic, newspaper clippings, comments, ideas and opinions.
  • Produce an information leaflet/poster: and follow this up by asking those who have read it for their opinions on video – Voxpops style.

Students will have to work together as a team to make sure they have enough data to analyse, collate and present back to those they informed in the first assembly.

While the students are compiling their data, they may need some advice and help on how to visually present their data in the best way for their audience: Excel bar graphs, pie charts or tables with numbers?

The final presentation could be another PowerPoint or a video presentation. Help students prepare for their presentations: are they prepared, relaxed and will the audience understand what they have to say?

Do they know that:

  • 8% of our message is communicated through the words we use
  • 32% of our message is communicated through our voice tone
  • 60% of our message is communicated through non-verbal signals?
A short-prize giving ceremony could be organised where all the students vote on the best presentation and each team should be commended on something they did well: most creative approach, best questionnaire, team that worked the best together... and so on.

Discussion Points:

At the end, ask each team:

  • As a team did you listen to each other, communicate effectively and share ideas?

  • Were there any problems? What were they?

  • Did you find it easy to get your data? Were you able to analyse and compile it to make sense of it all?

  • How do you feel this activity has benefited you?

By picking a topic that interests the pupils they will naturally want to find out more. They will have the opportunity to develop as individuals, find out what their strengths and weaknesses are. Are they creative thinkers? Can they be flexible when working with others? Are they able to plan, organise and motivate themselves and others? And when they finally present their findings – are they in a position to influence and persuade others or just inform them?
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