Improving students’ use of content knowledge when dealing with Socio-Scientific Issues: the case of a physics-based intervention

In this paper we present the results of a four-week laboratory-based intervention aimed to improve 14-15 years old students’ capability of exploiting Physics content knowledge when discussing Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI). Energy transfers and conservation, modelling and data quality were addressed using four SSI scenarios as teaching contexts. A mixed meth-od approach was adopted to analyze students’ responses to pre- post- and delayed assessment tasks. The analysis shows that after the intervention students were able to meaningfully exploit the addressed Physics concepts to support in an informed way their decisions about the pro-posed SSI; moreover, results show no significant differences in the students’ outcomes accord-ing to the activities followed during the intervention. Overall, the study here presented provides support for introducing in Physics and Science school curricula SSI-based interventions.