Area: Science

Dream Activity

Part 1: Have each person think of a dream they’ve had recently. After giving them a moment to think, go around in a circle and have each person share a bit about their dream. (Elementary school students may get exceptionally excited about sharing their dreams and may want to share an enormous amount of detail Dream Activity

Belief and Knowledge

Have each person write down on a piece of paper: Once everyone has their statements, then have them pair up to talk about their claims, and why they put them in the category they did. This should get them started on a conversation about the difference between belief and knowledge. Then have the group come Belief and Knowledge

Noises in the Night

A NOTE FOR TEACHERS: I’m interested in helping young people think skeptically and philosophically about concepts like knowledge, belief, evidence, fact, and theory. I developed the Vinland Map exercise for this purpose (in a philosophy of science class for gifted teens); I then wrote Noises in the Night as a way of starting similar conversations Noises in the Night

The Vinland Map Exercise

I developed this exercise in a series of Critical Thinking and Philosophy of Science classes. It can raise a huge range of issues about knowledge; testing and confirmation bias; skepticism and how not to be gullible; the relationship between scientific and historical and common sense thinking; the relationship between key concepts like fact, belief, theory, The Vinland Map Exercise

Robots at Work

Many students, even those who are quite young, are aware of the rapid pace at which technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are developing. This lesson entails an exploration of what the world might look like if all human jobs become automated, or done by robots. Are there jobs that humans can do that a robot Robots at Work

Alive/Not Alive

Materials/Preparation: Before the session, write the names of various beings and things on note cards with one per note card. Examples include: CarrotsFlowersCarsFireDollsWaterDirtA squashed bugRabbits In the session: If the students are in a circle on the rug, place three pieces of paper in the middle of the circle. Write “Alive” on one, “Not Alive” Alive/Not Alive

What do you know? An Exercise about What Knowledge Is

The full lesson plan is available as a PDF in the Lesson Attachment area above. Our whole education is organized around “buckets” of knowledge: “2+2 = 4” (math bucket); “Hydrogen is an element but water isn’t” (chemistry bucket); “Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809” (history bucket). But philosophy (and especially epistemology, the study of knowledge) What do you know? An Exercise about What Knowledge Is

Are We Living in a Simulation?

Are We Living in a Simulation, and What Would it Mean if the Answer is Yes? The purpose of this lesson is to explore the nature of reality and how we know whether or not anything is real Begin the lesson with the two short embedded videos to get the students thinking and engaged in Are We Living in a Simulation?

Mind Games

Illustration from Jiaqi Emily Yan's animated short film "Mind Games" featuring a pink brain coloring on the sidewalk

This lesson can be used either in a classroom or online.  Plot Summary: In Jiaqi Emily Yan’s animated short “Mind Games,” a child sits bored at a school desk, trying to focus on classwork. Their brain jumps out of their head, stuffs it with books, and heads outside to play while the child robotically regurgitates Mind Games

Conflicting Values in Environmental Ethics – The Mountain Goat Dilemma

Mountain goat laying down on mountain side

Mountain goats are not native to Olympic National Park. They were introduced into Olympic Peninsula in the 1930s to encourage an increase of tourism via hunting. Shortly after, Olympic National Park was established. Under Park jurisdiction, hunting of any kind is forbidden, so the mountain goats placed there were protected. Olympic National Park is now Conflicting Values in Environmental Ethics – The Mountain Goat Dilemma