ESS301: Socio-scientific issue
Your task is to investigate comprehensively a socio-scientific issue in an Earth and Space Science context ... but you are recommended to choose from the list provided to you in class based around the Oceans external assessment.
This could include:
This could include:
- Ocean Acidification
- Global Warming
- The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”
- Oil drilling
- Oil spills
Temptation 1:
"I'll just AI it. It'll put all of the answers in a neat little package for me and I won't have to tax my brain at all! No one will ever know ..."
PLEASE do not assume that your teacher is stupid and won't know that you have used AI to generate your work. Staff have checking tools at their disposal (as well as knowledge of their students' capabilities!) and can easily refer you on to have your work checked externally. Do not outsource your brain and learning to a machine. YOU have critical thinking skills ... it does not. AI can be used effectively and a complementary research tool, but you need to be smart about it and know when is the right tool for the right job.
Temptation 2:
"Everything I need to know about the world is free online. Why would I need to look anywhere else?"
The reality is that there IS a wealth of information online, and a lot of it is free. However, experts in the field of science are less keen to give away their knowledge for free!! Go figure!!!
To be fair, it makes sense - they have to make a living out of being a scientist, so we should pay for their info, right?
These experts might be book authors, article authors, encyclopedia writers ... anyone whose work has gone through some checks and balances to show that it is based in FACT.
We've gathered up a few books for you today, and here is some advice from our CHSL Non-Fiction specialist:
To be fair, it makes sense - they have to make a living out of being a scientist, so we should pay for their info, right?
These experts might be book authors, article authors, encyclopedia writers ... anyone whose work has gone through some checks and balances to show that it is based in FACT.
We've gathered up a few books for you today, and here is some advice from our CHSL Non-Fiction specialist:
- When using books, check the Contents; Index; Bibliographies; Source Notes; Additional Resources - Further Reading and Internet Sites that nearly every book provides. It will lead you to some great research,
- Also check out the Authors and Researchers to see what else they have written.
- Note the publishing date of the book and consider this when using the information/statistics, etc.
this is not an info dump!
"Yay! I've found a great site that looks like it answers all my questions. I'll just take it all and dump it into my assessment.
My teacher knows lots about this topic ... she'll figure it out!"
My teacher knows lots about this topic ... she'll figure it out!"
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Royal Society of New Zealand
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Department of Conservation
Search site: acidification ocean. Scroll results and select:
Also access Publications and see if there are any that are of interest. |
Some of your best tools are databases: JSTOR and EPIC
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Explora (ANZ school interface to search across EBSCO databases)
Gale Power Search (to search across Gale Cengage databases)
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Searches across these databases:
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All original content on this site is copyright protected. Please contact Saskia Hill, CHS Library Manager, if you wish to republish. 2026. All book cover images used in this site are used under the SLANZA agreement for book promotion. |
 This work by Cashmere High School Library (original content) Saskia Hill is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. |