I have created an icebreaker exercise to get the group thinking, talking. that I have used before, and it works well. Takes about 10 minutes.

Ask the group to individually make a paper unmanned plane drone to hit a target (a controversial topic in itself). Give them policy instructions or potential designs if you want, but main instruction is 3 minutes, and they have to hit target on the wall. At 3min point, time up, they throw their plane creation and all will miss. (Link this to your meat/fuel context - not all inventions hit their target). Now give them a redesign but give them 2 minutes only. At 2 minute point, they throw, all will miss. (Link back to your context – controversial topic, oopps they all just created lots of collateral damage, but no social responsibility there). Now given them 1 minute to redesign – customer really needs to hit the target. Then 30 seconds. Then 10 seconds. Eventually, someone will break the rules, and they will scrunch up the paper into a ball and throw it at the target. It may hit. Others will then copy that design. Someone will eventually hit the target with the paper ball. Yay! The point you can make is about breaking the design rules, fitness for purpose, unexpected damage etc that are relevant to your topic. Hope this helps. Besides, this exercise is a lot of fun. Please cite my design if you use it!

I have created an icebreaker exercise to get the group thinking, talking. that I have used before, and it works well. Takes about 10 minutes.

Ask the group to individually make a paper unmanned plane drone to hit a target (a controversial topic in itself). Give them policy instructions or potential designs if you want, but main instruction is 3 minutes, and they have to hit target on the wall. At 3min point, time up, they throw their plane creation and all will miss. (Link this to your meat/fuel context - not all inventions hit their target). Now give them a redesign but give them 2 minutes only. At 2 minute point, they throw, all will miss. (Link back to your context – controversial topic, oopps they all just created lots of collateral damage, but no social responsibility there). Now given them 1 minute to redesign – customer really needs to hit the target. Then 30 seconds. Then 10 seconds. Eventually, someone will break the rules, and they will scrunch up the paper into a ball and throw it at the target. It may hit. Others will then copy that design. Someone will eventually hit the target with the paper ball. Yay! The point you can make is about breaking the design rules, fitness for purpose, unexpected damage etc that are relevant to your topic. Hope this helps. Besides, this exercise is a lot of fun. Please cite my design if you use it!

Perhaps if you bring 2 prominent people with opposing views on a controversial issue into class and they offer their views and discuss them together (criteria: amicably but persuasively)allowing time for student interaction and class composite reports of the experience and belief systems to follow.. Or else show videos in class of such debates (try Youtube vlogs/ various podcasts) with the same class interaction. You can maintain apparent neutrality in your school but still teach the students to interact in discussion about matters you feel need discussion and further follow up that way. After all you are not teaching them to have a particular view (hegemony!), but to think about the possibilities in many views and analyse their worth in this (i.e. critical thinking) aren't you?

I can suggest a team debate on a controversial issue as you would have more experienced participants in their field. The latter can be done as an online activity or F2F, but I would recommend online as it gives them more time to answer. Here's successful results from this exercise that can be helpful for you: Conference Paper Debating: A Dynamic Teaching Strategy for Motivating Student...

Best regards,

Debra

Interesting project. Let's see how best the suggestions given will pan out. Best regards

While not directly in the lines of controversial teaching, one of my favorite moments in college was when my professor asked "Where do trees get their mass from?". Well, thinking about what a tree needs to grow most of the responses included soil or water....

Unfortunately it's the air, or more specifically carbon. The carbon dioxide converted with oxygen via photosynthesis, a fundamental topic of science, evades us when we think about the big picture. Here are some funny videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhCHb6xtqeY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KZb2_vcNTg).

What I think you could do is start by asking this question and then having the audience write down their responses. Show these videos and then discuss. It highlights the importance of being a flexible thinker, but most importantly not memorizing facts but learning concepts. Thus, it is not a teacher's job to teach what is true and false (these are always changing), it is a teacher's job to teach the process of thinking and working through problems.

Hope this can be of help!

I can share one of my experience in my general degree college. The women cell organized a workshop for the girl students on menstrual hygiene. In India people feel shy to talk on this topic publicly. The male professors attended the inaugural session, but left the room during the discussion, because they said that students will not feel free in presence of them. At the first session the girls were silent listeners, but in the second session they found the courage and asked a lot of questions and the lady gynecologist tried her best to answer them. Few days later, we arranged one day for doctor consultation in college and 95 girls came to consult doctors and some brought their mothers also to get the doctor's advice.

What I want to say that teaching controversial topic (as you say) depends on the perception of the target groups. first we have to understant

1. How do they feel comfortable

2. to generate courage

3. to stimulate scientific thinking

4. to remove the mental barriers

5. to generate awareness on relevant social welfare

Regards

Sarada

Hi everyone,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for providing valuable suggestions. The session went well. I am attaching the workshop materials just to give back to the community.

This is a part of a bigger project and I will keep you updated on the progress.

Dear Mr. Pant,

Thank you very much. GMO is a topic of our Environmental Geography Syllabus. I shall share your PPT with my students. In addition I shall try to use your suggestions of Interactive questions.