Abstract:

One of the features of this century is the endless flow of information. Every day there are dozens of events in the world which students hear about outside the walls of educational institutions, for example, when watching TV, surfing Internet pages, or being present when parents discuss such topics. And, as a rule, students can not always evaluate what is happening. Most teachers do not use news information for educational purposes. However, a number of researchers point to the need to involve students in the learning process "by referring to their interests and experiences with which they came to class" [ROSE 2010, p.29].
For the natural sciences, news has a significant content potential. Using them in classroom helps students to evaluate the information they hear more critically and understand the essence of what is happening, and consider the problem from different perspectives. Finding solution to social problems is becoming more and more popular in the practice of educational institutions as they teach high school and university students natural science disciplines. Socio-scientific issues are controversial social issues that are related to the natural sciences conceptually or procedurally [Sadler 2004, p 513]. Of course, the use of such content in the classroom is a challenge for the teacher - it requires a timely response and possession of a number of professional competencies for the organization of such lessons.
Here is an example from our experience of using such content in physics classes. The news feed reported that a new world record was set for a round-the-world balloon flight. Students were interested in this event and discussed it. During the lesson, we got acquainted with the information that was presented in the news – "Fyodor Konyukhov set a new world record for a round-the-world balloon flight, with the result of 11 days, 5 hours and 31 minutes. During this time, the traveler did 34.7 thousand kilometers of travel. This event is a vivid example of human endurance and achievements." Next, students' opinions and come-up questions about the event were heard. At this point, the teacher and the students should make a list of the main questions that the students will try to answer. The teacher should adjust it in such a way that there are no distortions towards only social or only science questions. When the list of such questions is determined, students choose the most interesting one for themselves and in order to prepare successfully, they are divided into pairs to find answers. According to the curriculum, practical classes with students are held once a week, so the work on finding answers is a homework assignment for students. Since the group of students was not large, we got a list of five questions: 1) the history of flights on aircraft and prospects for traveling on "airships"; 2) knowledge of the capabilities of the human body (oxygen starvation, cosmic radiation, etc.); 3) geographical route construction and altitude selection; 4) estimation of the minimum volume of the balloon and calculation of carrying capacity; 5) design and creation of a balloon model. The lesson where students presented their research turned out to be very memorable.
As our experience shows, the use of current news content in the classroom has a number of advantages for students – the development of critical thinking, increased cognitive interest, and other.

Keywords:

Content, science education, Socio-scientific issues.