Resources

= Resources for Research-informed Actions to Tackle STSE Issues =

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 * Socioscientific Issues.
 * Research Methods.
 * SSI Actions.

Socioscientific Issues and Actions
Socioscientific issues (SSIs) are debates about the potential seriousness of harms that could come to individuals, societies and/or environments that may be related to fields of science and/or technology/engineering. In Ontario, SSIs are covered by what are called 'STSE Issues.'

A typical SSI relates to cigarettes. People debate, for example, how much the government should discourage people from smoking cigarettes.

Some links to SSIs are:
 * A sense of the state of the world can be gained from looking at the World Clock.
 * Main causes of deaths in USA and factors: Risk-O-Meter.
 * 'WISE' Issues; i.e., possible problems for the wellbeing of individuals, societies & environments. See also: [[file:science-in-action-org/STSE Issues_List.pdf|STSE Issues_List.pdf]].
 * Free and open access to online media, without surveillance: OpenMedia.ca.
 * Learn about many problems relating to use of 'media,' such as TV and movies, at: MediaSmarts.
 * Information about many global issues: Global Issues; WiserEarth.
 * Information on corporate corruption: Crocodyl; CorpWatch;
 * A critical examination of science when influenced by business: Corrupted Science.
 * Learn about how companies monitor and shape shoppers' choices: SBXL.
 * Issues with petroleum-based plastics: Forever Plastic;
 * You can help sensitize people to issues through critical films; e.g., Participant Media; Cinema Politica; Wide Open Exposure.
 * Learn about advertising to children; e.g. No Kids' Ads;
 * Issues in biology/life sciences: ActionBioscience.
 * Learn about issues & actions relating to GMOs; e.g. Combat Monsanto;
 * Videos to learn about issues and actions: SSI Videos.
 * Learn about many problems of consumerism; e.g., Story of Stuff Project.
 * The World Wildlife Fund (and WWF) highlights many serious ecological problems caused by human activity, mostly of a commercial nature.
 * SSI and Actions about unnecessary automobile idling: Idle Free Ontario.
 * Case Studies in Science and Technology: National Center for Case Study Teaching.
 * Issues and actions regarding advertising to children: No Kids Ads!.
 * Stop the Mega Quarry - an Ontario environmental issue at the intersection of corporations, government, land and citizens: []
 * Green Roofs in Toronto
 * To perhaps understand many SSIs, learning about neoliberalism may help; e.g. NeoliberalismPrimer.
 * Learn about issues of labour; e.g. Prole.Info.
 * You can learn more about food justice/sustainability issues and actions from Science in the Public Interest; GRACE; Bits & Bytes.
 * Learn about corporate-sponsored TV advertising; e.g., Landscapes of Capital.
 * Learn about shopping surveillance research; e.g. SBXL; CognoVision; Visualize.
 * You can learn about issues and actions regarding technological products/inventions; e.g., Conscientious Technologies.

Research Methods
People can take helpful actions if they first do some research about the issues.

There are two general types of research:
 * __Primary Research__: This is where a person gets information and develops their own conclusions about the issue. For example, we could survey teenagers to find out how many smoke certain numbers of cigarettes per day. Primary research often is done AFTER secondary research. This can be done through experiments or correlational studies. Studies are often easier to carry out in limited time with limited resources.
 * __Secondary Research__: This is where people search resources like libraries and the internet to find out about research done by others to learn more about an issue. For example, we could go to a website of the Canadian Cancer Society to learn what they have found out about effects of smoking on cancer.

In the picture of a page of a pamphlet that some high school students produced shown below, you can see that they did both primary and secondary research. They used internet searches (secondary research) to learn more about heart rates and heart disease and then they studied (in their primary research) teenagers' resting heart rates, depending on how often they ate out at restaurants each week. They then used their findings to produce their action; i.e., the pamphlets.



Some links to research resources are:

FOR SECONDARY RESEARCH:
 * Google: Google.ca; Google Trends; Google Insights; Google Docs; [|Google News]
 * [|Wikipedia]
 * You can collaborate using an alternative to Facebook, called Diaspora.
 * Talk to people in distant places: Skype.
 * You can schedule a meeting with team members via: Doodle.
 * There are several independent (non-corporate) news sites you can check out; e.g. TO Media Co-op; Independent Media.ca; TruthDig; Upping the Anti; InfoShop.org; Basic News; Between the Lines (books).
 * Some insights into SSIs may come from viewing political films; e.g. Participant Media;
 * Use some or all of the activism tools at Tactical Technology.

FOR PRIMARY RESEARCH:
 * Correlational studies vs. experiments: Experiments vs. Correlational Studies; Studies.; Experiments.
 * You may get some good ideas about research here: SciMethod;
 * Talk to people in distant places: Skype.
 * Create Word Clouds to Visualize Main Ideas in Text: TagCloud; Wordle.
 * You can get a measure of youth's carbon footprint: Zerofootprint.
 * Use Slavery Footprint to investigate factors affecting people's choices for products made by people in 'slavery' conditions.
 * You can compare different kinds of data collected by the government: StatsCan.
 * Online measuring tools: StopWatch;
 * Calculate a person's (and/or your own!) body-mass index (e.g., ideal weight): BMI Calculator.
 * To convert from one kind of unit (e.g., pounds) to another (e.g., kilograms): Converters.
 * Create your own online surveys and questionnaires: SurveyMonkey.
 * Online data processing tools: GraphingCalculator; Create-a-Graph; ChartGo;
 * Different types of downloadable graph paper: IncompeTech.
 * Statistical Analysis Resource Page: Stat Pages
 * Learn about calculating correlation coefficients; e.g., CC Defined; CC Sim; CC Calculator.
 * Simple Interactive Statistical Analysis (online stats analysis): [|SISA]
 * Use some or all of the activism tools at Tactical Technology.

SSI Actions
People can take personal and/or social actions to tackle socioscientific issues. People may, for example, choose to quit smoking and/or they might try to convince others to stop smoking or to discourage others from smoking.

There are several different types of actions; some are shown here: SSI Actions.

Some links to action resources are:
 * Here is a list of 198 different kinds of non-violent actions: 198 NVA.
 * Make up free online petitions: iPetitions; GoPetition; Change.org; Avaaz.
 * Kinds of Actions: People for Good.
 * Free the Children's Adobe Youth Voices.
 * Share ideas, results, etc. via social media: Diaspora; Facebook; Twitter; Tumblr.
 * Make a blog from your research; e.g., WordPress.
 * You can gain free access to internet tools if your project challenges capitalism; e.g. Resist!ca.
 * A common kind of action is to produce an activist video and post it to YouTube™.
 * You can produce an animated info-video, similar to those at RSA-Animate, such as this Laser Eye Surgery.
 * Making your actions free and accessible: Creative Commons.
 * Invite People to Your Event(s): eInvite.
 * Make interesting presentations: Prezi;
 * Make interesting visuals/graphics from your data/findings; e.g. Visual.ly.
 * You can make interesting/artistic and provocative posters; e.g. BeeHive Design Collective.
 * Create interesting panorama photos: Photosynth.
 * Create fun movies from text and their animations: Xtranormal.
 * Work online with others on documents (e.g., word processing, slide shows): Google Docs and/or TypeWith.me.
 * Organize micro-loans for small business people in poor countries: Kiva.
 * Ideas for Youth Action: DoSomething.
 * A place to learn about climate change actions and share yours: Inconvenient Youth.
 * Ways photography can be used to illustrate SSIs: Chris Jordan Photography.
 * You can make large posters online: PosterMaker; Glogster
 * Personal or family choices - social enterprises versus mainly corporate gain; ie. The Stop catering for local and ethically produced food
 * A form of action could be a board game, one that promotes some positive social and/or environmental outcomes: WikiHow Games;
 * You can make websites with Google Sites; Wix.
 * You can join a worldwide community of window-farmers.
 * You can suggest a story for a community newspaper, such as in your school or town/city; e.g., Open File.
 * A good place to purchase a domain name (URL) for a website is LowCostDomains.
 * Make narrated videos from actions (e.g. slide shows) on your computer screen; e.g. via: Jing, Camtasia, ScreenFlow.
 * You can annotate a series of websites that you have analyzed and summarized; e.g. Jog the Web.
 * You could produce video documentaries of people and things to expose injustices and/or environmental problems; e.g. InvisiblePeople; PhotoVoice.
 * The Youth Action Network can help with ways to organize and take action.
 * Rabble's 'Activist Tool Kit' has many ideas and resources for actions for the common good.
 * Although it may be risky, you can put activist graffiti in strategic places; e.g. Banksy.
 * Build fun into your actions; e.g. Fun Theory;
 * A good kind of action is to make better products; e.g. Cardboard Furniture;
 * Use some or all of the activism tools at Tactical Technology.