Science · Unit 16

Science, Technology and Society

How science shapes the world and how we judge it

Science produces knowledge; what gets done with it is a separate question, decided by people with interests, budgets and values.

The unit covers how scientific findings reach the public and get distorted on the way, how to tell science from pseudoscience, the ethical questions technologies raise, and the energy and environment choices where the science is settled and the politics is not.

This unit breaks down into 22 short steps and 129 questions, starting at difficulty 3 and building to 5. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 22
Questions: 129
Difficulty: 3-5

What this unit covers

Science and Ethics
Energy and Environment Choices
Science in the News
How Science Changes Life
Science vs Pseudoscience

Where this fits

Best late in the track, once the method units are done.

Where people slip

Pseudoscience usually looks like science - jargon, diagrams, confident experts. What is missing is the willingness to specify what would count as being wrong.

How the unit is structured

Science, Technology and Society runs as 22 short steps that unlock in order. 16 are practice rounds and 6 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 3 and climb to 5 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 22 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 129 in the unit altogether.

Energy and Environment Choices

Choose all that applyLevel 3
1. Which choices help lower a household's carbon footprint? Pick all that apply.
- Using LED light bulbscorrect
- Insulating the homecorrect
- Cycling instead of driving short tripscorrect
- Leaving all the lights on overnight
Saving electricity, insulating and driving less all cut energy use and carbon emissions.
Fact or fibLevel 3
2. A nuclear power plant makes electricity without burning fuel, so it releases almost no carbon dioxide while running.
Answer: True
Nuclear plants split atoms instead of burning fuel, so they emit very little carbon dioxide, though they create radioactive waste.
Fill the blankLevel 3
3. Energy sources that nature replaces and will not run out, like sun and wind, are called ____ energy.
- renewablecorrect
- fossil
- nuclear
- wasted
Renewable energy comes from sources that nature refills, such as sunlight, wind and flowing water.
Guess the numberLevel 3
4. Roughly what percentage of sunlight does a typical home solar panel turn into electricity?
Answer: 20 percent
Most everyday solar panels convert about 15 to 22 percent of the sunlight that hits them into electricity.
Match the pairsLevel 3
5. Match each energy source to one of its main drawbacks.
Answer: Solar = Only works when the sun shines; Wind = Only works when the wind blows; Coal = Releases carbon dioxide and pollution; Nuclear = Produces radioactive waste
Every energy source has trade-offs, from weather dependence to pollution or waste.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
6. Which of these is a renewable energy source?
- Solar powercorrect
- Coal
- Oil
- Natural gas
Sunlight is renewable because it is not used up, while coal, oil and natural gas are finite fossil fuels.

How Science Changes Life

Choose all that applyLevel 3
7. Which inventions mainly changed how people communicate? Pick all that apply.
- Telephonecorrect
- Radiocorrect
- Internetcorrect
- Steam engine
The telephone, radio and internet transformed communication, while the steam engine mainly changed transport and industry.
Fill the blankLevel 3
8. The mid-1900s boost in crop yields from new seeds and fertilizers is called the Green ____.
- Revolutioncorrect
- Winter
- Machine
- Circle
The Green Revolution used improved crop varieties and fertilizers to greatly increase food production worldwide.
Guess the numberLevel 3
9. Around what year did Johannes Gutenberg introduce his printing press in Europe?
Answer: 1440 CE
Gutenberg's movable-type printing press appeared around 1440, launching the age of printed books in Europe.
Match the pairsLevel 3
10. Match each invention to the part of life it changed most.
Answer: Printing press = Sharing information; Refrigeration = Storing food; Vaccination = Preventing disease; Automobile = Personal transport
Each invention transformed one major part of daily life, from how we learn to how we travel.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
11. Which 20th-century medical advance most reduced deaths from bacterial infections?
- Antibioticscorrect
- X-ray machines
- Digital thermometers
- Stethoscopes
Antibiotics such as penicillin let doctors cure bacterial infections that were often deadly before the 1940s.
Odd one outLevel 3
12. Which is NOT a way the printing press changed society?
- It let people fly across oceanscorrect
- It made books cheaper
- It spread new ideas faster
- It helped more people learn to read
The printing press spread ideas, cheapened books, and boosted literacy, but it had nothing to do with flight.

Science and Ethics

Build the sentenceLevel 3
13. Build the rule that protects people in research.
Answer: Participants must give informed consent
Ethical studies require that participants understand the risks and agree freely before taking part.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
14. Which are genuine ethical concerns about editing human genes? Pick all that apply.
- Unknown long-term effects on healthcorrect
- Changes could be passed to future generationscorrect
- Unequal access if only the wealthy can afford itcorrect
- It would make lab glassware cheaper
Gene editing raises concerns about safety, effects on future generations and fairness, not about equipment costs.
Fact or fibLevel 3
15. Testing new cosmetics on animals raises ethical questions about animal welfare.
Answer: True
Because animals can suffer, testing products on them is an ethical issue that many countries now regulate or ban.
Fill the blankLevel 3
16. Making up or faking data in a study is a serious form of scientific ____.
- fraudcorrect
- progress
- review
- funding
Fabricating data is scientific fraud, a type of misconduct that damages trust in research.
Match the pairsLevel 3
17. Match each research ethics idea to its meaning.
Answer: Consent = Agreeing after being informed; Confidentiality = Keeping personal data private; Integrity = Reporting results honestly; Welfare = Minimizing harm to participants
Good research protects consent, confidentiality, integrity and the welfare of everyone involved.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
18. In research with human volunteers, what does 'informed consent' mean?
- Volunteers agree to take part after being told the purpose and riskscorrect
- Volunteers are paid a large fee to join
- The scientist decides everything for the volunteers
- Volunteers must finish no matter what happens
Informed consent means people agree to join a study only after understanding its purpose, risks and their right to leave.

Science in the News

Choose all that applyLevel 3
19. When judging a science news story, which questions are worth asking? Pick all that apply.
- Was the study peer reviewed?correct
- How large was the sample?correct
- Who funded the research?correct
- Is the website colourful?
Good judgment looks at peer review, sample size and funding, not at how flashy the website looks.
Fill the blankLevel 3
20. A research paper shared publicly before it has been peer reviewed is called a ____.
- preprintcorrect
- headline
- textbook
- rumour
A preprint is an early version of a study posted before other experts have formally reviewed it.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
21. A headline says 'Study links coffee to a longer life.' What should a careful reader check first?
- Whether the study found only a link, not proof that coffee causes it
- Whether coffee tastes good
- How many likes the article got
- The colour of the headline
Many headlines report a correlation, but a link alone does not prove that one thing causes the other.
Build the sentenceLevel 4
22. Build a piece of good advice for reading science news.
Answer: Always check who funded the study
Knowing who paid for a study helps you judge whether its results might be biased.
Fact or fibLevel 4
23. If a news story reports that two things are correlated in a survey, that by itself proves one of them causes the other.
Answer: False
Surveys can reveal correlation, but correlation on its own never proves causation.
Guess the numberLevel 4
24. A news story says a drug 'doubled' success, from 1% to 2%. What is the absolute increase, in percentage points?
Answer: 1 percentage points
Going from 1% to 2% is only a 1-point absolute rise, even though the relative change sounds like a huge 100%.

Science vs Pseudoscience

Build the sentenceLevel 3
25. Build a sentence about what makes an idea scientific.
Answer: A scientific idea must be testable
A scientific idea must be testable so that evidence can check whether it is true.
Fact or fibLevel 3
26. A single personal story is strong enough on its own to prove that a medical treatment works.
Answer: False
Anecdotes can be misleading, so real proof needs controlled studies with many participants, not one story.
Fill the blankLevel 3
27. Before a study is published, other experts check it in a process called ____ review.
- peercorrect
- self
- quick
- public
Peer review has independent experts examine a study's methods and results before it is published.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
28. What is a key feature that makes an idea scientific?
- It can be tested and possibly shown to be falsecorrect
- It is very old
- Many people already believe it
- A famous person said it
Scientific ideas must be testable and falsifiable, so evidence can support them or prove them wrong.
Choose all that applyLevel 4
29. Which are warning signs that a claim might be pseudoscience? Pick all that apply.
- It cannot be tested or proven wrongcorrect
- It relies on personal stories instead of controlled datacorrect
- It ignores evidence that contradicts itcorrect
- It has been confirmed by independent experiments
Pseudoscience often cannot be tested, leans on stories, and ignores contradicting evidence.
Match the pairsLevel 5
30. Match each logical fallacy to its description.
Answer: Ad hominem = Attacking the person instead of the argument; Appeal to authority = Claiming it is true only because a famous person says so; Post hoc = Assuming one event caused another just because it came first; Straw man = Misrepresenting an argument to make it easier to attack
Recognizing these common fallacies helps you spot weak reasoning inside a persuasive claim.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 14 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sort into groups
Spell it
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Science, Technology and Society

129 questions across 22 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about Science, Technology and Society

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

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