RS Teachers’ Guides
Welcome to the FaradaySchools website!
This website has been designed to support teachers who work with students in Years 7-13 who are looking for ways to help students to consider a range of relationships between science and religion.
The menu on the right takes you to the pupils’ pages.
On this page, we have put the teachers’ notes for the various units.
A note about the order of things
Many students struggle to understand the nature of science and the nature of religion, never mind the relationships between them. We suggest the following path as a way to build up some key ideas in pupils’ RS lessons:
In Year 7, the theme we suggest is the Theory of the Big Bang and Creation. The lesson objectives are to help pupils explore the idea that science and religion are addressing different types of questions. This is an essential idea in order to understand why some people see science and religion as compatible.
In Year 8 we suggest putting the focus on evidence. The RS unit on this website tells the story of Galileo, a scientist who advocated the value of gathering evidence to test and support scientific ideas. Galileo was among a number of scientists who say that God has created a world that is open to scientific exploration. He saw science as the appropriate tool for finding out how the Universe works and he saw religion as the appropriate tool for discovering God’s plan for the Universe.
In Year 9 the RS unit introduces the so-called ‘Conflict Thesis’. It explains that in the popular press, the reaction to the publication of Darwin’s theory of evolution was described as a two horse race – science or religion. In reality, in Darwin’s time as now, opinions varied about how to make sense of the scientific and religious explanations of human origins.
Overall then, the key message in these resources for students is that science is not necessarily incompatible with faith.
Teacher Notes and Whiteboard PowerPoints
Year 7
This unit investigates the ways in which science and religion are often perceived to be in conflict. Pupils will be asked to consider the idea that it’s possible for two claims to be different but both true.
Yr7 Session 1 Whiteboard PowerPoint (Big Questions)
Yr 7 Session 2 Whiteboard PowerPoint (The Creation)
Yr7 Session 3 Whiteboard PowerPoint (Noah’s ark)
Yr 7 Whiteboard PowerPoint for a more in-depth science focus (the Big Bang Theory)
Year 8
This unit examines reasons to believe something is true.
The aim is to highlight that science and religion are in the main, addressing different questions. The scientific way of gathering evidence to support ideas cannot be applied to the types of questions that are seen as significant in religious thinking. Some ways that religious ideas are supported are given.
Yr 8 Whiteboard Presentation 1 (Optical Illusions and Galileo)
Yr 8 Whiteboard Presentation (Looking for Evidence)
Year 9
This unit is about the “Conflict View” of science and religion. Many people feel that there is a conflict between science and religion. The unit aims to explain why the conflict view gets so much attention and identify that it is not the only view. The unit includes a lesson about the impact of Darwin’s theory when it was published and explains how scientists who believe in God today accommodate this theory.
Yr 9 Whiteboard Presentation (The Origins of Life)
Year 10-11
This unit considers the kinds of question that science cannot answer, suggesting that there are some questions that will never be answered scientifically. Scientists speak about their faith and how they see it as consistent with the science they are engaged with. The media representation of the science and religion debate is also explored.
Yr 10-11 Extension Sheet Science and the Bible – Are they incompatible?