Is it worth teaching the science of controversies?

Reading through a paper for an education subject, I came across this very interesting paragraph:

"In addition, the science needed for an understanding may be so recent as to post-date the school years of most adults: for example, this was the case with the recent SSE (mad cow disease) controversy. If we teach young people the science they need to understand a current-day issue, it is very likely that the scientific knowledge involved will last them for a very few years after leaving school: either the science will be dated or the controversy will be overtaken."

So in other words they are saying that there is no point teaching the science of current controversies (such as Mad Cow, or Swine Flu, GM, climate change etc) because in a few years the science will be outdated, or it won’t be a controversy any more.

Let’s look at the Mad Cow controversy – people were getting sick and even dying from eating beef. The science told us that bacteria cause Mad Cow disease, and that you should cook beef at around 70 degrees Celsius, because at that temperature the bacteria that causes the disease would die. Even though the controversy came to an end, anyone who learned that little bit of science could continue to use that scientific knowledge throughout the rest of their lives, and pass it on to others.

So I wonder how true that paragraph is? Surely big, long standing controversies such as climate change and GM won’t be solved quickly or neatly. I think they will be around for a long time, purely due to their nature.

No matter if they linger or come to a quick close, I think teaching people some of the science of these controversies would be beneficial, and last them for a long time. Even if the scientific knowledge becomes outdated, if a person understood that outdated knowledge, they should be better able to understand the newer knowledge.

But then we circle back to my last post – how much of what should we teach people?

The paper that the quote came from was:

Smith DV, Gunstone RF. Science curriculum in the market liberal society of the twenty-first century: ‘Re-visioning’ the idea of science for all. Research in Science Education. 2009;39:1.   Link