Lesson 1: The Scientific Revolution
Duration of Days: 4
Lesson Objective
Students will analyze how new scientific methods and discoveries challenged traditional authority and transformed ways of understanding the natural world.
How did the Scientific Revolution change how people understood knowledge and truth?
Why did scientific discoveries challenge established institutions?
How do new ways of thinking reshape societies?
Scientific method
Empiricism
Observation
Intellectual change
HIS.9-12.1 Analyze the relationships among historical events, developments, and processes over time.
HIS.9-12.10 Analyze the role of ideas, knowledge, and culture in shaping historical change.
Students evaluate claims supported by evidence and analyze arguments presented in informational texts.
Students examine key scientific ideas and evaluate how the Scientific Revolution reshaped intellectual authority and knowledge systems. Primary DOK level: 3.
Connections to modern debates about science, evidence, and public trust in scientific institutions.
Students may assume scientific progress occurs quickly or without resistance.
Students may view scientific change as isolated from social or political contexts.
Graphic organizers for comparing scientific ideas.
Structured note-taking supports.
Written explanation through DBQ connecting scientific ideas to shifts in authority.
Scientific diagrams, excerpts from historical texts, visual timelines.