The nature versus nurture debate is at the core of most introductory units in Sociology. This starter activity

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uses different behaviours to illustrate the debate and asks students to decide whether they think the behaviour is a result of nature or nurture. The PowerPoint suggests using mini-whiteboards but if you don’t have these you could substitute it with having students move to one side of the classroom or the other, depending on their views.

If you have any students also studying Biology and/or Chemistry alongside Sociology, they might find the Nuffield Foundations resources helpful:

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The dyslexia task is one that could be used in lesson as it is likely that students are already familiar with the condition and can use their current understanding as the basis for looking at dyslexia as a product of both the environment and genes. It also considers dyslexia in the context of other languages such as Chinese and Japanese which provides a neat link back to Japanese culture studied earlier.

Another topic within which the nature versus nurture debate can be contextualised is athletics. This 5 minute BBC clip (shown during the 2012 London Olympic Games) asks why so many black athletes are world champions? It refers back to the Berlin games of 1936 and Hitler’s intent to create a ‘superior Aryan race’ – somewhat undermined by Jesse Owens, quadruple gold winner.