The Environmental Issues section of EnviroSci Inquiry contains links to Science-Technology-Society (STS) issues-based approach simulations. These simulations present science education in a context that is appropriate for all students and provide them with the experience of learning science and technology in the context of human experience involving a real-life controversial issue. Engaging in an authentic issues makes science instruction current and part of the real world.

In STS issues-based approach simulations, students are presented with a real-world controversial issue. Students investigate the issue from different perspectives. After students complete their investigation, they participate in a public forum or debate to determine the next course of action on the issue. Classroom debates on STS issues offer students a forum to think critically about the role that science plays in societal issues. These simulations acknowledge the connection between science and the decisions individuals make about social issues.

Below are descriptions of STS issues-based approach simulations that are included and linked from LEO EnviroSci Inquiry:

Abandoned Mine Drainage in Pennsylvania is a science-technology-society (STS) role playing debate simulation. In this activity, learners investigate the AMD issue from differing perspectives. In their investigation, they identify AMD problems, search for a solution, evaluate options, and decide on a course of action to treat and clean up AMD in Pennsylvania.

The Shell Island Dilemma is a science-technology-society (STS) role playing debatesimulation. Students investigate the issues concerning the fate of the Shell Island Resort and then debate the future of this and other oceanfront structures threatened by coastal erosion. As students engage in the investigation, they identify the social, political, and scientific issues with which different stakeholders must deal. Students place themselves into the role of one of the stakeholders. Questions are used throughout the simulation to focus students' inquiry during their exploration. This Web site is maintained by Dr. Alec M. Bodzin of the SERVIT Group.

Whole Hog is an inquiry-oriented educational resource designed to help teachers and students learn about North Carolina's corporate hog industry, explore issues (i.e., environmental, health, social/political, economic) raised by the industry's rapid growth over the past decade, and examine ways North Carolinians are working to address these issues. Whole Hog's "A Family's Dilemma" is a classroom simulation exercise in which a family must decide whether to sell the farm to a large, corporate pork producer. Using selected web resources, students investigate the hog industry and related issues from the perspectives of various stakeholders. Then they discuss and debate the issues before a simulated "family" which, in turn, makes the decision. During a follow-up discussion, students express their own opinions on what the family should do. This Web site is maintained by UNC-CH Environmental Resource Program.