Summary
The good news is that scientific research leads to conservation efforts all over the world. However, the not-so-great news is that without social, economic, and political support from local, state, national, and international organizations or governments, conservation efforts often fail. The bottom line? Social, political, and economic concerns must be addressed in order to find successful conservation solutions.

Think Like a Scientist
Now that you have learned how political, social, and economic concerns affect science, and vice versa, you should be able to answer the following focus questions:

How does science influence the decisions made about social, economic, and political issues?
How do social, economic, and political issues affect science?
What roles do society, politics, and economics play in science?
Talk Like a Scientist
There are new vocabulary terms in this lesson:

Conservation: the ethical use and protection of the natural world and its resources
Economics: the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth
Politics: the activities dealing with the government of a country or other countries
Social issue: a problem that affects a large number of people within a society
Don't forget to use your Guided Notes to help you prepare for the assessment.

Experiment Like aScientist
Conservation Activity

What roles do society, politics, and economics play in science?

Discovering the roles and influence that society, politics, and economics have on science takes some practice. Sometimes these influences are not obvious but appear only after a solution to the problem has been tested over a period of time.

These articles describe conservation problems and solutions that were influenced by scientific, social, economic, or political issues. As you read each article, take note of the sections that represent these factors. You will use these articles in your assignment for this lesson.

Using Forests Wisely
Forest
Community Conservation
Sky view of a town

Using both of the articles, answer the questions below. You can answer questions on a word processing document and upload it for grading, or you can submit answers to questions directly. Be sure to review the grading rubric before you begin.

Summarize the scientific information that leads to conservation in each of the articles.
What social issues affected the problem or its solution in each of the stories?
How did economics delay scientists' first attempts for conservation in each story?
Describe the political actions that led to successful conservation in both stories.