Resources by Institute of Ideas

Neuroscience and the Law

Produced by Debating Matters, this topic guide puts the neuroscience and the law debate in context, providing information, a reading list and weblinks. The resource encourages students to debate issues such as:
• Diminishing responsibility
• The limits of neuroscience
• A question of free will...

Nuclear Power

Produced by Debating Matters, these materials help your students to debate, analyse and understand issues in contemporary science. These materials look at the topic of nuclear power and asks should we abandon it in the light of the Fukushima power plant incident? On 11 March 2011, Japan was hit by a huge earthquake...

Older Mums

Produced for the Debating Matters competition, this topic guide looks at the issue of women using reproductive medicine to have babies when they are beyond their natural childbearing age. It includes information, further reading and web links on the topic.

Advances in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART...

Organ and Tissue Donation

Produced for the Debating Matters competition, this topic guide looks at the use of financial incentives to encourage greater tissue and organ donations. It contains information, further reading and web links that help students to understand and debate the issues.

In the UK, there is a shortage of organ...

Organic Food

Produced by Debating Matters, this topic guide looks at the issues around organic food. It contains information, further reading and web link that help students consider whether people should embrace organic foods.

Following the release of research from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), claiming that organic...

Performance Enhancing Drugs

This topic guide, produced for the Debating Matters competition, asks should the use of performance enhancing drugs be permitted in sport? The guide contains information, further reading and web links which allow students to understand and debate the issues.

Anti-doping authorities and campaigners argue that...

Population Growth

Produced by Debating Matters, this topic guide helps students to understand the issues around continued human population growth. The resource contains information, further reading and web links related to the topic. An increasing human population is having a greater impact on the Earth. However, critics point out...

Public Health

Produced as part of the Debating Matters series, this activity looks at the Government's role in public health and what actions should be taken to prevent unhealthy life choices.

Governments have sought to improve public health by advertising, campaigns and targeted programmes. However, some have started to...

Recycling

Produced by Debating Matters, this topic guide looks at the value of recycling household waste. It has been argued that our concern with recycling is out of all proportion with its benefits and that our priorities have become skewed.

Is recycling an essential part of raising environmental awareness, or...

Scepticism and Science

This topic guide, produced for the Debating Matters competition, considers scepticism in relation to the debate over climate change. Some commentators have concluded that scientists need to be more candid about the degrees of uncertainty in climate change predictions. Others believe that climate change sceptics...