Science Reading Comprehension Passages and Questions - Critical Thinking Tasks

Help your students become future-proof with these captivating science reading comprehension passages and questions on nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, automation, and brain-computer interfacing. Each are carefully designed to get your students thinking and responding critically to questions about how technology influences society and the world around them. The activities and tasks included in this science reading bundle promise an incredible educational experience that will teach your students about these cutting-edge scientific topics and help them build masterful reading comprehension skills.

A total of four science reading comprehension passages are included in this bundle, and they are perfect for late middle and early high school students who are interested in cutting edge science and technology:

1. Artificial Intelligence
2. Nanotechnology
3. Automation and the Future of Work
4. Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)

This Reading Comprehension Bundle helps guide your students through these complicated topics in a way that makes sense using scaffolded activities and tasks:

• academic vocabulary activities
• scaffolded reading tasks & questions
• critical thinking questions and prompts
• group discussions
• making inferences
• comparing and contrasting
• academic writing assignments
• projects
• debates
• and MORE!

✅ Incredible Learning Experiences: Designed for visual learners who love it when complex texts are dispersed with stunning visuals, the reading passages in this bundle give students easy-to-chew information with graphics and visuals that make each topic more easily comprehensible. Questions and tasks are also presented in a way that breaks up the monotony of academic questions. The difficult information is snuck in under the radar!

✅ Complicated Topics Made Easy: This science reading comprehension bundle was built for upper-middle and high school students who want to know more about cutting science and technology but may find the topics too complex. The layout and presentation of each resource scaffolds learning through a series of vocabulary, main idea, supporting details, and reading checks to build awareness of each topic slowly, all before getting to the critical thinking questions. This slow-release formula helps students feel less stressed when reading and more aware of their own learning.

✅ Reading Tasks and Activities that Actually Work: The structure of the science reading passages on nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, automation, brain-computer interfacing purposefully puts the students first by personalizing each topic for them in a way that generates buy-in and raises engagement levels.

With questions like “How does automation impact the workforce?” and “What makes a person a person?” students will be compelled to not only answer questions and have discussions with their peers; they’ll be inspired to go beyond each topic and learn more.

✅ Read and Link to Real-World Issues Facing Society: Students will not only be reading about cutting-edge scientific topics, they will work towards linking the information they learn with society and the world. Each lesson starts with a ‘Big Picture’ theme and question that orients students to the topic. While reading about nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, automation, and brain-computer interfacing, their confidence levels of each grows, and they then can answer the questions at the end of each lesson.

Big Picture Themes & Questions:

• Creativity – Which human-centric skill do you feel is the most important for young people to master and why? (explored in Automation)
• Responsibility – Will civilization lose more than it will gain by having artificial intelligence as part of society? (explored in Artificial Intelligence)
• Cooperation – What are the similarities between monkeys and nanobots? (explored in Nanotechnology)
• Convergence – As BCI technology converges with our brains, how might our understanding of what it means to be human change? (explored in Brain-Computer Interface)

✅ Pre-planned Lessons & Guided Reading: If you’re looking for a way to cut down on your prep-time, then you’ll love the pages of lesson plans that come with each reading comprehension passage. Build students’ aware of artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and automation using lead-in activities. Differentiate instruction with alternative pedagogical approaches. Control the pace and flow of each lesson with the sequenced procedures. The student workbooks have guided instructions for each section, so they can easily follow along with your instruction, OR you can assign these reading passages as independent work packets. They can read and learn about the topics independently on their own!

WHAT TEACHERS ARE SAYING:

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Catherine said, "Great information. I cut it down using only 1-2 slides at a time as my students tend to get a bit overwhelmed. Once the students got into the information aspects they were fascinated.”

The package includes PDF files and can be opened using your preferred PDF reader. There are 4 lessons total: Nanotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, Automation & the Future of Work, and Brain-Computer Interface. Along with the student workbooks, you’ll also get full lesson plans with each resource, along with notes and answer keys.

Each reading comprehension passage can be used in both your physical classroom or in any online learning environment. You'll get PDF pages AND access to the Google Slides® for going paperless.

Check out some of my other themes and topics:

• Essay Writing
• Media Bias
• Resumé Writing
• Social/Emotional Support
• The Hidden Temple Fiction Reading Passages
• Creative Writing
• Black Holes
• Teaching Grammar

Check out my other best selling series, 21st Century Language Learning here.

You may also like my lesson on ChatGPT and Generative A.I.See it here!

Terms of Use:

This resource was created by Landon S. Seigler of ESL Lifeline, all rights are reserved. The original purchaser is permitted to use it for a single class only. Teachers have the authorization to share this product with their students (and parents) through email, Google Classroom, or the Internet, as long as the site is password protected. Distribution to your own students is allowed, but uploading it to the Internet for public access and download is not permitted.

**If you wish to use this resource for multiple classrooms or share it with fellow educators, please purchase additional licenses from ESL Lifeline’s store on Tpt – they are discounted. Your adherence to these usage terms is greatly appreciated.