Scientific Change in the Renaissance: From Bacon to Descartes to Newton

This episode of the 12 U/C West and World Podcast guides Grade 12 students through the story of scientific change during the Renaissance and early Scientific Revolution. Framed in a narrative, classroom-friendly style, the episode explains how new ways of thinking about knowledge and nature emerged, focusing on three key figures: Francis Bacon, René Descartes, and Isaac Newton. Students hear how Renaissance humanism, renewed interest in classical texts, and conflicts with religious authorities created space for experimentation and observation. The hosts explore Bacon’s push for empirical, collaborative research and inductive reasoning, Descartes’ method of doubt, rationalism, and mechanistic view of nature, and Newton’s synthesis of mathematics, observation, and experiment into universal laws of motion and gravitation. Along the way, the episode contrasts medieval explanations of the world with the new scientific method, highlights links to figures like Copernicus, Galileo, Vesalius, and Harvey, and shows how these changes laid foundations for modern science. Built specifically for classroom use, the episode includes frequent short pauses with clear writing prompts. Students are asked to jot down quick responses about how scientific methods shifted, how Bacon, Descartes, and Newton each contributed differently to this change, and how their ideas still shape how we think about truth and evidence today.