I looked it up at Collins dictionary. There are several meanings of the word and in English, this translates as a couple of different words – conscience and awareness. They have lots of good examples:
1. (morale) conscience
avoir bonne conscience = to have a clear conscience
se donner bonne conscience = to ease one’s conscience
avoir mauvaise conscience = to have a guilty conscience
avoir la conscience tranquille = to have a clear conscience
en conscience or en toute conscience = in all conscience
avoir qch sur la conscience = to have sth on one’s conscience
2. (en locution: sensorielle) consciousness
perdre conscience = to lose consciousness
reprendre conscience = to regain consciousness
3a. (intellectuelle) awareness
3b. (psychologique) consciousness
avoir conscience de = to be aware of, to be conscious of
prendre conscience de = to become aware of
⇒ Ils ont fini par prendre conscience de la gravité de la situation. They eventually became aware of the seriousness of the situation.
prendre conscience de la nécessité de faire qch = to become aware of the need to do sth
une prise de conscience = an awareness
la prise de conscience de qch = the growing awareness of sth