Although formulating a broadly accepted definition of scientific literacy may be challenging, it is widely recognized that Nature of Science (NOS) is an essential component of it. There are different ways to define NOS. In some cases, NOS can be conceptualized through a number of general NOS aspects like for instance science's empirical basis or…

Although unrecognized for his scientific achievements during his life, Gregor Mendel pioneered our modern understanding of the gene, work that shaped the field of genetics and advances in biology and medicine. The field that he set in motion 200 years ago lies at the center of current ethical debates about the future of humanity, the limits of…

The theory of the Big Bang is accepted nearly universally among the scientific community. However, there is a small cadre of individuals who dispute this consensus and they point to a handful of datums that don't fit into the picture. One such datum is the existence of a star with an age reported to be older than the cosmos itself. This star is…

A popular introductory physics laboratory experiment is one focusing on Snell's law. This is straightforward to complete with lasers and prisms, but here we present an alternative version that guides the students through some of the major historical developments, recreating and analyzing significant experiments. The discovery of Snell's law has a…

The history of particle physics can be considered nothing less than a huge triumph for science. Over the course of a little more than a century of effort, our understanding of the world of atomic and subatomic physics went from a vague understanding of atoms, to one that is much more detailed. Early in this hundred-year-long period, we learned…

The five papers published by Hodgkin and Huxley in 1952 are seminal works in the field of physiology, earning their authors the Nobel Prize in 1963 and ushering in the era of membrane biophysics. The papers present a considerable challenge to the novice student, but this has been partly allayed by recent publications that have updated the…

Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen, lived in Nantwich, Cheshire, UK, from 1758 to 1761. In 2019, an exhibition featuring his life and achievements, and also celebrating the International Year of the Periodic Table, was developed by the Nantwich Museum. The historical research of Priestley's life, development of the exhibition, and rationale…

The objective of this second part of the work is to present heuristic derivations of the three classical tests of general relativity. These derivations are based on the Einstein equivalence principle and use Newtonian physics as a theoretical framework. The results obtained are close to Einstein's original predictions. Historical and anecdotal…

We describe an educational activity that can be completed with mobile media devices in order to understand the working principle of a pair of tuning forks, from the Historical Collection of Physics Instruments of the University of Palermo, and how they were used to explain acoustic interference and beats with the Lissajous optical method. This…

This article introduces and contextualizes the content of this theme issue of "The American Biology Teacher" (ABT), which focuses on integrating elements of the history of science (HOS) in biology instruction. Such orientations can enhance students' understanding of core biological concepts and the process of scientific discovery by…

For some scientific ideas, it is obvious to pupils as to why they are studied. For others, a bit more work is needed before their significance becomes apparent. The concept of 'historical significance', which is used in history teaching, can help children to appreciate the enduring importance of scientific discoveries and events. The pedagogic…

Student understanding of the laws that describe the flow of a fluid is often hampered by a defective knowledge of basic classical mechanics (kinematics, statics, dynamics, and conservation laws) and by wrong common-sense ideas about quantities related to fluids, such as velocity and pressure. A pedagogical discussion about the Venturi effect,…

In the modern and exciting world of particle physics, in which scientists talk of Higgs bosons and supersymmetry, it would be natural for someone to dismiss the common proton as a particle too pedestrian to be interesting. Yet in the centennial year of the announcement of its discovery, studies of the humble nucleus of the hydrogen atom continue…

In 2018, we celebrated the sesquicentennial birthday of Robert A. Millikan, a Nobel laureate in physics who worked among the greats such as Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. His name, however, is perhaps not as widely known. He was born in 1868 in Morrison, Illinois, and moved with his family to the small town of Maquoketa, Iowa, at age nine. It was…

Some of you may remember the 1979 television series "Connections" that was written and narrated by James Burke, a British science writer. Burke's technique was to choose a number of seemingly unrelated ideas and show how they led to developments in science and technology. This is an enjoyable business, even if some of the connections…