Describes the use of biographical stories to promote student interest in plant biology. Discusses plant hunters of various time periods, including ancient, middle ages, renaissance, colonial Americas, and 18th and 19th centuries; women plant hunters of the 1800s and early 1900s; and modern plant hunters. Discusses classroom strategies for the…

Presents ideas and activities to be used in a course on the history and systems of psychology. Explains that the students prepared topic summaries to demonstrate knowledge rather that formal testing. Describes projects such as a reaction journal, intellectual genealogy, textbook comparison, and multiple timelines. (DK)

Describes a teaching tool that helps students understand that science is not a fixed body of knowledge but a continuous, dynamic process of human searching for answers often over a very long period of time. Using historical vignettes (short stories), teachers can help students make connections between the past and the present. (ZWH)

A five-week introductory unit on electricity, structured in a historical perspective provided by the letters of Ben Franklin, is described. (CP)

Argues that the field of inorganic chemistry is facing an identity crisis. Proposes that the current call for curriculum reform in inorganic chemistry is an opportunity to return to a stronger discipline. Presents a history of freshman chemical education and recommends a new program for inorganic chemistry. (TW)

This paper describes a fictitious scene that could be used to support role-playing activities in the science classroom. The scripted scenes contain interviews with Gabriel Fahrenheit and Anders Celsius regarding the development of their temperature scales. Although the scenes are imagined, the scientific concepts are factual and could be used to…

Proposes that physics teachers play the role of Galileo. Describes historical resources, costumes, materials, makeup, and objectives of the role-play. Provides three references on Galileo. (YP)

Presents historical background and modern explanations for the popular demonstration of showing conductivity of solutions through the insertion of a light-bulb conductivity tester into deionized water and water with salt in it. (PR)

Describes the history, chemistry, and uses of sulfuric acid. Presents demonstrations with this the cheapest bulk acid that is available in every country of the world. (PR)

Interest in the application of the history and philosophy of science to science education raises important questions about the effect such considerations will have on educational practice. In this paper, the application emphasizes concepts related to theory testing and theory development specifically and to the growth of knowledge generally. This…

An approach is suggested for teaching science history through inquiry training. A series of investigations are given for illustrating to students the manner in which organisms are grouped taxonomically. (SA)

Presents an activity that allows students to experience the type of discovery process that paleontologists necessarily followed during the early dinosaur explorations. Students are read parts of a story taken from the "American Journal of Science" and interpret the evidence leading to the discovery of Triceratops and Stegosaurus. (PR)

After proposing and defining the superordinate concept of "historicality," fundamental interrelationships between time, events, memory, meaning, personal knowledge, public knowledge, and the histories of science are explored. Relevant research findings that demonstrate the confluence of scholarly thought concerning historicality across…

Presented is a menu designed to illustrate some classical examples of fermentation. This may be used to discuss biotechnology from a technological perspective. Other examples of biotechnology used in the foods industry are described. (CW)

The significant stages in the development of understanding of the concept of electric charge are discussed. The history is outlined with references to certain important experiments, and suggestions are made for relevant school demonstrations and experiments. (KR)