Drexel Institute of Technology began an information science (IS) curriculum in 1963. This article deals with the eight years of the separate degree program from fall 1963 to fall 1971. The author recalls the background, need, and Drexel's response as learned from her experience as student and faculty member in the program, and comments…

Describes an idea that puts scientists to work alongside teachers in elementary school classrooms. (CCM)

Examines case studies highlighting accountability, and relates accountability to concepts of responsibility and duty of care. Presents arguments against holding librarians accountable for misinformation, namely, the lack of contract between librarian and patron and the distinction drawn between information intermediaries (librarians) and knowledge…

Good resources for teaching elementary science content abound, making science more accessible to everyone and helping teachers enhance their presentation of science topics. However, there is one important aspect of science that sometimes proves a bit more difficult to teach: introducing students to the idea of the nature of science. Nature of…

Biochemists and life scientists in general are now encountering a paradox regarding the public image of their work; society demands and encourages pursuit of more knowledge but at the same time is suspicious and fears the novelties it brings. At this historical moment, we are experiencing a delicate balance between the birth of a new era and a…

Every time an English professor assigns a novel, poem, or play for a class to analyze, he or she is using the case study method. Why shouldn't scientists do the same? They don't always have to write their own material. After all, there are some pretty good writers out there, and some of them actually slip a lot of science into the nooks and…

As we enter our second century, it is an appropriate time for sociologists to take stock of where we have been and where we are going. Although most of this reflection appears to focus on substantive matters, Timothy Patrick Moran is right in arguing that their gaze ought to extend to how they teach graduate statistics. This article presents the…

Nanotechnology deals with machines, materials, and structures and their behaviors at the scale of atoms and molecules, or the nanoscale. By working on this scale, scientists are able to create enhanced materials with desirable properties, such as stain-resistance. The authors developed the activity described in this article to introduce middle…

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent anthrax bioterrorism mailings, the science community and others worried that technical articles might inadvertently aid those planning acts of terrorism. Some authors asked the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) for permission to withhold critical information from…

In the 1950s, under the aegis of such leading sociologists as Talcott Parsons, anthropologists like Clyde Kluckhohn of Harvard and Alfred Kroeber of the University of California at Berkeley, as well as political scientists Gabriel Almond and Lucien Pye, of Yale and MIT, respectively, the analysis of societal and political culture came to play a…

This article presents the author's acceptance address for receiving the Peter Shaw award. In this address, the author, an immigrant sociologist, tells how this award helps to resolve questions and uncertainties he has as to the degree to which he can or should consider himself an American--about the extent to which he has become a part, a member…

The practice of science has been characterized as the systematic application of common sense. This view, frequently held by scientists themselves, holds that the same qualities that allow pre-industrial societies, pioneers, cast-aways, and common folk everywhere to cope with their environment and prosper also make for good scientists. However,…

It has been reported that science has gone through an institutional crisis and that science in Russia as a whole has been deinstitutionalized. This article is an attempt to make use of the example of scientific organizations in St. Petersburg in order to trace the changes that have been going on in science in the past few years as a result of…

Conceptual change researchers have made significant progress on two prominent but competing theoretical perspectives regarding knowledge structure coherence. These perspectives can be broadly characterized as (1) knowledge-as-theory perspectives and (2) knowledge-as-elements perspectives. These perspectives can be briefly summarized in terms of…

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science is among the world's premier supporters of basic research. The Office of Science enables the U.S. to maintain its competitive edge by funding science that can transform its energy future, supports its national security and seeks to understand the fundamentals of matter and energy itself. To do…