Discusses the philosophical strengths and weaknesses of Laudan's normative naturalism, which understands the principles of scientific method to be akin to scientific hypotheses, and therefore open to test like any principle of science. Contains 19 references. (Author/WRM)

Argues that a broadly inductivist view of science, including its observational base, is the most appropriate approach to the philosophy of science. (Author/WRM)

Chaos theory is critically examined from the perspective of the philosophy of science. Chaos theory is summarized and related to the principle distinctions of scientific methodology. The relationship of worldviews, values and scientific theory is discussed. Conceptual and terminological issues are clarified; usefulness in counseling is discussed.…

"Benchmarks" and "Standards" describe science in terms that seem to emphasize tentative, local knowledge while at other times emphasizing stable, universal knowledge. Presents an overall picture of science to be one of modern realism, and shows how the postmodern relativist could select statements that paint a scene as…

Describes a particularly useful theme that reveals the structure of certain scientific explanations relevant to the study of chemistry and provides an example of a theme for an introduction to chemistry. (Author/YDS)

Reports on a study designed to: (a) understand the nature of science as progressive transitions in heuristic principles; and (b) provide a rationale for the inclusion of three more characteristics of the nature of science to the original five suggested by Smith and Scharmann. Concludes that nature of science manifests in different topics of the…

Responds to "Understanding Nature of Science as Progressive Transitions in Heuristic Principles" by Mansoor Niaz. Concludes that the historical vignettes provided by Niaz provide interesting insights into the nature of science but that the proposed characterizations do not help distinguish things that are more scientific from things that are less…

Describes how some of the Theory of Knowledge (ToK) requirements, which is a central part of the International Baccalaurate (IB) Diploma program, for the natural sciences component can be addressed through case studies from the history of chemistry and related subjects. Provides examples for the 'Ideas and evidence in science' which can be useful…

Discusses the similarities between Kuhn's essay about scientific revolutions and Popper's idea of falsification. Assesses Kuhn's contribution to the theory of naturalism. (Author/CCM)

Introduces a high school science curriculum that embodies inquiry-based genetics, evolution, and astronomy. Presents two astronomy units of scientific modeling. The first activity involves a black box to explain a hidden mechanism's effect on the outflow of water. The second activity involves the development of celestial motion models to explain…

Discusses the extent to which contemporary science curricula include knowledge of the nature of science as a goal of science instruction. Outlines the crucial role played by the pendulum in the achievements of the scientific revolution and documents how little these achievements are acknowledged in standard textbooks. (Contains 31 references.)…

Educating the public about safety issues related to severe weather is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) mission. This month's insert, Severe Weather, has been created by NOAA to help educate the public about hazardous weather conditions. The four types of severe weather highlighted in this poster are hurricanes,…

This research focused on the interactionist conceptual ecologies of inservice teachers and how these ecologies influenced these teachers' conceptual frameworks for the nature of science (NOS). The participants in the study were five teachers enrolled in a graduate course focused on NOS. Data included participants' responses to open-ended and…

Some teachers have difficulty understanding Bernoulli's principle particularly when the principle is applied to the aerodynamic lift. Some teachers favor using Newton's laws instead of Bernoulli's principle to explain the physics behind lift. Some also consider Bernoulli's principle too difficult to explain to students and avoid teaching it…

A professor of biology discovered that the people who are in literature rather than science, saw the same readings very differently and were looking for very different things like how nature writings expressed the author's views on nature, or what they communicated about the human experience of the living world. Further he visits London to see the…