This manuscript asks questions about what may be the naturalized, or taken for granted, ideologies in science education regarding religion. There have been times in history when religion has taken a dogmatic role in limiting the practices of science (e.g., the Roman Catholic Church and Galileo). This manuscript reflects on the dogmatic rule of…

Summarizes chemical principles underlying the operation of automobiles and the cause of air pollution, including concentrations of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, and oxides of nitrogen. Comments and opinions are made concerning present and future pollution control devices. (CC)

Summarizes current status of our knowledge about acid-base interactions, including Lewis considerations, experimental design, data about donor-acceptor systems, common misconceptions, and hard-soft acid-base model. Indicates that there is the possibility of developing unifying concepts for chemical reactions of inorganic compounds. (CC)

Discusses fundamentals of rainbow formation, including the reflection and dispersion theories underlying primary, secondary and high-order bows. Included is a series of further analytical problems. (CC)

This paper on alternatives in teacher education begins by analyzing the current emphasis on the scientific approach in education. The author finds the promise of the scientific approach to be illusory. He defines it as education that promotes behavior change in some desirable direction. However, this definition, which the author finds equally…

Although social scientists are often adjured to become more "scientific," they might well remember a phenomenon described by Arthur Lovejoy as "metaphysical pathos" or the set of sentiments with which every theory is associated and which are congruent with the mood or deep lying sentiment of its adherents. Examples from the past include the Social…

Using examples this article tries to dispel a common misconception that theories "mature" into laws by constant testing and confirmation. (GA)

Discusses the development, field testing, and validation of an instrument designed to assess secondary school students' understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge. (GA)

This paper provides a log and discussion of experiments conducted by a five-and-one-half-year-old child under the direction of the author. (SD)

Philosophical challenges as well as major social problems are at the root of current criticisms of science. The author presents the case that the suspension of belief in modern science should be the focus of contemporary studies of the social dimensions of science. (Author/AJ)

Suggests that educated persons should be exposed to a body of conceptual knowledge which includes basic principles of the biological and physical sciences. Practical examples involving force, sound, light, waves, and density of water are cited. A lesson on animal tracks using principles of force and pressure is also described. (DH)

Discussed is the tendency in science to challenge obvious explanation for observed phenomenon. Ten examples are given where the initial obvious explanation was subsequently shown to be totally incorrect. Four examples that relate to biomedicine are presented in detail. (SL)

Discusses the cultural role that scientific thought has historically played in relation to social theories, and the increasing influence of biology, ethology, and ecology on social models. (MLH)

A discrepant event is a happening contrary to our current beliefs. Discrepant events are said to be useful in clarifying concepts. This is one of the interesting features of current theories of constructivism. The story of Mpemba's ice cream is quite well known, but it is the educational aspects of the experiment that are of interest in this…

"Inquiry" is the enterprise by which scientists generate theory. It is also a broadly-applied label for instructional approaches in which teachers and students emulate the activity of scientists in order to generate personal knowledge of natural phenomena and to come to understand the canons of disciplinary knowledge-building. Despite the ubiquity…