Engaging students with the big questions in science: A new website to
support learning about the Nature of Science
A new website, FaradaySchools (http://faradayschools.com/), is now
live, offering materials to support with learning about the nature of
science ('how science works'). The website has been developed under
the direction of my colleague Dr Berry Billingsley at the University
of Reading, as part of the LASAR Project. LASAR is 'learning about
science and religion', and so as you might imagine this theme
features in some of the materials. The 'Faraday' in the site title
refers to the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion (based at St
Edmund's College, Cambridge), as the LASAR project was set up under
the auspices of the Faraday Institute. However the development of the
site has been guided by thinking about what might be considered as
the 'big questions' in science, so although there is material about
the nature of the relationship between science and religion (from a
number of perspectives), the resources presented do not exclusively
deal with that theme.
Obviously, I certainly cannot claim to an independent commentator (as
I am working on the research being undertaken through the LASAR
Project), but for what it is worth I do feel this is a genuine
attempt to provide thought-provoking and engaging materials to
support teaching and learning about the nature of science.
Given the strong feelings on all sides about how best (if at all) to
represent the question of how science relates to religion in schools
science, it is clearly difficult to offer students a balanced view on
this. The perspective that has informed LASAR is that scientists take
quite a range of positions on whether science has anything to say
about religious matters, and if so what; and that science education
which only reflects a single narrow view on this issue (whatever that
might be) is doing a disservice to students. I know that one concern
in designing the site has been to avoid such a single narrow view. I
hope most colleagues will feel this has been successful.
Colleagues might wish to look at the site to see if it is something
they feel could be useful in their own teaching, and/or that they
might wish to use or recommend to teachers.
The site includes a facility to offer feedback (the 'contact us' link
at the bottom of pages), and so comments will be welcome - whether
about specific points or more generally.
Best wishes
Keith
(Please note if there is any on-list discussion of this posting, I
will may share it colleagues involved in the LASAR project. I will of
course respect any explicit request that a posting should not be
passed on in that way.)