Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] A new website to support learning about the Nature of Science



Thank you Joe. Such comments are helpful (even if not easily responded to!), and I'll feed this (and any other relevant comments) back to the writing team.

Best wishes

Keith


At 11:37 -0400 24/8/11, Joseph Bellina wrote:
Keith,
I am a bit uncomfortable with the Galileo story. It is very carefully worded to describe it correctly, that is that Galileo did not have data to prove the heliocentric model, but I think that might be missed by students and teachers. It gives the impression that he did, when what he had was evidence that the Aristotelean view of the world was not consistent with his observations. For example, as pointed out in the text, according to the conventional view there should be no change above the lunar orbit, but here were obvious signs of change on the moon. Another important observation was the moons of Jupiter as he describes in the Starry Messenger. All these eroded the validity of the conventional model which included the geocentric idea, thereby strengthening his view that some other model, the heliocentric one was the way the heavens went.

Not sure how you make this more clear to the students since it supposes other knowledge, but I thought I would make the comment.

joe

Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
Retired Professor of Physics
Co-Director
Northern Indiana Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Collaborative
574-276-8294
inquirybellina@comcast.net




On Aug 24, 2011, at 11:11 AM, Dr. Keith S. Taber wrote:

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.)




--
Dr. Keith S. Taber

http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/staff/taber.html
https://camtools.cam.ac.uk/access/wiki/site/~kst24/index.html

Author: Progressing Science Education - Constructing the Scientific
Research Programme into the Contingent Nature of Learning Science
(Springer: 2009)

University Senior Lecturer in Science Education

Science Education Centre
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
184 Hills Road
Cambridge CB2 8PQ
United Kingdom

to join an electronic discussion list on
learning in science
please visit
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/learning-science-concepts
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


--
Dr. Keith S. Taber

http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/staff/taber.html
https://camtools.cam.ac.uk/access/wiki/site/~kst24/index.html

Author: Progressing Science Education - Constructing the Scientific Research Programme into the Contingent Nature of Learning Science (Springer: 2009)

University Senior Lecturer in Science Education

Science Education Centre
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
184 Hills Road
Cambridge CB2 8PQ
United Kingdom

to join an electronic discussion list on
learning in science
please visit
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/learning-science-concepts