As well as teaching physics, I am part of a group of teachers responsible
for the "Theory of Knowledge" course in the Internationl Baccalaureate. This
is an interdisciplinary course in which students are to be led to reflect on
the bases for knowledge in the different subjects they study.
In a couple of weeks it will again be time to organise the annual "Science
Seminar" - about 10 hours' activities over 2 days - in the course of which
we seek to raise awareness of the issues underlying scientific knowledge
claims. The "customers" are 100 pretty able 17-18 yr olds, in their
penultimate year of school. All are doing the IB Diploma, and so take either
one or two science courses spanning 2 years.
In the past it has gone like this:
- An introduction on the "traditional" ideas of scientific method. Theories
and models to explain and predict empirical laws, which are arrived at by
observation and inductive reasoning.
- A session playing Eleusis, the inductive card game. Based on the
description in Martin Gardner's book. They are invited to observe the
usefulness of falsifications as well as confirmations.
- "Problems of Inductive Reasoning". They've recently had a session on
logic, so can appreciate Hempel's paradox as an entertaining way to counter
ideas of "proof" by experiment.
- Karl Popper's ideas. A very well informed colleague (who does not think
much of KP) does a fairly stimulating lecture.
- "Black Boxes" A hands-on activity in which students end up examing the
different ways they behave when they are investigating cluelessly, vs when
they already have a partly-formed hypothesis.
- Thomas Kuhn's view of science.
- A video from the Open University (UK) about Dr Semmelweiss investigating
the cause of childbed fever (illustrates pre-paradigm vs paradigm-directed
activity)
- last year we showed a sort of biographical video of Feynman doing all
sorts of Feynmanlike stuff
- various small-group seminars offered by colleagues. Last year we had Chaos
Theory, Memetics, Evolution of Altruistic Behaviour, Detailed examination of
Copernican vs Ptolemaic Systems - Is Either "Right"?, and some others that I
can't remember.
- On the same two days, in the afternoons, they are in the labs finishing
their science projects, which they will have been at for two weeks before.
I'm posting all this because recent discussion on this list challenges some
of the underlying assumptions in the view of science that (I think) I
present. I'm aware, too, that it's all a bit dated. In the view of esteemed
phys-l list members, what could be added/cut/changed? What radical new ideas
about the nature of science have passed me by?
Mark.
Mark Sylvester
United World College of the Adriatic
34013 Duino TS
Italy.
msylvest@spin.it
tel: +39 49 3739 255