Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a recent
discussion-list post "Should the History of Science Be Rated X?
ADDENDA" [Hake (2012)]. The abstract reads:
***************************************************
In a previous post "Re: Should the History of Science Be Rated X?" at
<http://bit.ly/MbTWue>, I copied the abstract of Stephen Brush's
(1974) <http://bit.ly/OpQNbw> classic essay of the above title, but
was unable to furnish the references because I did not have access to
Brush's complete article. I've now located an online copy at
<http://bit.ly/MfDWs7>. In this post I give:
a. Brush's abstract WITH references taken from the online version of
Brush (1974), but converted to quasi-APA style and updated so as to
include hot-links where available;
b. reactions to Brush (1974) in articles (a) "U-Rated Not X-Rated:
Reassessing How Science Students Could Benefit from Learning History
of Science" [Gooday (2005)] at <http://bit.ly/NPmCvB>, and (b) "Does
science education need the history of science?" [Gooday et al.
(2008)] at <http://bit.ly/LciPpO>;
c. references to a over 30 articles directly relevant to the use of
history in science teaching;
d. six quotes on the non-text-book-nature of science progress as
borne out by my own involvement in the convoluted early history of
high-magnetic-field superconductivity.
***************************************************
"Such puzzling concepts as force, energy, etc., are man-made and were
evolved in an understandable sequence in response to acutely felt and
very real problems. They were not handed down by some celestial
textbook writer to whom they were immediately self-evident."
- D.S.L. Cardwell (1963-1964)
"[One of the hallmarks of science literacy is to] recognize that
scientific concepts (e.g., velocity, acceleration, force, energy,
electrical charge, gravitational and inertial mass) are invented (or
created) by acts of human intelligence and are not tangible objects
or substances accidentally discovered, like a fossil, or a new plant
or mineral."
- Arnold Arons (1983)
REFERENCES [URL shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 08 July 2012.
Arons, A.B. 1997. "Teaching Introductory Physics," p. 362. Wiley,
publisher's information at <http://bit.ly/jBcyBU>. Amazon.com
information at <http://amzn.to/bBPfop>, note the searchable "Look
Inside" feature.
Cardwell, D.S.L. 1963-1964. "Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society" 106:108
Hake, R.R. 2012. "Should the History of Science Be Rated X?
ADDENDA,"online on the OPEN AERA-L archives at
<http://bit.ly/LVI5Cf>. Post of 13 Jul 2012 13:51:41-0700 to AERA-L
and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post were
transmitted to several discussion lists and are also on my blog
"Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/NUe6LC> with a provision for
comments.