Vanessa Nambo

Perspectives: Helping Students Understand the Nature of Science

Tue, Jun 14, 2011 8:49 PM
Review

This article highlights the importance of teaching the "nature of science." It contains key information such as how the media can play a vital role in the students' ideas about science as well as the actual school's science experiences (i.e. textbooks). Some students may believe that science never changes and that it is merely a procedure. They may not view science as a hands-on, inquiry-based subject. In the article, the teacher showed students how science can change by having them do inquiry based activities themselves. The teacher asked questions comparing their inquiry-based lesson how actual scientists "do science." This is something that we as educators need to realize : students will not fully understand what science is unless they actually do science. Students need to do hands-on activities so that they don't have the misconception that students had in this article about science never changing and being the same. The article also states that research has proven that just doing science is not enough; in depth discussions also need to take place in order for students to understand. During discussions, teachers should emphasize that science can be exciting by using creativity. In addition, the article states that educators must have a clear understanding of the specific content they are teaching and encourage students to write, draw, or discuss their own ideas about science and scientists. This article is a helpful reminder.