Search

These essays draw on recent and versatile work by museum staff, science educators, and teachers, showing what can be done with historical scientific instruments or replicas. Varied audiences - with members just like you - can be made aware of exciting aspects of history, observation, problem-solving, restoration, and scientific understanding, by the projects outlined here by professional practitioners. These interdisciplinary case studies, ranging from the cinematic to the hands-on, show how inspiration concerning science and the past can give intellectual pleasure as well as authentic learning to new participants, who might include people like you: students, teachers, curators, and the interested and engaged public. Contributors are Dominique Bernard, Paolo Brenni, Roland Carchon, Elizabeth Cavicchi, Stéphane Fischer, Peter Heering, J.W. Huisman, Françoise Khantine-Langlois, Alistair M. Kwan, Janet Laidla, Pierre Lauginie, Panagiotis Lazos, Pietro Milici, Flora Paparou, Frédérique Plantevin, Julie Priser, Alfonso San-Miguel, Danny Segers, Constantine (Kostas) Skordoulis, Trienke M. van der Spek, Constantina Stefanidou, and Giorgio Strano.

Die experimentelle Wissenschaftsgeschichte rekonstruiert in ihrem Vorgehen das Verfahren der historischen Wissenschaften. Sie bezieht sich nicht nur auf die Quellen, die in der Tradition der Wissenschaften selbst übermittelt wurden, sondern auch auf Aussagen über Handlungspraktiken der Wissenschaften, deren historische Geräte und deren Materialien. Sie stellt derartige Praktiken nach, rekonstruiert mit ihnen vormalige Verfahren, Gerätschaften und den Umgang mit ihnen und ist somit in ihrem methodischen Ansatz selbst experimentell. Ziel der experimentellen Wissenschaftsgeschichte ist ein Verständnis des Zusammenhangs von Objekten, Praktiken, Ideen und handelnden Subjekten in den historischen Wissenschaften. Das Forschungszentrum Laboratorium Aufklärung untersucht die Grundlagen der im langen 18. Jahrhundert angelegten Moderne und setzt diese kritisch zu den gegenwärtigen Entwicklungen in Staat, Gesellschaft, Religion, Wissenschaft und Künsten in Beziehung.

This volume includes a selection of contributions to the 6th International Conference for the History of Science in Science Education held at the Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg in July 2006. The conference was devoted to discussing the function of historical contexts in science education. Some of the papers in this collection discuss this issue from a theoretical point of view, others describe practical teaching experiences; they cover examples from the fields of astronomy, biology, mathematics, and physics. Bringing them together should make manifest the potential of using historical contexts in science education, in particular in teaching not only science but also the nature of science.

'Learning by Doing'is about the history of experimentation in science education. The teaching of science through experiments and observation is essential to the natural sciences and its pedagogy. These have been conducted as both demonstration or as student exercises. The experimental method is seen as giving the student vital competence, skills and experiences, both at the school and at the university level. This volume addresses the historical development of experiments in science education, which has been largely neglected so far. The contributors of'Learning by Doing'pay attention to various aspects ranging from economic aspects of instrument making for science teaching, to the political meanings of experimental science education from the 17th to the 20th century. This collected volume opens the field for further debate by emphasizing the importance of experiments for both, historians of science and science educators.