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It has long been argued that nature of science (NOS) is an important part of science teaching. In the literature, many different approaches to NOS have been suggested. This article focuses on a storytelling approach, and builds on data from audio recordings from three middle-school (school year 6) classrooms. The three science classes are run by three science teachers who have been introduced to NOS and storytelling during a one-day workshop. These three teachers chose to tell the students a story about Ernest Rutherford. The stories told by the teachers, as well as the whole-class discussions afterwards, are analysed with respect to what NOS aspects were communicated. The results show that many different NOS aspects, such as the tentative nature of scientific models, empirical aspects of the scientific knowledge process, as well as human aspects of science, emerge in the context of the story about Rutherford and his work on the atomic model. The results indicate promising possibilities for storytelling as an approach to NOS teaching.

This paper discusses essential elements of the philosophical works of Ludwik Fleck (1896-1961) and their potential interpretation for the teaching and learning of science. In the early twentieth century, Fleck made substantial contributions to understanding the sociological character of the nature of science and explaining the embedding of science in society. His works have several parallels to the later and very popular work, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," by Thomas S. Kuhn, although Kuhn only indirectly referred to the influence of Fleck on his own theories. Starting from a short review of the life of Ludwik Fleck, his philosophical work and its connections to Kuhn, this paper elaborates upon and illustrates how his theories can be considered for science education in order to provide learners with a better understanding of the nature of scientific endeavor and the bi-directional science-to-society links.

This paper describes a new approach towards the implementation of history of physics in physics education. Reconstructed historical instruments are given to secondary school students. These students are requested to analyze these devices with the aim of collecting sufficient information in order to build their own working version of this device. Whilst the initial instruments were built according to source information, the students can modify materials, dimensions etc. in order to come up with a device that is their individual representation of the initial device. In working on their own version of the instrument, the students shall be enabled to understand that instruments were built on purpose by skilled craftsmen. Thus, they are enabled to understand that science is not merely done by geniuses, but also skilled workers are crucial to scientific practices. Moreover, through this approach the institution has its own version of the instrument that can be used in future science teaching. In this paper, the approach and its conceptual background will be described; its realization and first experiences will be discussed.

Particularly in the second half of the 20th century, historical approaches became relevant in science education. This development can at least in part be explained with the growing awareness of the importance to address Nature of Science aspects in science education. In comparison to the international publications, some particularities can be identified in Germany. Most notably, using historical approaches is mainly limited to the field of physics education, only few approaches can be found in chemistry and hardly any in biology education. Moreover, several approaches have been realized which use historical experiments in educational settings. This paper gives an overall analysis of the historical approaches and their role in German science education as well as some insights into current approaches.

The aim of this paper is to discuss different approaches to the quality (or uncertainty) of measurement data considering both historical examples and today's students' views. Today's teaching of data analysis is very much focussed on the application of statistical routines (often called the "Gaussian approach" to error analysis). Studies on students' understanding of measurement however show, that though the majority can be enabled to apply those routines most of the students fail to construct a coherent understanding of the matter. Analysing two historical examples of measurement practice of the time around 1,800 when the statistical approach was established, we point out what often neglected key idea gave rise to the statistical approach to data analysis (the appreciation of randomness in data distribution) and how the emergence of this idea was embedded in a very sophisticated insight on measurement and the nature of measurement data (experimental expertise). These two aspects can vividly be illustrated using the different approaches to data handling of Coulomb and Gauss around the time of 1,800. Gauss's appreciation of the randomness in data distribution consequently led him to other analytical routines as those employed by Coulomb. This is an important aspect concerning the teaching of the statistical routines of data analysis. However, the deep experimental expertise of both Gauss and Coulomb in both cases prevented an application by rote of some routines and shaped their approaches to very successful instruments of data handling. We therefore argue that both the key idea of randomness as well as an elaborated experimental expertise has to be taken into consideration much more than before by instructors and teachers in order to support the students to construct a coherent understanding on the nature and the handling of measurement data and especially the assessment of their quality.

Educational versions of Millikan's oil-drop experiment have frequently been criticized; suggestions for improvement either focus on technical innovations of the setup or on replacing the experiment by other approaches of familiarization, such as computer simulations. In our approach, we have analysed experimental procedures. In doing so, we were able to identify several sources of error and took measures to minimize their influence. At the same time, we attempted to minimize the standard deviation of each individual series of measurements. Our paper describes how we developed criteria which helped to stabilize the data produced in the following series of measurements. The final series of measurements results in data which demonstrate the atomic structure of electricity and enable a demonstration of the elementary charge. (Contains 2 figures and 4 footnotes.)

In 1923, R.A. Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect. Recently, historical research had a focus on Millikan's publication practice, as well as on the role of his assistant, Harvey Fletcher. Several studies have raised doubts on whether Millikan can actually be taken as a role model for scientific practice; however, what has not been discussed yet is the question of how the Nobel Committee came to their decision to award Millikan's work. Based on archival material from the Nobel Committee, this paper discusses the nomination procedure, as well as the evaluation process of Millikan's work.

Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis in discussions on science education on the potential and advantages of stories and narratives in teaching situations. From this, one might conclude that simply starting to use stories in science classrooms is a good thing, "per se". Yet, as I will argue in my paper, things do not appear to be that easy. From my understanding, it is necessary to select the stories to be told in teaching situations with care--and also to reject those stories which are not to be told. With respect to such a selection, different criteria can be employed, depending on the aims of the instructional unit. In doing so, my criteria for selection will be based on an education which does not focus solely on the communication of scientific knowledge but which emphasizes relevant topics from the nature of science for structuring the teaching. With this intention, one can identify constructions of narratives that are misleading with respect to the nature of science and which may lead to an inappropriate understanding of science and scientific practice.

Millikan's oil-drop experiment is one of the classic experiments from the history of physics. Due to its content (the determination of the elementary charge) it is also among those experiments that are frequently used and discussed in teaching situations. Disappointingly, a review of the educational literature on this experiment reveals that its implementation in teaching situations is not especially successful. Using a collaborative approach, we have attempted to develop an understanding of the difficulties that students encounter with this experiment. In our approach, apart from evaluating students' lab reports, we used questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Additionally, we have used the historical development of the oil-drop experiment as a resource for restructuring the educational use of the experiment, and we have attempted to develop a more thorough understanding of the experiment through an analysis of the data generated in the experiment and its mathematical treatment. As a result, we suggest a different use of the apparatus that appears to result in less frustration of the students as well as a better understanding of the experiment and its difficulties by the students. (Contains 7 figures and 5 footnotes.)

One of those who failed to establish himself as a natural philosopher in 18th century Paris was the future revolutionary Jean Paul Marat. He did not only publish several monographs on heat, optics and electricity in which he attempted to characterise his work as being purely empirical but he also tried to establish himself as a public lecturer. From the analysis of his experiments using the replication method it became obvious that the written description is missing several relevant aspects of the experiments. In my paper, I am going to discuss the experiences made in analysing these experiments and will suggest possible relations between these publications and the public demonstrations.

Mass disasters are characterized by a disparity between healthcare demand and supply, which hampers complex therapies like kidney transplantation. Considering the scarcity of publications on previous disasters, we reviewed transplantation practice during the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and dwelled upon this experience to guide transplantation strategies in the future pandemic and non-pandemic catastrophes. We strongly suggest continuing transplantation programs during mass disasters, if medical and logistic operational circumstances are appropriate. Postponing transplantations from living donors and referral of urgent cases to safe regions or hospitals are justified. Specific preventative measures in anticipated disasters (such as vaccination programs during pandemics or evacuation in case of hurricanes or wars) may be useful to minimize risks. Immunosuppressive therapies should consider stratifying risk status and avoiding heavy immune suppression in patients with a low probability of therapeutic success. Discharging patients at the earliest convenience is justified during pandemics, whereas delaying discharge is reasonable in other disasters, if infrastructural damage results in unhygienic living environments for the patients. In the outpatient setting, telemedicine is a useful approach to reduce the patient load to hospitals, to minimize the risk of nosocomial transmission in pandemics and the need for transport in destructive disasters. If it comes down to saving as many lives as possible, some ethical principles may vary in function of disaster circumstances, but elementary ethical rules are non-negotiable. Patient education is essential to minimize disaster-related complications and to allow for an efficient use of healthcare resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes generations and experiences of an exhibition presented in Spring 1998 at the Oldenburg Museum of Natural History and Pre-History. Discusses the thematic leitmotiv of this exhibition which was to present experiments from the history of physics as a cultural activity. Describes how reconstructions of historical experimental set-ups were shown and enabled visitors to have their own experimental experiences. (Author/MM)