Investigating the Nature of Science: Teachers' Guide

This resource from the Nuffield Foundation provides material for teaching 'the nature of science' for students aged 11-16. The units were designed to help teachers and learners explore questions such as:
*How and why do scientific ideas change and develop?
*Does the society and the human background in which scientists work affect scientific ideas and their applications?
*Does the thinking of scientists affect the way that people think and act?
*Is science an effective way of interpreting phenomena?

Guidance
The first seven pages of the Teachers' Guide provide an helpful discussion of the reasons for teaching about the nature of science and the issues that arise in school classrooms when dealing with this aspect of the curriculum.

The resource provides opportunity for variety in teaching and learning using methods such as role play, discussion, experimental work, worksheets, posters, models and guided reading Some of the units are based on stimulus material that is now out of date, but all of the activities could be adapted for use today..

Contents
Introduction
A. It's a plastic world
B. Interpreting evidence
C. Barking up the wrong tree
D. Why use models?
E. Modelling a plant process
F. '...how heaven goes'
G. Being a scientist
H. Ideas about the heart
I. Life on Mars?
J. Predictions and explanations
K. Test-tube energy?
L. The moving earth