Nature of Science

The Nature of Science is a collection of illustrated stories from the history of science in 40-50 page A5 booklets edited by Joan Solomon. The stories illustrate the thinking and theory building processes of science and show how the application of scientific ideas are affected by the social and cultural context in which they develop

The readers were written and published after the publication of the first (1989) version of the English National Curriculum which stated that ‘pupils should develop their knowledge and understanding of the ways in which scientific ideas change through time and how the nature of these ideas and the uses to which they are put are affected by social, moral, spiritual and cultural contexts in which they are developed’. The expectation was that teachers would use historical case studies, as well as contemporary examples, to develop understanding of how scientific theories arise and change through time.

Each of the readers tells a story in a way designed to illustrate aspects of how science works. There are no questions or associated activities.