People
have always produced technology. For thousands of years they have invented
tools and techniques to improve their environment as they saw fit. This
is the realm of technology. But the systematic search for explanations
that we call science is only a few hundred years old. Both science and
technology are expressions of human creativity. Progress in these fields
results from the cumulative efforts of human beings with diverse interests,
talents, and motives.
Science is a human activity. It is one way of knowing, interpreting, and describing the world we live in. Science education should provide people with the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and skills to become rational human beings and to find meaning and contentment in their lives.
As educators, we have the responsibility to teach students what the character of science is and how it differs from other subject areas, such as mathematics, language arts, and social studies. Science shares many characteristics with these other fields of knowledge, but it also has its own unique characteristics. Like all fields of knowledge, science relies on open-ended investigation and an honest exchange of ideas. It strives to be objective. Science, however, more than any other field is guided by testable theory using established methods of investigation that any investigator can and must follow. That is why progress in science has been so rapid. Any investigator can test, verify, reject, or use new discoveries to take scientific knowledge a step further in explaining the world around us and how it works.
All the sciences presume that the things and events in the universe occur in consistent patterns that can be recognized as a result of thorough, careful, and systematic study. Although they all aim at producing verifiable knowledge, none claims to produce knowledge that is absolute and beyond change. Knowledge in science is always subject to change in light of new data and new interpretations of existing data. Therefore, science aims to be objective and testable.
We observe phenomena with our sensesseeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. These observations are necessarily subjective, interpreted through our individual experiences and emotional points of view. Explanations of nature, however, must be objective, based on natural phenomena and observations, not on the opinions of the observer. One strategy that science has invented to control objectivity is replication. Any observation ought to be repeatable and capable of being confirmed or rejected by independent observers. This also implies another characteristic of scienceit must be communicated accurately to others if it is to be of use.
Science observes and explains the natural world. A good explanation should suggest a critical experiment or observation that can determine its correctness, and it should enable the investigator to successfully predict the result of the experiment. If an idea cannot be tested by experimenting and observing natural phenomena, then it is outside the realm of science.
Science is open-ended. This means that all explanations in science are taken as tentative, not absolute. Facts and theories, no matter how firmly established in light of what is known, are never taken as proven. Science is sensible. Explanations are always subject to change in light of new observations. This self-correcting ability is the strength of science. The open-endedness of science also means that those who work in the field must be open-minded: open to reinterpretation of data, open to new observations, open to new explanations. As we learn more, we constantly revise what we know in light of new discoveries.
Science is also characterized by a set of attitudes and values, including honesty, curiosity, openness to new ideas, and skepticism in evaluating claims and arguments. Because all observations are based on human senses and expectations, results have to be reported fully. Negative resultsthose that do not agree with the stated hypothesismust be reported along with data that support the hypothesis. In science, there are no "right" answers; only those that are supported by evidence.
Technology is the application of knowledge to develop materials and systems that help people meet their needs and fulfill their desires. Water catchment systems, canoes, fishing nets, spears, shelters, clothing, footwear, medicine, agriculture, ships, and schools are examples of technologies. Technology includes the building of structures such as bridges, buildings, and highways; transportation systems; electrical devices such as generators, motors, and power lines; changes in matter including metal working, petroleum refining, and manufacturing; power generation such as internal combustion engines, rockets, and nuclear reactors; and agriculture.
Throughout history, humans have used technology to meet personal needs by creating clothing, shelters, food gathering and cooking devices, weapons for hunting and war, communication and transportation systems, and so on. It has also been used to create aesthetic and religious artifacts such as tombs, churches, paintings, and sculptures.
Today, technology affects the way we eat, breathe, work, play, move, communicate, dress, and think. It enables us to have more leisure time to relax and enjoy traveling or socializing with others. Technology has also led to new forms of art, photography, electronic music, telecommunications, and computers.
In the broadest sense, technology extends our abilities to change the world, to cut, shape, or put materials together; to move things from one place to another; to reach farther with our hands, voices, senses, and minds. In the past, new technologies were based on accumulated practical knowledge, but today they are more often based on an understanding of scientific principles that describe how things behave.
Science is based on observing, questioning, hypothesizing, designing, and carrying out experiments to test hypotheses, and derive explanations of how the world works. Its primary mission is to search for explanation. Technology employs many of the same processes; however, it seeks to utilize, modify, and manipulate the environment using the knowledge generated by the sciences. The primary mission of technology is to make things work. At times technology moves ahead of science. At other times the reverse is true. For example, humans used and controlled fire long before an explanation of combustion was developed in science. Conversely, knowledge of genetics now enables us to develop and grow new agricultural crops.
The understanding of technology, of how it operates to modify nature and create things, is crucial to educating citizens of the future. They will live in an increasingly technological world. Employment, health, leisure, personal and political decisions will all be profoundly affected by technology. The study of technology must be part of the school curriculum.
The content of science consists of a highly structured, complex set of facts, hypotheses, and theories. The processes of science refer to the thinking strategies that enable humans to discover the patterns of nature that we call scientific knowledge. Both are essential to science and both are essential to science education.
As stated earlier, science is a human activity. Scientific knowledge grows as scientists think about the natural world, act upon it in planned experiments, and develop thoughtful explanations that incorporate the results. These processes include a wide range of skills that characterize the scientific enterprise: sensory skills, manipulative skills, communication skills, computational skills, interpersonal skills, organizational skills, imaginative skills, and decision-making skills. In addition, thinking processes enable us to dynamically interact with information obtained through our senses and construct new understandings. These skills and processes are not only part of science, but are basic skills that all students must develop in order to become active, productive members of our society. Because of their importance and because they only become highly developed through extensive practice, the development of process and thinking skills should be a significant part of every student's science experience.