On his blog for a course entitled “History of Science for the Science Classroom,” science educator Ron Gray at Oregon State University shared a link to The Story Behind Science, a new website for an NSF-funded project:
What is science? How does science work? What are scientists like?
Misconceptions regarding the answers to these questions abound. Too often science comes across to students as unapproachable an devoid of human involvement. These mistaken ideas can interfere in understanding science concepts, cause students to avoid prursuing careers involving science, and result in poor social decision-maiking by citizens and policy-makers.
Thirty stories spanning five disciplines help students explore the development of key science concepts through the eyes of scientists who were involved. Supplemental resources are provided for teachers to help achieve the greatest impact from the stories.
The project team included folks in biology, geology, chemistry, astronomy, and physics, a few science educators, and, I’m happy to report, an historian of science (Matthew Stanley of NYU, who is a participant in the Tyndall Project).
There are thirty stories, six each in Astronomy, Biology, Physics, Geology, and Chemistry. Be sure to check out the support materials, and for more on the goal of the project, research presented at the Tenth International History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching Conference, “Humanizing Science to Improve Post-Secondary Science Education” (PDF).
Readers of this blog may like to check out the stories about Darwin (PDF) and Wallace (PDF).
Inform your teacher/educator friends & colleagues!
The Dispersal of Darwin 