Answer:
Science is built up of facts as a house is of stones, but a collection of facts is no more a science than a pile of stones is a house.
Henri Poincare, La Science et l’Hypothese (1908)
Before one can discuss the teaching and learning of science, consensus is needed about what science is and why it should occupy a place in the K-8 curriculum. One must ask: “What is science”? and “Why teach it”? A consensus answer to these fundamental questions is not easily attained, because science is characterized in different ways not only by different categories of people interested in it—practitioners, philosophers, historians, educators—but also by people within each of these broad categories. In this chapter, we describe some different characterizations of science and consider implications for what is taught in science classrooms. Although the characterizations share many common features, they vary in the emphasis and priority they place on different aspects of scientific activity, with potential consequences for what is emphasized in science classrooms. We then describe the goals of science education associated with each perspective.
WHAT IS SCIENCE?
Science is both a body of knowledge that represents current understanding of natural systems and the process whereby that body of knowledge has been established and is being continually extended, refined, and revised. Both elements are essential: one cannot make progress in science without an understanding of both. Likewise, in learning science one must come to understand both the body of knowledge and the process by which this knowledge is established, extended, refined, and revised. The various perspectives on science—alluded to above and described below—differ mainly with respect to the process of science, rather than its product. The body of knowledge includes specific facts integrated and articulated into.
