This lesson uses a discrepant event to pique curiosity and provide an excellent metaphor for a problem in science that can be addressed in a scientific way. Water is poured into a magic box, and out comes a much larger volume of water (or other liquid). Students will learn that science is uncertain because scientists can make more than one workable model to explain their observations. Full description.

In this lesson, students draw their perceptions of a typical scientist, evaluate stereotypes in their drawings quantitatively, and then discuss the origins of these stereotypes. The lesson objectives include considering that people like themselves can become scientists. Full description.

The Guide to the History of Science is a search tool provided by the History of Science Society. The database can be used to learn about people, institutions, organizations, and publications pursuing science history. Graduate programs and more than 5000 scholars of science from around the world are included. The guide also provides a link to a list of good places to start reading about the history ... Full description.

This 48 minute radio broadcast discusses the history of science from around the globe, and looks at the ancient roots of modern scientific thought. The math and science of the ancient Greeks as well as some ancient scientific thinkers, including Aristotle and Ptolemy, are well known. But what about people and ideas from the rest of the world? In Asia, Egypt and the Middle East, scientific thinkers ... Full description.

This lesson explores the realm and limits of science. It engages students to give examples of topics that can be studied by science and those that cannot. It also takes a look at descriptive terms which reflect the true nature of modern science and those which do not, especially those which do not fit the popular perceptions of science. Full description.

The activities in this lesson provide students with an understanding of the diversity of the scientific enterprise, and the people engaged in the work. Teachers should emphasize the diversity to be found in the scientific community: different kinds of people (in terms of race, sex, age, nationality) pursuing different sciences and working in different places (from isolated field sites to labs to offices). ... Full description.

In this lesson, each student team has an envelope containing a series of bank checks. A few are removed at a time, and the team attempts to construct a plausible scenario which involves those checks. With each subsequent removal of checks, appropriate revision of the scenario is done. Final scenarios are compared by the class. Class discussion is designed to show how human values and biases influence ... Full description.

This lesson simulates a crime scene for teams of students to solve, using clues received piecemeal, and adjusting their hypotheses as more clues are found and discussed. The elements of science are recognized through discussion of the crime solution metaphor. Full description.

This lesson teaches students that scientific hypotheses are subject to being tested. A closed box is shown to the class. It can be seen that three wires run through the box lengthwise and three more run through it widthwise, creating a grid of six crossed wires. The class is told that there is a metal washer somewhere on one or two of the wires inside the box. The challenge is to propose a series ... Full description.

This lesson is a vehicle to address natural illusions and how science can effectively reveal them. The hooey stick is a piece of notched wooden dowling, with a smaller dowling propellor at one end. When it is rubbed with a small stick, the propellor rotates. On the command of hooey, the propellor stops and reverses direction, magically. Full description.