Mary Jane Balando 2011 IV BSPT REACTION PAPER Article: Why Teach History and Philosophy of Science?

June 16,

The given article, which I believed was written by Prof. Palomar, was about the importance of relating the history and philosophy to science education. The following arguments given below were presented in the article. The history of science can provide materials that put science in the context of human kind and society. Science is much more than the simple 4 or 5 steps of scientific method they recited as students and how they teach as teachers, that it is in exciting, complex, enterprise that involves scientists and scientific discoveries, people, institutions and society. History and philosophy of science promotes better scientific learning. Teachers need this knowledge to combat myths of science teaching. Teacher can be more persuasive if they can be shown to have underpinnings form the epistemology of the subject. Knowledge resembles epic theater. Understanding science and its development in an interpretative process in quest of meaning.

Reaction: Know the future to understand the present and to visualize the past. This phrase was always used to our history classes. It was very applicable for the history of certain places but not in all science concepts. We could understand more of the science concepts without knowing its past. We could understand what the Newtons laws of motion were without knowing how Newton came up with his laws. I was not saying that studying the history of science was unnecessary. History of science was

important. It is just that I believed that it was not the basis of understanding the concept of science. History of science was important because in it we could learn how science evolved and developed as the time passed. We could also know the persons behind the science concepts that were making our headache during the time of examination. They deserved to be known and acknowledged for their contributions in science. As a physics student, I was interested to know that once upon a time that some of the scientists that I knew were once have a tea with each other sharing their knowledge and philosophy. What I mean was that some of the scientists have connections. Some were comrade, lovers, rivals, or just using each other. Therefore, for every science textbook that I read, there was exciting novels can be made when we searched for the history.