ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses what is meant by 'the nature of science' and presents strategies for, and classroom approaches to, teaching about the nature of science. Some of these involve using unplanned, spontaneous incidents in the classroom. Others involve planned learning and teaching. Many situations can involve the teacher in handling controversial issues in the classroom. The chapter provides an activity, followed by classroom strategies, which should enable teachers to reflect more deeply about the 'nature of science'. It considers incidents that arise spontaneously in science classrooms but which can all be used to convey messages about the nature of science. The experimental activity encourages the children to evaluate the experiment and hence to consider whether there are any ethical and moral limits on the nature of the experiment and hence medical experiments in general. The purpose of this activity is to provide an alternative way of processing the information in the cartoon to retell the story in a different manner.
