ABSTRACT
Science educators argue that students should engage in authentic tasks; that is, students should engage in solving real problems that do not have a predetermined solution (American Association for the Advancement of Science 1989; California Department of Education 1990; National Research Council 1996; Roth 1995). Moreover, students should work collectively on these tasks, ask questions of their own choosing, and negotiate and solve problems in groups (AAAS 1993; NRC 1996; Driver et al. 1994; Stahl 1996; Aikenhead 1985, 1994; Kelly et al. 1993). Additionally, some science educators recommend there should be some attempt to bridge science with other disciplines, such as maths and social studies (AAAS 1989; Pedretti and Hodson 1995; Hansen and Olson 1995; Rubba 1991). Real-world problems, they claim, demand this approach.
