ABSTRACT
It has been almost half a century since Michael H. Klapper made his plea in the “Provocative Opinion” section of The Journal of Chemical Education. Despite this lapse of time, our knowledge regarding what difference aesthetics makes or could make to science education has not advanced much. Discussions on these issues still frequently result in an either/or debate with little empirical substance. This book is a contribution to remedy this situation. Herein I present empirical results from science education at the university showing that aesthetic experience is an inseparable part of learning science. But it is not enough only to demonstrate that aesthetic experiences are necessary for learning science. I also analyze in what ways they are necessary by studying the role of aesthetic experiences when learning science and how aesthetic experiences make a difference regarding what scientific content students learn. These problems are the core issues around which this book revolves.
