ABSTRACT
In this paper I report on a set of ten programs, the Scientific Reasoning Series. These programs take an area difficult to deal with in conventional science courses, the nature of scientific reasoning, and makes it accessible to a much wider group of students. The aim of this material is to make improvements in scientific reasoning for all students over about ten years old.
The programs are highly interactive, adapting to the needs of the individual user. They are also motivationally strong, because of formative evaluation within public library environments. About twenty hours of student material is available.
We argue that this material has important suggestions for the future of science education.
KEYWORDS
computer. science, reasoning, interactive, individualization
In spite of the effort of the BSCS to insist that teachers spend adequate time in distinguishing between the primary observations, the data upon which science is based, and the levels of inference and deduction based upon those data, it is quite clear that most citizens of America -- our President included -- have no conception of the nature of a scientific hypothesis or a scientific theory.
Bentley Glass, Journal of College Science Teaching, March 1982.