Bringing History into the Lab: Innovations in Presentation of Experimental Concepts

Abstract

Students in science laboratories often get theory presented to them in the context of today's test equipment for obvious reasonsââ¬âto make learning more accessible. But, using this form of presentation students are not exposed to the progress of scientific development in different eras of our collective history. Therefore at times students cannot fully appreciate the evolution in scientific thought. Without context, students see the theories as a list of facts devoid of the excitement these experiments and subsequent theories initially imbued.

To help students get exposure to this progress I have added two lab sessions in my second semester university physics laboratory that address a physical concept through the lens of history. Students are exposed to sections of original papers from the scientists themselves. They are tasked with deciphering the text and creating equivalent experiments with their laboratory equipment. Realizing that each era has a different scientific understanding students can explore the concepts first through the eyes of the scientists, and then, bring this understanding to the modern day. Thus, students are not only exposed to the science being taught, but the context of scientific discovery to the progress of human understanding.