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How can we improve the general understanding of science among our citizens? The current revival of concern for the quality and effectiveness of education includes discussion of issues such as motivating students to learn subjects they regard as difficult, changing the public perception of scientists, encouraging informed participation in decisions about the uses of technology, and conveying an appreciation of science as part of culture. To achieve these goals, educators have often recommended the use of the history of science, t In this paper I review briefly what history of science has to offer science education, and in particular how it has already been used in a successful science curriculum project. First, let me make the point that “history of science” is not just a collection of books and articles waiting to be pulled off the shelf and plugged into the curriculum. Like science or education, it is an ongoing enterprise carried on by people with their own goals that or may not include improving science education. Over the last 50 years, history of science has evolved from a subject studied seriously by only a few scholars but widely used in science teaching, to an established academic discipline somewhat isolated from the scientific community. Professional historians of science, seeing themselves as historians rather than scientists, criticized scientists for promulgating “Whiggism,”2 and some of them overemphasized the social context at the expense of the technical content of science. Now, having attained a degree of maturity and acceptance within the humanities and social sciences, history of science has started to rebuild the bridges to science. Historians of science welcome scientists with an interest in history and offer a variety of materials for explaining science to students and the public. Scientists for their part have a better understanding of the value of sound historical research, and have given substantial support to historical sections and centres in their own societies, as well as reading scholarly books and journals on topics in the history of science. This is especially true of physics, but other sciences have also moved in this direction.3 The public relations as well as the pedagogical benefits of history a re now recognized. Misunderstandings still hinder communication between different academic disciplines. It is disturbing to find that some prominent educators use the label “history of science” in an obsolete and misleading sense to characterize the traditional approach to science teaching, and blame it for the failings of that approach. In the latest edition of a widely used reference work on educational research we fmd the following passages in a summary of reports on science education:
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