Is the teaching of History of Science (HOS) still relevant?

More often, the approach in introducing our science students to a field of scientific discipline is to acquaint them of its historical development first. This I usually do in my cell biology and genetics classes. My purpose is simple. I want to honor the men and women who laid the foundation of scientific knowledge whose fruits we currently enjoy. What is a second or two, like just mentioning their names and notable contribution plus their pictures, in comparison to a life dedicated to the passionate pursuit of their works?

I currently came across with an article entitled The Value of History of Science as a Medium for the Integral and Specific Education of the Individual. The article answers the question: “What is the value of teaching history of science?”

The original version of the translated article was published in 1935 in Spanish. Fast forward to 2019, it still makes a lot of sense in the context of science education in the Philippines particularly here in Romblon.

The article may be mistaken as a speech. But for me it is a prophecy, a work of art, a classic, a masterpiece.

I feel the author talking to me while I was reading the article. Flashed before me were scenes of my science encounters, my misconceptions, my limited understandings, my evolution as a biology teacher, my readings, my realizations and my desire to become a better biology teacher. The article caused me to probe deep into what I have gone through to be what I am today. I literally listed random thoughts on the striking points of the article, plus the totality of my learning experiences, specially lately that I read Gribbin’s Science: A History and Birch’s Science and Soul. I beg your indulgence for making this piece longer, but I really want these thoughts to be shared because I have never been moved this way before.

So I believe that teaching HOS is still relevant in the wake of Industry 4.0. Here are the reasons to support my stand.

First, anyone who is aware of the development of History of Science (HOS) would be able to appreciate more fully and more independently the significance of the current scientific movement than a person who is subject to the limitation of his time with the result that he can only base his assumptions on the local context.

Prior to my exposure to science historical materials, my view of science was fragmented; it was like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Finding connections was difficult. It was when I took hold of Gribbin’s book that light came to me. The book enriched my imagination that I began to develop personal pictures of the characters in there. Simply put it, it was like reading a novel. And more often, I find myself getting along with these revered scientists. Now, I have developed a conceptual understanding of how science began… why there are science societies, scientific conferences and others. These are deeply rooted in history: research findings are presented to an august body of scientists; scientific knowledge is generated; and the discoverer or inventor’s name is carved in history.

I was really thinking that the Philippines, although a third world country, is not really lagging behind when it comes to scientific literacy because it constantly boasts of having one of the highest literacy rates in Asia. But to my chagrin, while I was reading Gribbin, I realized that we are not only lagging but we are actually left miles behind. During the scientific revolution, young men at the age of 20 or so were already using mathematics to explain various physical phenomena which I think at present very few Filipino of the same age can do. Truly, knowledge of HOS has broadened my perspectives about science and history.

HOS in a humanistic sense should be introduced at the primary level and should be continued until higher education. Its exposition should be based on legends and anecdotes because it is not difficult to enthrall children with historical anecdotes about science.

For the sake of pedagogy, science must be popularized. One of the best means of doing it is to humanize it. Upon reading the above lines, I empathized with the author because I was actually doing it but without really the intention of incorporating HOS. It just came out deliberately. For example,  one of my entries in my defunct blog 10 years ago, Preparing a Science Investigatory Project, was a proof when I used HOS as a potential tool in teaching the topic.

“My purpose was to make SIP preparation a not so very scientific task; to make them believe that simple and ordinary kids can come up with an extraordinary project.

Here is what I did. I showed them a picture of Isaac Newton and the falling apple and below it was written: "Millions saw the apple fall but only Isaac Newton was the first to ask why." Then I showed them a news clip from GMA 7's Unang Hirit by Igan about the janitor fish problem in Marikina River. Then, I related to them the story of Emong (Raymund Joseph Amurao), "A Fishy Story: Emong and the Janitor Fish". And how such serendipitous discovery of fish oil turn into a bio-diesel that brought him to international INTEL competition. Then I introduced them to Joseph Farman and his discovery of the Ozone Hole.

After all these, I asked them what an SIP means. Responses were overwhelming. I made the concept so simple by presenting real life situations convincing them that science investigation is a part of everyday living. Then I presented them the framework of how scientists think and reason and how it was used by Newton, Emong and Farman to unfold scientific truths.”

My exposure to HOS resources enabled me to meet the scientists up close and personal through my readings and realized that they were not really untouchables and exclusively special as they were stereotyped. They were also humans like me, fallible. The following are some collections of trivia based from my readings of Gribbin’s first book that would interest young and adult learners alike which could be used as springboards in integrating HOS in the science subjects:

• Galen was an obnoxious self-publicist and plagiarist (p.20).
• The fallopian tube was named after its discoverer Gabriele Fallopio and the Eustachian tube from Bartolomeo Eustachio (p.26)
• In 16th century Denmark, the law said that if a woman openly lived with a man, kept his keys and ate at his table, after three years she was his wife. This happened to Tycho Brahe and his wife Christine (p.43).
• Johannes Kepler came from a very poor family. He trained for the priesthood because during his time, it was the obvious and traditional route out of poverty for an intelligent young man (p.51).
• Rene Descartes was a late riser. He never married like Galileo (p.112)
• Christian Huygens would have been the greatest scientist of his generation if he had not the misfortune to be active in science at almost exactly the same time as Isaac Newton (pp.118).
• Robert Boyle was charitable. He was religious. He refused honors and presidency of the Royal Society (p.141).
• Robert Hooke was very sickly (p.151) and had sexual relationships with his maidservants and niece (p.159).
• Newton was arrogant and always harbored grudges. The famous phrase: “If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants,” is currently taken out of context. It was actually a phrase lifted from his letter to Hooke as they were major nemesis. Why should Newton choose to emphasize this word? Surely, because Hooke was a little man with a twisted back. The message Newton intends to convey is that although he may have borrowed from the Ancients, he has no need to steal ideas from a little man like Hooke, with the added implication that Hooke is a mental pygmy and a small man physically (p. 164).
• Edmund Halley was handsome with a track record of sexual indiscretion and was allegedly linked to Newton. (p.170).
• It is not true that Newton was born the very day or even year that Galileo died. The coincidences were hoaxes – using dates from two different calendar systems (p.175).
• It was quite likely that Newton was a homosexual due to his secretive nature (p.178).
• Gribbin cannot rule out the veracity of Newton’s apple story (p. 181).

In the secondary level, HOS must subsist as something as alive in each syllabus without becoming a body of doctrine.

I very well remember when my teacher in General Chemistry back in the master’s level assigned us to role play the discovery of the atom and its sub-particles. My group mates assigned me to prepare the script. All I did was to research into the character of the major players and the countries from which they came so that I could come up with a sci-fi script. Well, it worked. Our professor appreciated it. This must be how HOS must find its place in the secondary science syllabus. It must be vibrant that would enable students to actively engage, do further readings and interpret their understandings.

From the teacher’s engagement, it could be done that the teacher dresses and behaves like Gregor Mendel and explains the laws of heredity based from his investigations.

Recommended readings like well-written scientific biographies… complemented by the verification of original experiments could tell our students much more than the entire chapters of a specific course.

I am handling a graduate course in biological sciences. Students are teachers of elementary and secondary high schools. I often heard them complain about the complacency of today’s learners, shorter attention span and loss of focus. They want everything served before them. Until I discover that most of them (my graduate students) too, have problems with concepts and pedagogy. The blame game starts to roll. So I am starting now to download original experiments, like the discovery of meiosis… and require them to summarize the manuscript and give their comments and critics. It sounds like a chain reaction has begun. Yes, it has. And I am a part and will be a part of that critical mass.

In the tertiary level, we believe that each faculty should insist that the history of their subject form part of the syllabus. This is the only way in which the students could obtain a synthetic view of the subject, be able to assess its present state and value it accordingly. Biographical studies and comments on the papers from the classics should be considerably increased at this level of study.

I must admit that I only became confident of my discipline when I was able to completely read the second part of Gribbin’s fifth book (pp.529-571). Somehow, all the facts, names and events have fallen into proper places. I have handled cell biology in the undergraduate level and although I am yet really wanting in content, knowing the totality of the history of the discipline I am teaching gives me a little comfort. So far, I have been starting where my students are. I believe that gradually, I could send them out from their shells of complacency and replace it with passion, enthusiasm and interest in reading. Reading is still one of the best ways of acquiring knowledge because when one reads, the imagination is boundless, and when one imagines, the neural capacities are maximized.

Second, it is only through HOS that we will be able to experience the relative and provisional character of all our knowledge.

Without studying HOS, one might think that everything came to exist as it is, similar to the ex nihilo doctrine. But, it was not. Scientists invested a lot of time to hold on to their claim whether the prevailing historical truth and philosophy would accept their discoveries or not. But as cited, the errors of today are the truths of tomorrow. This attests that our scientific knowledge is provisional. It evolves with time.

For example, Mendel was way advance of his time that was why his works were not recognized immediately. And who would, it was just the time of the discovery of the nucleus but Mendel was already dealing with hereditary ‘factors’ (now genes and DNA). During that point in history, nobody recognized his works. But today, he is revered for laying the foundation of genetics. I overhear the weather anchor saying: “Always remember, life is seasonal.” (Laging tandaan, ang buhay ay weather weather lang.)

Lastly, it is impossible to conceive an integral man leaving out HOS from his intellectual education.

What must happen to the the 21st century man sans knowledge about HOS? In society, history matters because this is where the social foundations are rooted. Ignorance of history is like being lost in an ocean of uncertainty. No identity. No cultural pride. Remove HOS from the intellectual education of an integral man and he will be no different from an ordinary man. He would be lost. He won’t know where to begin and where to stop. He will be ungrateful. And if all men henceforth, be stripped of HOS education, that will be the end of a scientific culture sustained for about five centuries; that would mean the extinction of science and the resurrection of dark ages.

Teachers lack reference books. They may be able to collect a few well-known legends that are already very popular. A collection of such would surely constitute one of the finest facets of the history of our culture. This was already suggested 75 years back when the word ‘internet’ was not yet coined. But I think this is already addressed by the various websites that contain anecdotal accounts of our famous scientists.

But I found this point interesting because at present majority of the areas in Romblon are still unreached by internet services. It could be considered for a good research project or term paper: translation of anecdotal accounts of ten most cited scientists in elementary or secondary school textbooks.

As a final note, I would borrow John Gribbin’s words for those who are studying HOS:

“Science is one of the greatest achievements of the human mind, and the fact that progress has actually been made, in the most part, by ordinarily clever people building step by step from the work of their predecessors makes the story more remarkable, not less. Almost any of you (readers of his book) had you been in the right place at the right time, could have made the great discoveries described here. And since the progress of science has by no means come to a halt, some of you may yet be involved in the next step in the story.”

Hopefully, if not me, my students or my children may.