Science & Mathematics

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Svante Arrhenius and Henry Armstrong understood the dissolution process of salts in water quite differently. Arrhenius saw the dissolution process as one whereby the salt partially dissociated into its ions and Armstrong saw the dissolution process as one whereby the salt associated itself with water. History is somewhat kinder to Arrhenius than it is to Armstrong in that Arrhenius won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1903 for his electrolytic dissociation theory whereas Armstrong was considered of a 'hot air balloon' who made it his business to oppose every new thought in chemistry. In the 1920s Arrhenius' view of partial dissociation was replaced by a view of total dissociation for strong electrolytes with activity and osmotic coefficients being used to account for non-ideal solution behaviour. However, recent research has shown that strong 1:1 electrolytes are best understood by using Arrhenius' original idea of partial dissociation rather than total dissociation and Armstrong's idea of hydration. This strange confluence of factors has important implications for chemical epistemology and its role in chemistry education.

An analysis of student responses to a semi‐quantitative task involving pressure‐‐volume changes of a fixed amount of air is reported in this paper. It is demonstrated that student conceptions of ‘pressure’ and ‘vacuum’ are unscientific and that a large number of student responses focus on the idea that enclosed air has different properties from open air. The use of non‐scientific notions did not appear to depend on whether the student was studying a physical science subject or not, or whether the student was male or female. The implications for the teaching of the physical sciences are discussed. © 1992 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Problem‐solving strategies in the physical sciences have been characterized by a dependence on algorithmic techniques often devoid of any reasoning skills. The purpose of this study was to examine student responses to a task relating to Boyle's Law for gases, which did not demand the use of a mathematical equation for its solution. Students (17‐ to 18‐year‐olds) in lower sixth form from two colleges in the Leeds district of Yorkshire in England were asked to respond to a task relating to pressure and volume measurements of air within a sealed syringe in different states of compression. Both qualitative and quantitative tasks for the sealed syringe system were examined. It was found that 34% to 38% of students did not understand the concepts of volume and mass, respectively, of a gas under such circumstances. Performance on an inverse ratio (2:1) task was shown to depend on gender and those students who performed well on the 2:1 inverse ratio task did not necessarily perform well on a different inverse ratio task when an arithmetic averaging principle was present. Tasks which draw upon qualitative knowledge as well as quantitative knowledge have the potential to reduce dependence on algorithms, particularly equation substitution and solution. The implications for instructional design are discussed. Copyright © 1995 Wiley.

Early Adventist attitudes towards the medical science of the day, particularly its administration of “drugs”, were characterised by suspicion and distrust. Early Adventist health remedies, both preventive and curative, were based on simple, natural therapies. However, modern Adventist medical institutions have now largely discarded such remedies. Instead, our fully accredited hospitals train medical professionals to the highest recognised standards, utilise the very latest technologies, dispense huge amounts of drugs and incorporate every scientific artifact in support of their healing endeavour. This paper examines the reasons for this apparent about face. Some of these reflect advances within both the scientific enterprise and conventional medical practice over this period and also changes in the relationship between them. Others may be understood as responses to sociological changes within society at large and the Church.