Time for Science Education: How Teaching the History and Philosophy of Pendulum Motion Can Contribute to Science Literacy

The book demonstrates the importance of history and philosophyof science for science education. It provides a case study of thependulum, showing the pivotal role played by the pendulum in theScientific Revolution. It describes how the pendulum enabled thecreation of accurate clocks that, among other things, enabled thelong-standing problem of longitude to be solved. The book charts howthe solution of the longitude problem was of enormous social, economicand cultural significance for European and consequently world history.Further, the book shows how the discovery of the laws of pendulummotion by Galileo, Huygens and Newton hinged on the acceptance of anew methodology for science. The pendulum laws are a window throughwhich to view the fascinating mixture of experiment, mathematics andphilosophy that characterized the foundations of modern science- the Galilean-Newtonian paradigm - anddistinguished it from Aristotelian, medieval and commonsense science.The book covers: learning about the nature ofscience; navigation andthe longitude problem; ancient and medieval timekeeping; Galileo'sanalysis of pendulum motion; Huygens, Hooke, Newton and the pendulum; clocks and culture; science and philosophy; the mechanical world view; teaching about time and pendulum motion; and teacher education andculture.The book defends a liberal, or contextual, approach to the teaching ofscience. It shows how understanding the scientific, philosophical andcultural contexts and ramifications of the pendulum laws can allowteachers to plan more engaging lessons, and conduct informativehistorical- investigative experiments. Students can re-live history.Contextual understanding of the pendulum allows connections to bemadewith other parts of the science curriculum, and with other subjectareas such as geography, literature, religion, music and mathematics.Readers will come away with a deeper understanding of the nature ofscience and its