History and Nature of Science

Question 1: Describe the legal responsibilities of a science teacher.

Answer 1: At all levels of the legal system, it is the responsibility of a teacher to provide a safe environment for students. Never leave the room accessible to unsupervised students; if you must leave the room, provide students with proper alternative supervision. Familiarize students with safety procedures, and review them regularly. Posting the rules is insufficient; you must continually review them with students. If a procedure cannot be safely carried out, it must not be performed.Avoid negligence. Always consider all possible outcomes before performing a procedure, and exercise care to minimize any danger to students and property. State Departments of Education have encoded the specific legal responsibilities of science teachers; familiarize yourself with state laws.

There are lots of good resources about History that you can find available.

Question 2: Describe the major effects, both positive and negative, of improvements in scientific and technological knowledge on human and other life.

Answer 2: Since the Industrial Revolution, technological improvements to agricultural production have made agriculture productive on an industrial scale, while advances in medical knowledge have brought about the cures for many diseases. People in many parts of the world live longer and enjoy a higher standard of living than ever before.However, this progress does not come without a price. The effects on the environment of industrialization are almost exclusively negative. Monoculture farming practices resulting from industrialization mean that farming no longer exists as a closed ecosystem; the chemical fertilizers that create record crop yields have changed the nutrient environment, and the waste products of industrial agriculture pollute the water rather than fertilizing the soil. Increased travel creates dangerous carbon dioxide emissions and depletes the earth’s limited store of fossil fuels. Water pollution means limited access to potable water, and deforestation has begun to change the makeup of ecosystems and cause the extinction of many species. Through the increased contact made available by improved technology, however, humans are also collaborating on solutions to these new problems.

Question 3: Describe the major energy issues before the scientific community today.

Answer 3: Since the Industrial Revolution, energy for industrialized human needs has come from fossil fuels, particularly coal and petroleum, but increased use means that this source of fuel is quickly being depleted, in addition to causing pollution. The search for alternative, safe sources of energy for an increasingly industrialized world population is therefore increasingly important to scientists.An ideal source of energy would be efficient, renewable, and sustainable. Various sources of alternative energy have been proposed, including wind, water, solar, nuclear, geothermal, and biomass, but thus far none have been made practically available on a large scale. Some, such as wind and water, blight the landscape, while the conversion methods for other sources, such as solar and biomass, are still relatively inefficient. The scientific community is still unclear on the best way to harness the power of photosynthesis and biomass for energy needs in a way that would allow a large-scale energy industry to use it. Scientists remain at work studying the long-term solutions to an increasingly urgent problem for humanity.

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