Goodbye school science experiments?
Endpoint: Keith Taber has the last word
Experiments have been a favourite activity of school science for many years. Most pupils like them, and many science teachers feel they are an essential part of learning science. Indeed, at one time, school science was a sequence of 'an experiment to...', as recorded through a carefully structured laboratory report: in terms of Aim, Diagram, Apparatus, Method, Results, Conclusions. However the notion that school science should be organised around a series of 'experiments' has been eroded, and perhaps it is now time to recognise that they have little to offer in modern teaching.
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