How Did Darwin Prefer His Tea?

Abstract

Nature of science (NOS) is considered an important component of scientific literacy. Supporting students to develop a comprehensive NOS understanding is one of the most commonly described objectives within science education. Moreover, history of science can arguably provide a good context for NOS teaching and learning; it has been suggested that using historical contexts to introduce general NOS aspects in an explicit, systematic way can enhance students’ understanding about NOS. This paper has to do with a research project concerned with the creation of historical narratives that draw specifically on the history of the idea of the Balance of Nature (BON)—a persistent, socio-culturally originated idea that implies a predetermined order and stability in the natural world—in order to support university students to better understand some general NOS aspects. In particular, we report on our narrative entitled “Tea for two” which sets focus on the socio-cultural embeddedness of science. More specifically, we (a) give an overview of what we drew upon in order to create “Tea for two” (the BON-idea history and the types of historical narratives for educational use), (b) highlight the historical background of “Tea for two” and present the narrative itself, (c) discuss “Tea for two” in terms of its essential features and the strategies we considered, and (d) make some final remarks.