Opportunities Lost: The Pendulum in the USA National Science Education Standards

摘要

This article is based on my recent book Time for Science Education (Plenum Publishers, 1998). It begins with the treatment afforded the pendulum in the US National Science Edu- cation Standards, and a number of other contemporary curriculum documents. It notes that all of these documents advocate liberal, or wide, goals for science education, including stu- dents understanding something of the historical and cultural significance of science. It notes that all the documents ignore the very significant role played by the pendulum in the foun- dation of modern science, in solving the longitude problem, and in enabling the first accurate clocks to be constructed.