Nature Of Science

This post proposes the use of a key biological concept - broad classification - to teach the provisional and contested nature of science in school biology curricula. It also examines existing curriculum-related factors which might pose obstacles to implementing such a change. An investigation in South Africa highlights the problems regarding biological classification at the kingdom level of 50 biology students entering one university. Using interviews, questionnaires and document analysis, factors thought to affect learners' ideas were investigated, including the understanding of the changing and contested nature of scientific knowledge of a range of biology educators. The students lacked knowledge of the concept of a biological kingdom, and showed archaic thinking about the number of kingdoms. Many of the teachers held similar views, used outmoded classification systems in their teaching, and were unaware of the history of changes in biological systems. A review of two relevant syllabus and five textbooks revealed insufficient, inaccurate, inconsistent and/or contradictory information about biological classification systems and how they change with time. Three potential problems associated with curriculum innovation are discussed.

The Robot

A robot is an automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to human or a machine in the form of a human. Robotics involves a scientific study of robots. Basically there are two types of robots - fixed and mobile. At present robots are present in almost every field of work. Robots have become more and more popular in industrial and other fields and work faster than human beings. Robots can operate in any situation, even ones too uncomfortable or dangerous for humans to work in. Today, robots are taking over most of the manipulative, hazardous and tedious jobs in factories, mines, atomic plants, space ships, deep-sea vessels, etc. from man.

In India, the interest in robots and robotics began during 1980s. Works on robotics began in advanced educational institutions and research centers such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, etc. Robots have been developed for welding, spray painting, radioactive fuel handling operations and so on. There are also some very small nano-metric-sized robots called nano-machines and some large ones like robonauts. All these are first generation robots and the second generation of robots, expected to arrive by 2015, would be truly versatile and intelligent as chimpanzees.