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An Educational Blend of Pseudohistory and History of Science and Its Application in the Study of the Discovery of Electromagnetism

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Teaching Science with Context

Part of the book series: Science: Philosophy, History and Education ((SPHE))

Abstract

This work describes a strategy for teaching the history of science that contrasts different types of historical resources, including pieces of pseudohistory, with primary and secondary sources. This approach provides lessons and stimulates attitudes that are very difficult to overcome using other tactics. Notably, one of the aims of this method is to teach the students how to distinguish a well-grounded historical narrative from an unreliable one and to develop a critical attitude concerning the flawed stories that proliferate on the internet and in popular science books. Besides describing the general procedure used at a Brazilian university, the paper presents its exemplification in the study of Hans Christian Ørsted’s discovery of electromagnetism.

The author is a retired professor from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), now collaborating with the Municipal Foundation of Higher Education of Bragança Paulista (FESB), Bragança Paulista, Brazil. Part of this research was developed while he was a visiting researcher at the São Carlos Physics Institute (IFSC) of the University of São Paulo (USP) sponsored by the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The comparison of primary sources with the flawed historical account presented in textbooks was used by Silvana Galdabini and Ornella Rossi (1993), for instance.

  2. 2.

    See, for instance: http://superbeefy.com/who-discovered-electromagnetism-and-how-does-an-electric-current-creates-a-magnetic-field/ and http://www.dadazi.net/new/diff/100science/book04/scbk04-01.html

  3. 3.

    “Plataforma Lattes,” maintained by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq): http://lattes.cnpq.br

  4. 4.

    http://www.worldcat.org

  5. 5.

    https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Ørsted

  6. 6.

    One paper published in 1821, a short autobiography published in 1828 and an article on thermoelectricity published in The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia in 1830 (Stauffer 1957).

  7. 7.

    Early attempts to produce effects upon a magnetic needle using a Voltaic pile are described by de Andrade Martins (2001).

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and to the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) for sponsoring this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Municipal Foundation of Higher Education of Bragança Paulista (FESB), Bragança Paulista, Brazil

    Roberto de Andrade Martins

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  1. Roberto de Andrade Martins
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Correspondence to Roberto de Andrade Martins .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Maria Elice de Brzezinski Prestes

  2. Institute of Physics of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil

    Cibelle Celestino Silva

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de Andrade Martins, R. (2018). An Educational Blend of Pseudohistory and History of Science and Its Application in the Study of the Discovery of Electromagnetism. In: Prestes, M., Silva, C. (eds) Teaching Science with Context. Science: Philosophy, History and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74036-2_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74036-2_17

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