TeacherI work in a rural school in the outskirts of Oxfordshire which is predominantly non-black ? sort of speakers, pretty much 90 to 99 per cent white. Its eleven to eighteen mixed comparison school.QOk, right then I just want you to say who you are?TI’m a British Asian Muslim I have trained here at the department of education here at Oxford and I have been teaching now for three years with the special needs in Physics.QOK, so now I am going to ask you why you think…. Next what I would like to ask you is why you feel a global perspective is important in science teaching?TYes, the way I do this to answer this question is something that I have done with two classes at Wellingford. The listeners can do this while I run it through, I get the class and I ask them to think of a famous scientist. Few hands pop up, and then I tell them ‘think of a white male scientist’. A couple of kids put their hands up, classic ones come up, Einstein for example or Newton, now try and think of a white female scientist and with one class one girl did put her hand up but that was after a good three or four minutes and then I moved it on to think of an African scientist, no hands came up, think of an Asian scientist no hands came up.Then I sort of opened the doors and I said any non-European scientist that you think have made a major contribution in scientific advancement and most people can’t go further really than the white male. And so the whole question ‘why does it matter?’ is an important question and there seems to be a lack of appreciation of the contributions made by non-white scientists. In fact take yourself for example, if your efforts were unnoticed or they were simply high- jacked by another person and you’d shout injustice and I’m sure you’d shout injustice.Europeans didn’t have the monopoly for scientific discoveries but you can’t be blamed for thinking that. Given the fact many predominantly white schools may have unaddressed racist attitudes, for example, there is a good book written by Chris Henge on this topic called ‘some of the problems ? doubt?’ so science can provide a brilliant opportunity for teachers to address such attitudes and misconceptions towards other races and creeds.Its important to value the contributions I feel of non-white and white scientists in order to help give a more positive view to students from that particular minority, ethnic minority group and the contributions of their own culture. But also more importantly to white students who may feel that human advancement has been spearheaded by white male western scientists. The Eurocentric assumption must be challenged.Having considered why the global dimension in science is so important, I shall now look at how to incorporate it in science lessons. Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics, raises some challenging questions for science educators.What contributions to science have been made by those outside the ‘Western world’?Why should school science reflect the subject's diverse roots?How can you bring contemporary international science alive for your students?Can learning science from a global perspective motivate students and so raise achievement?Through exploring these vital questions, I hope you will gain the motivation and confidence to incorporate the global dimension in the work of your science department.1.2 Outside the ‘Western World’1.2.1 Science throughout history: a case of attribution?Much of the science we now take for granted was first done by scientists outside today's industrialised nations. For example, Arabic medicine was in advance of European medicine throughout the Middle Ages, and from Salerno (the first recorded medical school, founded in the 10th century), to Vesalius (the first person to publish a book of human anatomy, in 1543), Western doctors learned from their Muslim counterparts.Activity 2 gives an opportunity to learn more about some of the vital contributions made to science by those outside the ‘Western World’. Please attempt this now.Activity 2Click ‘view document’ to open the 'Match the discovery to the place' activity.View documentDo the ‘Match the discovery to the place’ quiz – click ‘view document’ above to read the quiz. The answer sheet makes an interesting wall display if cut up and displayed with a world map.Click "view document" to see the answers.View documentGo to the Association for Science Education's website. Select ‘ASE Global’ from the tabbed menu at the top of the page, then ‘Global Dimension’ and click on ‘Hot Issues’. Choose an article about a contemporary scientific development that interests you, ideally one involving scientists from outside Europe or North America. Prepare a short talk to tell colleagues about it.Next, examine activities that deliver the curriculum by introducing students to the exciting work of some non-Western scientists.Some discoveries commonly attributed to modern scientists may have roots further back in history than commonly believed. For example, there is evidence that the Chinese Yellow Emperor discovered the circulation of blood in human bodies 2200 years ago, well before William Harvey.To find out more about historical non-Western contributions to science try the following sources.The homepage of educationalist Xiufeng Liu. Scroll down to and click on ‘Multi-Cultural Science Education’ and then click on ‘Ethnic Scientists’.University of Princeton website. Click the button for seraching the Web then in ‘Search’, type ‘Faces of Science’. Click on the first result, ‘The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences’.Reiss, M. J. (1993) Science Education for a Pluralist Society, Milton Keynes, Open University Press (ISBN 0335157602).Hill, D. (1994) Islamic Science and Engineering (Islamic Surveys), Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press (ISBN 0748604553).For contemporary stories of worldwide scientific endeavour, the New Scientist online is an excellent starting point.1.3 In the classroom1.3.1 Teaching global scienceScience draws on a rich cultural heritage and continues to be a global endeavour. How can you bring global science to life for your students?Activity 3 will help to bring a global perspective to your science curriculum.Click "view document" to open 'Investigating Housing in Saudi Arabia'.View documentClick "view document" to open 'How can a mobile phone kill a gorilla …'.View documentClick "view document" to open 'Iron Technology'.View documentClick "view document" to open 'Why Communicate?'.View documentClick this link to go to Science Across the World.Activity 3In this activity you look at and test ready-to-use classroom activities that bring a global perspective to the science curriculum.First, choose three activities from the resources above. These include articles on housing in Saudi Arabia, the effect of obtaining resources required for mobile phone manufacture on gorilla habitats, iron technology in Tanzania and Scotland, and satellites communications.The web link given above is to the Science Across the World site, where there is information on acid rain. Under ‘Most Popular Topics’ click on ‘See all available topics’; and then ‘Acid Rain’.For each of the three resources you select:identify which aspect of the curriculum it delivers and for which students it might be appropriate;try it out with colleagues (if you want to!);identify aspects of the activity you particularly like;consider whether the activity has any shortcomings.Next, select one of the three activities you chose above to try out in your classroom, making any changes you think necessary. Use the activity as part of a lesson. Evaluate the effectiveness of the activity by reflecting on the lesson, talking to pupils and assessing their work. Did the activities motivate students? Share your experiences with colleagues.The UPD8 resource site contains numerous activities for secondary school pupils. Click on Topics in the top navigation bar to see the list of activities and choose one or two which are relevant to your classes. (You will need to join UPD8 to download activities.)1.3.2 Exploring other activitiesAfter trying Activity 3 you may want to explore some of the other resources given or even develop your own, in which case the Global Dimension section of the ASE site or the New Scientist online may be helpful starting points.One way of bringing global science into the classroom is by using ‘off-the-shelf’ activities that:exemplify curriculum content – for example, iron was extracted from its ore in a precursor of the blast furnace 2000 years ago in Tanzania;extend curriculum content – for example, when studying fuels, consider the work of United Arab Emirates’ scientists who are developing fuels for diesel engines from jojoba plant oil (go to http://www.planet-science.com, select Sci-Teach, then scroll down, click on 'hot topics' and find on the map the University of the United Arab Emirates);help to deliver ‘Ideas and Evidence’ ;provide new contexts for scientific enquiry, such as designing a fair test to test a new HIV/AIDS vaccine.Of course, it is vital to avoid perpetuating negative cultural and racial stereotypes. For advice on this, please see TeachGlobal under ‘Courses B and E’.1.4 Global approaches1.4.1 Global science in the classroomOther cultures have had flourishing examples of science that should be much more widely known by pupils… Pupils can be helped to see that science is a cultural activity, and it is inevitably the case that different cultures produce different sciences.Reiss (2000) p. 17There are many ways of helping students appreciate that science is a global pursuit.In Activity 4 you are asked to consider a variety of ways of incorporating the global dimension in the work of your department.Activity 4Listen to the audio clip below in which a teacher from Oxfordshire continues his conversation and tells of the ways his department is planning to incorporate a global dimension into science lessons.