Some researchers advocate a biographical treatment of science. They say it is preferable to follow the stage through which the subject has passed in the actual course of its development from early beginnings, rather than first establish scientific principles and theories. Science is in fact an expression of the human spirit. At present the school science is lacking in its human spirit should find a place. Such a scientific education has a romance of its own and we can seldom ignore it.
The historical approach gives a glimpse into this, but if children are to get the real benefit, the subject must be studied in the full light of a biographical treatment.
Then the question arises ,Is it desirable to include in any course of general science, a certain amount of instruction in the history of Science ? When a boy first comes to the natural science class he is more interested in the change of color in starch than in the phenomenon itself. He does not like to be bothered with the biography of Lavoisier, when he is burning bits of magnesium and observes and enjoys the change of color or with the biography of Pasteur when he is listening to an interesting talk on rabies and treatment.
But a time may come later on, when he is interested in historical ideas. Only when he is at this “receptive stage”, should we deal with the biographies of great and eminent scientists like Darwin ,Linnaeus, Pasteur, Jenner, Koch, Newton, Faraday, Bose and Raman. This would vitalize the present syllabus and the pupils would be able to sympathesise with the scientists in hunting up facts, improvising apparatus, making discoveries and evolving theories.
To the teacher also the study of the biographies is very important and would influence his methods profoundly. It would make him sympathetic towards children’s pitfalls in conducting experiments, because the difficulties encountered by the pioneers of science and children are not vitally different. “The biological details of the lives of great scientists introduce into science teaching a most desirable and human element and would make pupils sympathetic towards the difficulties and pitfalls of the pioneers of science”.
“The prime contribution of the heroes of science to the world’s cultural wealth is not the scientific method but the scientific life”….”Our business then is to teach the realization of life and not the mastery of the methods”-PERCY NUNN.
Therefore, the study of the biography of scientists should be less a matter of for formal construction and would be better for occasional treatment by the teacher and for informal talk and discussion in science club and society and also for individual reading by the students.