The role of history in science education has recently garnered wider interest owing to the heightened importance the Next Generation Science Standards (2012) has placed on conveying to students an understanding of the “nature of science.” This essay strives to set this development in historical context by examining the changing role of the history of chemistry in chemical education over the last century. It focuses on two specific episodes: Edgar Fahs Smith’s history of chemistry course at the University of Pennsylvania and James Bryant Conant’s ultimately unsuccessful program at Harvard for general science education. The essay then compares these two episodes to the current emphasis on teaching the “nature of science” to students, arguing that using history to teach the “nature of science” distorts history in a manner that undermines the professional values of historians and suggesting that collaboration between historians and science educators is possible only when the professional interests of both are preserved.

中文翻译：

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化学教育中的化学史

由于下一代科学标准（2012 年）对向学生传达对“科学的本质”的理解的高度重视，历史在科学教育中的作用最近引起了更广泛的兴趣。本文试图通过检验化学史在上个世纪化学教育中不断变化的作用，将这一发展置于历史背景中。它侧重于两个特定的片段：埃德加·法斯·史密斯 (Edgar Fahs Smith) 在宾夕法尼亚大学的化学史课程和詹姆斯·布莱恩特·科南特 (James Bryant Conant) 在哈佛 (Harvard) 最终失败的通识科学教育计划。然后，这篇文章将这两集与当前对向学生教授“科学的本质”的强调进行了比较，