The “Heat Game”: An augmented reality game for scientific literacy (original) (raw)

Chapter 2 Literature Review A scientist is a man who has cultivated (if indeed he was not born with) the restless, analytical, problem-seeking, problem-solving temperament that marks his possession of a Scientific mind. Science is an immensely prosperous and successful enterprise …..because it is the outcome of applying a certain sure and powerful method of discovery and proof to the investigation of natural phenomena: The Scientific Method….An episode of scientific discovery begins with the plain and unembroidered evidence of the senses-with innocent, unprejudiced observation, the exercise of which is one of the scientist's most precious and distinctive faculties-and a great mansion of natural law is slowly built upon it. Imagination kept within bounds may ornament a scientist's thought and intuition may bring it faster to its conclusions, but in a strictly formal sense neither is indispensable (Medawar 1982, p115). Key reasons for supporting a new approach to education for science literacy were advanced in the first chapter of the thesis. This chapter reviews literature pertaining to the development of a fresh approach that involves the construction of an augmented reality game for scientific literacy. There are three sections in this chapter. The first section is a review of the literature that informed the choice of the particular blend of views, values and attitudes to science incorporated into the definition of scientific literacy used in this work. The second section reviews literature concerning education for science literacy. The final section reviews literature pertaining to the development of the augmented reality game. Defining Scientific Literacy One way to help identify the views, values and attitudes to science that are typical of a scientifically literate person is to examine the views, values and attitudes of a person who is not; thereby throwing the attributes of scientific literacy into clear relief. The kinds of views on the nature of science embedded in Medawar's 'portrait of a scientist by an educated layman' (epigraph to this chapter) serve as a good starting point. Some of