The following information should be of help to teachers, parents, and students. One of the greatest problems in science education centers on this lack of understanding by the general public.

Science teachers teach about science concepts in their classrooms, but rarely do they take time to help students understand what science is and what it is not.  The New Hampshire Framework for Science Literacy contains information about what science is and it is intended that teachers will take time to repeatedly help students understand the nature of science.   The business of science is to develop theories based on natural explanations about how the natural world works.

Students need to realize how the scientific processes are used to acquire new knowledge. The best way for them to do this is to spend time using scientific inquiry, experimentation, discussing data, drawing inferences based on data, and writing conclusions based on evidence. These processes should be practiced in every science course at every science level. It is also desirable that students be aware of past scientific works that formed the basis for the development of present theories, and the fact that scientific theories are built on the sequential work of many scientists over time.