The Zhang Heng Seismoscope as a Black Box: Enhancing High School Science Education

This article examines the educational possibilities of utilizing Zhang Heng's second-century seismoscope, the earliest known earthquake-detecting device, as a black box in high school physics instruction. An intervention in a classroom with students aged sixteen to seventeen involved learners in rebuilding potential internal processes of the device, the original design of which remains ambiguous. The activity aimed to promote inquiry-based and problem-based learning by necessitating that students hypothesize, design, and justify models that might credibly elucidate the seismoscope's functionality. The findings indicated that students utilized Newtonian mechanics—specifically the idea of inertia—in creative manners, while also producing pendulum- and lever-based explanations that demonstrated varied reasoning approaches. The intervention fostered engagement with the essence of science, as students directly encountered the provisional, inventiveness, and empirical foundation of scientific knowledge. The incorporation of this historical artifact emphasized the interdisciplinary nature of science, connecting physics with history, culture, and engineering, thus expanding students' understanding of the worldwide origins of scientific progress. The study concludes that utilizing authentic historical instruments as black boxes can enhance conceptual understanding, interdisciplinary learning, and epistemological reflection in secondary science education, providing an effective method for fostering scientific literacy and favorable attitudes toward science.