Conceptions of science and technology clarified: improving the teaching of science

Developments in the teaching of science in recent years, whether under the umbrella of STS (Science, Technology, Society) or the narrower introduction of technology in some form, have failed to clarify precisely what is performed under these names and how they relate. This paper proposes a distinction which will make clear the purposes and precise nature of the theorizing process. Description‐explanation is contrasted with knowhow, the recipes involved in making and doing. This distinction is seen not only as a way of avoiding terminological argument, e.g., about whether technology is applied science, but, more importantly, as helping make explicit the thought processes involved. The distinction is then illustrated by examining the work of Josef von Fraunhofer on making achromatic lenses and of Boyle and others in spectroscopic analysis.