science: Problems and possibilities

This paper focuses upon the problem of raising environmental awareness in the con-text of school science. By focusing, as it does, on the relationship between the self and the natural environment, the paper discusses the difficulties that exist, such as the students ’ involvement with the natural world, as their object of study, the empirical treatment and the modeling of the natural world, and the purpose of learning science, as well as the possibilities for promoting the development of such relationship by keeping the natural world, as an object of study, in the foreground of the teaching-learning process. Such possibilities refer to the awareness of the personal and wider significance of science ideas and socio-scientific issues, the wonder evoked by sci-ence ideas and by natural forms and phenomena, the aesthetic appreciation of the natural world, and the ‘story of the universe’, as a story that addresses the intercon-nection of science and human life. The educational importance of ‘awareness ’ is also discussed in the paper. Key words: environmental awareness, environmental education, school science