Thijs Hagendijk will give a presentation on the value of pedagogical reconstructions for chemistry education, March 20, Amsterdam

The Stevin Centre and Research Institute CLUE+ present: Stevin Conference “Teaching the history of knowledge: purposes, problems, practices”

This one-day conference, organized by the VU Stevin Centre in celebration of its fifth anniversary, focuses on the rationales of teaching the history of knowledge and on finding appealing ways of doing so. How do we convey the important and relevance of our courses? And what exactly is our message? What, for instance, is the added value for medical students of a course in the history of medicine? Which competences should we aim to teach in our courses? And how can we innovate and optimize our teaching? How do we cater for the needs of several different target groups? What do museums have to offer to our students? How can we make students experience the so-called “historical sensation”? The morning program consists of a round table discussion of the rationales behind our teaching. The afternoon presents some “best practices” in and innovative ways of teaching the history of knowledge and explores.

Morning session: why teach the history of knowledge?

9:30 – 10:00        Coffee/tea

10:00 – 10:10      Opening

10:10 – 11:00      Brief introductions (10 min) by the panel members:

Rens Bod (UvA, history of the humanities), Kees Cappon (UvA, history of law), Frank Huisman (Maastricht & Utrecht, history of medicine), Cyrus Mody (Maastricht, history of technology), Bert Theunissen (Utrecht, history of science)

11:00 – 12:00     Round table discussion

12:00 – 13:00     Lunch

Afternoon session: how to teach the history of knowledge

13:00 – 14:00      Ilja Nieuwland, Huygens ING & VU – Workshop: Teaching students digital skills – defining the bare minimum

14:00 – 14:20      Ad Maas, Museum Boerhaave – Astrolabes and audiences: Teachings students in Rijksmuseum Boerhaave.

14:20 – 14:40      Trienke van der Spek, Teylers Museum – Teylers Museum: The Lorentz Lab, the Lorentz formula and problem of poetic license

14:40 – 15:00      Thijs Hagendijk, Utrecht – Learning from sixteenth-century recipes: The value of pedagogical reconstructions for chemistry education

15:00 – 15:30      Coffee/tea

15:30 – 15:50      Ruben Verwaal, Erasmus University Rotterdam – What is reliable knowledge? Memory

15:50 – 16:10      Danny Beckers, VU – Teaching the history of computing: Differentiation within the class room through varied learning activities

16:10 – 16:30      Timo Bolt, Erasmus University Rotterdam – ‘Journal clubs’: Primary literature & medical students

16:30 – 16:50     Geert Somsen, Maastricht – Students interviewing authors of scholarly papers

16:50 – 17:00      Concluding remarks

17:00 – 18:00    Drinks