Table 3.

Elaborated story of the ‘hunting for the cause of SARS’

Time	Historical development of the identification of SARS virus	Multimedia items/teaching and learning activities	Embedded elements of NOS and scientific inquiry
Mar 2003	Dr. Klaus Stohr, a scientist with the World Health Organisation (WHO), initiated the establishment of an international collaborative network among 11 laboratories, located in 10 countries.	An introductory activity asking students to name one piece of scientific knowledge and the scientist or scientists responsible for it. [It is expected that learners may only be able to name the most famous scientist associated with a particular piece of scientific knowledge.]
		Learners are reminded that local science education (in common with practice in many countries) focuses more on the products of science than the development of science. Hence most textbooks fail to mention collaboration and competition among scientists, which our informants identified as key features of the knowledge generation process.	Both collaboration and competition are common among scientists. Scientists often built on earlier findings by their predecessors. Collaboration among scientists can also be across time.
		A 60-s video showing Dr. Stohr making several phone calls and inviting different labs to form an international research consortium through telephone conferencing—thus enabling rapid sharing of data and information about SARS. Learners are asked to identify and describe the nature of collaboration shown in the video. They are also asked if they can see beyond collaboration (we are looking for students to identify competition, as reflected in the hidden message of the video narrative).	Technology can change the ways in which science is conducted and the speed with which it is completed. Without recent advances in telecommunications and availability of the Internet, the large-scale collaboration could not have established so rapidly. Scientists are competitive by nature; they compete with each other, themselves, time, resources, etc.
		A 40-s video edited from the interviews with Dr. LP and Dr. RC, in which they talked about how the pace of their research was accelerated by ‘competing’ against time, resources, their own self-esteem and social demands.	Scientists are not detached from society and they often work strenuously to meet social demands.
18 Mar 2003	CUHK first announced they had found evidence that paramyxovirus was the causative agent of SARS. Laboratories in Germany, Canada and Singapore immediately announced that they had also found evidence of paramyxovirus in samples collected from patients.	Learners are shown a photograph of the pattern of iron filings produced by a bar magnet. They are asked to draw what they see. [It is anticipated that those who recognise the pattern of iron filings as a representation of magnetic field lines will draw solid lines, even with arrows showing the direction of magnetic field lines. Other will simply draw broken lines.]	Subjectivity of scientists and theory-laden observation. Scientists’ observations are influenced by their knowledge and the theoretical framework they employ—i.e., their observations may be affected by what they expect to see or prepare themselves to observe.
22 Mar 2003	HKU found evidence suggesting that the causative agent was coronavirus. A laboratory in Rottendam and CDC in Atlanta quickly announced that they had also found evidence in favour of coronavirus.	Learners are shown a picture with an ‘embedded view’ which is not immediately obvious to most observers.
		Learners are then asked to identify and describe examples of theory-laden observations from an 80-s video showing the progression from the agreement among different laboratories that a paramyxovirus was the causative agent of SARS to the agreement that a coronavirus was the real causative agent of SARS. The video includes excerpts from the press conferences of both announcements and the characteristic appearance of both types of virus.	Tentative nature of scientific knowledge (linked to the skepticism and open-mindedness of scientists)
		[It is expected that some learners may even be able to identify that the virologists who identified the viruses from their characteristic appearance were basing their views on their own expert knowledge, for a lay person would be unable to recognise the patches on the microscopic slides as viruses.