"Réel de terrain", "Réel de laboratoire" et construction de problèmes en sciences de la vie et de la terre

Abstract

“Reality in the field”, “reality in the laboratory” and elaborating problems in the Life and Earth Sciences We present a selection of the results of our research carried out with the INRP. This research attempts to bring together, in a few case studies, the approach of elaborating problems with the particularity which certain branches of the Life and Earth Sciences have of referring to both field and laboratoiy work. This leads us to underline the great variety of relationships between empirical registers and explanations, which cannot be translated by a stereotypical experimental procedure, and the importance of practical experience in the inter¬ pretation of the facts. There follow a number of questions on the role of empirical investigation in the teaching and the learning of biology and geology.