Two students, meeting together with a teacher, redid historical experiments. Unlike conventional instruction where science topics and practices often fragment, they experienced interrelatedness among phenomena, participants' actions, and history. This study narrates actions that fostered an interrelated view. One action involved opening up historical telephones to examine interior circuitry. Another made sound visible in a transparent air column filled with Styrofoam bits and through Lissajous figures produced by reflecting light off orthogonal nineteenth century tuning forks crafted by Koenig and Kohl. Another involved orienting magnetic compasses to reveal the magnetism of conducting wires, historically investigated by Oersted and Schweigger. Replicating Homberg's triboluminescent compound elicited students' reflective awareness of history. These actions bore pedagogical value in recovering some of the interrelatedness inherent in the history and reintroducing the wonder of science phenomena to students today.

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This paper narrates learning as it evolved through experimental work and interpretation in two distinct investigations: the explorations of permanent magnets and needles conducted by a student, Joann, as I interactively interviewed her, and Faraday's initial experimenting with diamagnetism, as documented in his Diary. Both investigators puzzled over details, revisited their confusions resiliently, and invented analogies as ways of extending their questioning; ''misconceptions'' and conflict were not explicit to their process. Additionally, Faraday formed interpretations-and doubts critiquing them-that drew upon his extensive experience with magnetism's spatial behaviors. These two cases suggest that physics instruction could include opportunities for students' development of their own investigatory learning.

This study investigates nineteenth century laboratory work on electromagnetism through historical accounts and experimental replications. Oersted found that when a magnetic needle was placed in varying positions around a conducting wire, its orientation changed: in moving from a spot above the wire to one below, its sense inverted. This behavior was confusing and provocative. Early experimenters such as Johann Schweigger, Johann Poggendorff, and James Cumming engaged it by bending wire into loops. These loops, which increased the magnetic effect on a compass placed within, also provided evidence of their understanding and confusion. Coiling conducting wires around iron magnetized it, but when some wires coiled oppositely from others, the effect diminished. This effect confused contemporaries of Joseph Henry who made electromagnets, and amateurs later in the century who constructed multisection induction coils. I experienced these confusions myself while working with multilayer coils and induction coils that I made to replicate the historical instruments. This study shows how confusion can be a productive element in learning, by engaging learners to ask questions and invent experiments. By providing space for learners' confusions, teachers can support the development of their students' physical understandings.

The natural philosopher Michael Faraday and the psychologist Jean Piaget experimented directly with natural phenomena and children. While Faraday originated evidence for spatial ªelds mediating force interactions, Piaget studied children's cognitive development. This paper treats their experimental processes in parallel, taking as examples Faraday's 1831 investigations of water patterns produced under vibration and Piaget's interactions with his infants as they sought something he hid. I redid parts of Faraday's vibrating ºuid activities and Piaget's hiding games. Like theirs, my experiences showed that incomplete observations and confusions accompanied-and facilitated-