This study focuses on the use of historical approach in secondary school chemistry education,and especially on using history as a context to teach about nature of science (NOS).NOS is knowledge about characteristics of scientific knowledge and practice. As a central element of scientific literacy understanding, it is widely considered as one of key aims of science education (see e.g. Vesterinen et al. in press). However, for many science teachers,successful teaching of NOS is demanding. Science teachers often do not necessarily have sufficient understanding of NOS, and even having such understanding does not guarantee students’ learning of NOS (see Lederman 2007). In addition to sufficient understanding of NOS,