The main aspects of NOS are still controversy as there are many ways to categorize them (AAAS 1990;
Lederman 2007; McComas, Almazroa, and Clough 1998; McComas 2000). Abd-El-Khalick and Lederman
(Abd-El-Khalick and Lederman 2000a) suggested that there are seven aspects of the NOS that are
noncontroversial and accessible to K – 12 students and which are also considered to be relevant to their daily
lives: 1) scientific knowledge is tentative (subject to change); 2) empirically-based (based on and/or derived
from observations of the natural world); 3) subjective and/or theory-laden; 4) partly the product of human
inference, imagination, and creativity (involves the invention of explanation); 5) socially and culturally
embedded; 6) the distinction between observations and inferences; and 7) the function of, and relationships
between scientific theories and laws. Details of these aspects can be found in Lederman (2007). This study
concentrated on these aspects as the lens of design.