This thesis is an investigation into the simplest material entities recognised by Aristotle's theory of nature. In general, the position I defend is that the four 'so-called elements' fire, air, water, and earth are, for Aristotle, genuine elements, i.e., the simplest material constituents, of bodies. In particular, I deal with two problems, the first concerning the relationship between the four 'so-called elements' and the primary contraries, hot-cold, dry-wet; and the second concerning the nature of the matter from which the latter come to be. Responses to these problems in the secondary literature tend to conclude that the contraries (usually together with 'prime matter'), are constitutive of the so-called elements. I reject this conclusion. In the first part of this thesis I consider, and dismiss, the alleged evidence that Aristotle denies to fire, air, water, and earth the status of genuine elements, and I argue that the status of the contraries as the differentiae of the elements effectively rules out the possibility that they could be the constituents of the latter. In the second part of this thesis I attempt to unpack Aristotle's assertion at De Gen. et Cor. II. 1 that the matter of the perceptible bodies is that from which the so-called elements come to be. I argue that the matter of the perceptible bodies, although it is that from which the elements come to be, is not the 'matter of the elements', in the sense of a matter that composes the elements. On the contrary, the 'matter of the perceptible bodies', i.e., the constitutive matter of composite bodies, is itself composed of the elements: it is a mixture of the four elements. Thus the latter can be said to come to be 'from' the 'matter of the perceptible bodies', but this must be understood in a non-constitutive sense of 'from'.

Health is an interesting and highly relevant subject today. Physical health is something we see everywhere, in newspapers, on tv and social media, what to eat, how to exercise etc. Mental health however is still taboo even though it’s a growing problem in today’s society. Mental health is associated with many problems in our society such as lower school result and depression. This paper compare how mental health is treated compared to physical health in upper secondary school literature. This comparison is made by a comparative and a thematic analysis of six books intended for the biology and nature science classes in Swedish high school. All investigated literature has a more comprehensive section when it comes to physical health compared to mental health. There is a positive trend where the newer literature has a more extensive mental health section compared to the older literature. It´s important to increase knowledge about mental health because it is one of the most important factors in increasing well-being, and increased well-being results in better school results. In the future it’s important to identify success factors for a successful health education.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka äldre barns kunskapsutveckling efter högläsning i kombination med undersökande verb samt de estetiska lärprocesserna drama och bild i undervisning om solrosens livscykel.  Vi har undersökt om högläsning med fokus på undersökande verb, bild och drama i kombination med varandra har en påverkan på äldre förskolebarns lärande av naturvetenskap. Arbetet tar utgångspunkt i John Deweys pragmatiska lärteori. Dewey menar att man lär sig av att erfara omvärlden genom att göra. Studien genomfördes med för- och efterintervjuer med förskolebarn, i fyra-femårsåldern. Mellan intervjuerna har det genomförts en intervention i form av en undervisningssituation med vår egenskrivna bok Solrosens livscykel - solrosens resa från frö till blomma. Två grupper med barn ingick i studien, med fem barn i varje grupp. Den ena gruppen erbjöds undervisning med enbart högläsning, och den andra gruppen erbjöds undervisning med högläsning i kombination med de estetiska lärprocesserna, drama och bild tillsammans med undersökande verb. Datamaterial samlades in, transkriberades och analyserades med en innehållsanalys samt stapeldiagram som följdes av resultat och diskussion. Studien har resulterat i att man kan se att högläsning i sig har en positiv inverkan på barnens inlärning, men att det finns en marginell kunskapsökning hos de barn som har fått undervisning i form av högläsning kombinerat med drama, bild och undersökande verb. / Based on John Dewey's pragmatic theory of learning, this study explores the outcome of using a model that combines storytelling with drawing pictures, drama and exploring verbs, compared to ordinary storytelling to teach preschool children nature science. Dewey means that you collect knowledge through experiences from the environment around you, learning by doing. Preschool children, at the age of four to five years old, were interviewed before and after a teaching session. Between the interviews we performed a teaching opportunity with our self-written book (The circle of the sunflower - the sunflower´s travel from seed to bloom). During the study we followed two groups with preschool children. The first group was offered teaching with only storytelling.  The second group was offered the same teaching with storytelling and after the story was told a play was performed with the children, telling the same story again together with exploring verbs. After that the children also made drawings. The data was analysed through a content analysis followed by a discussion where we decided how to rate the answers. The result of our study showed that storytelling itself has a positive impact on the children's learning. There is a marginal increase in knowledge for the children who received teaching with storytelling in combination with drama and picture drawing.

The aim of this study is to investigate how preschool children, aged 3-5 years, create meaning of static electricity in an activity led by a pedagogue, how this is expressed and what part the pedagogue takes in children’s meaning making. The method used was participant observation and video camera was used to document a designed activity. The observations took place at four occasions with four different groups and the observations was conducted in different rooms of various sizes, which were provided by the preschool. Equipment used in this study are: Balloons, pvc-pipes, salt, different kinds of papers, aluminum cans and thin plastic bags. Results in this study show that the children create meaning of the activity first and foremost by exploring interplay and conversations. They solve the task at hand working together and with support of the pedagogue. The role of pedagogue in the children’s meaning making is to present tasks which have moderate levels of difficulties, and to direct the children’s focus by using questions concerning the current phenomenon. In so doing, they support the children to succeed. Factors of importance for the children’s meaning making is to be given the opportunity to explore, their curiosity, joy and being heard.

In this study, the aim has been to investigate how different educational materials in the nature science subjects are designed with the intention of how many and what types of laboratory activities the pupils will encounter to contextualize the abstract nature of science to develop their understanding of the content and working methods of science. In order for the pupils to have the opportunity to develop a scientific understanding, it is necessary that they have the opportunity to use their senses to interpret the text that is presented to them. Through various sensual, experimental, and practical activities, pupils can gain an understanding of the abstract phenomena, concepts, and explanatory models of natural science. In today's schools, there are many teachers who use educational materials as their point of departure when teaching science. Educational materials have an important role in science teaching, but depending on how the educational materials are designed, they provide different conditions for learning. In this study, the number of laboratory activities, that appear in different educational materials for science teaching, is investigated, as well as whether these laboratory activities are designed in terms of their degree of freedom and openness. The following questions have been addressed in order to achieve the purpose of the study: - How many laboratory activities can be found in the various educational materials?-  Are there more laboratory activities in any of the three nature-oriented subjects, biology, physics, or chemistry? - What types of laboratory activities do the pupils encounter in the educational materials and what degree of openness and freedom do they include? The investigation has been carried out through a qualitative and quantitative text and content analysis where various educational materials have been analyzed based on the context-based learning (CBL) theory and the theory of laboratory classification. The results of the qualitative and quantitative text and content analysis showed that certain educational materials give the pupils more opportunities to connect the scientific content to real experiences. The results also showed that some educational materials have a greater variety of different laboratory forms where the pupils have the opportunity to develop an understanding of the different working methods and content of the natural sciences. The conclusion that can be drawn after this study is therefore that it is important that teachers carefully review the various2educational materials to gain insight into their design. Through insight into the design of the educational materials, the teacher can then supplement the educational materials with, for example, laboratories of varying degrees of openness and freedom to give the pupils the opportunity to fulfill the goals in the curriculum.