Introduction Ability to work with information and communication technologies (ICT) is recognized as one of the key competencies necessary for success in life. In the past two decades, there has been a growing understanding of the important role of ICT, not only for business and economics, but also for learning and teaching.

Functions: Some of the functions of ICT which are specifically relevant to science teaching: the immediate appearance on screen of automatically collected experimental results enables pupils to make the connection between observed and empirical data; access to current and relevant information sources (e.g. latest photographs from the Hubble space telescope) can be used to illustrate concepts which would otherwise be very theoretical; increasing precision in the use of scientific language and terminology can be encouraged when word processing software is used to produce reports and accounts of experiments; interaction with simulations and models allows pupils to test hypotheses and explore relationships between variables, e.g. to explore the effect of colour of light on oxygen production during photosynthesis.

There are various ways of organizing the use of ICT in the science.