Undergraduate courses on the nature of science (NOS) often involve teaching a set of core elements. Without extensive unpacking and reflection, the complexity of those NOS elements could be easily misinterpreted and oversimplified by the students. Our paper will explain how we teach our Hong Kong university students the NOS by introducing traditional Chinese science in a general education common core course. This course adopted a seminar method of teaching by introducing and discussing the cultural–historical context in its pedagogical design. There are indicators that this approach is effective as the conflict between students' own culture and what they are learning generated a deeper reflection and integration of the newly learned with their prior knowledge and personal beliefs. We believe our pilot study would be an invaluable case study for exploring ways to improve NOS teaching for other educators. Copyright © 2021 Springer.