The last one thousand years or more of Turkish science educational development have numerous historical similarities to other parts of the world. While documentation of historical educational developments are important to those whose ancestors are being described, the true value of this regional- and country-specific evolutionary historical journey has even greater value when compared and contrasted with similar investigations from around the world. Only then do we see the critical events clearly and isolate the influences of our past intellectual growth as a society. The past is the key to our future. This paper highlights several major periods of science education change and the influences that led to those reforms. Until the middle of the 18th century, science education was limited and almost always tied to Islamic religious philosophy. By the 1830's, western influence, with France providing the greatest impact, resulted in curricular changes in both the kinds of science courses taught and expanded positivist approaches. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 led to society-wide reforms, especially in education. John Dewey's visit to Turkey in the 1930's created another science education curricular shift as elements of experimentalism and pragmatism were added to Turkish science curriculum. The next major science education development occurred after the Second World War, when Turkey became a full member of NATO and expanded its connections with western countries, especially the USA. This influence helped to create what was called modern science curriculum, especially in the area of biology, but the traditional positivist approach remained imbedded. And lastly the paper reflects on the current courting with the European Union and the shift to include more of a foundation to science curriculum by including the nature of science.