WE LIVE IN A ‘MATERIAL’ WORLD:CLUSTER 2 THEMES & APPLICATIONS

EDUB 2130

  Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8

Cluster 0 Overall Skills and Attitudes

Overall Skills and Attitudes

Overall Skills and Attitudes

Overall Skills and Attitudes

Cluster 1 Maintaining a Healthy Body

Diversity of Living Things

Interactions Within Ecosystems

Cells and Systems

Cluster 2 Properties of and Changes in Substances

Flight Particle Theory of Matter

Optics

Cluster 3 Forces and Simple Machines

Electricity Forces and Structures

Fluids

Cluster 4 Weather The Solar System

Earth's Crust Water Systems

on Earth

Cluster 2: Material World Topics

Central Themes 1. Properties of Materials – characteristics –

descriptive or behavioral. What is this material like? 2. Uses of the material based upon its properties.

Knowing this, what is this material used for? 3. How the material changes – permanent or

temporary, chemical or physical. How & Why does this material change?

4. Issues associated with the material - environmental, social, technological. What are the issues associated with his material?

Gold is unreactive, aesthetically appealing, malleable and lustrous and for these reasons, it is used for capping teeth. It is quite useful and rare, thus its economic status and associated issues with mining, currency, and social conflict and exploitation.

Some Historical Themes and Applications

Early Greeks – again white males- first reference to the ‘particle’ – atomus/atoma – indivisible

400 BC (2400 years ago)! In Early Greek society there were several ‘schools of

thought’. One school being the ‘materialists’ – primary figure was

the mentor of the school - Leucippus – but given little recognition for his contributions

Materialists believed that things (phenomena) could be explained based upon evidence

From this school, the earliest thoughts about the atom as a particle originated

Reasoned explanation for natural phenomena based upon evidence

Had the potential to strongly influence the development of early science

Three Levels of Materialist (Scientist) Activity

The relationship between theory, evidence, and reasoning:

THEORY Development - Resolution ________________________________________

Processing of Evidence

Evidence Collected – Experiential Level

_______________________________________

Reasoning – Cognitive – Psychological Level

Where’s Leuicippus?

The banknotes and historical recognition are given to another guy, Democritus, rather than Leuicippus

The ‘materialist’ school was based in Athens Democritus was from northern Greece, like

Aristotle Had a privileged life – extrovert – the ‘laughing

Philosopher’ – favor because of Aristotle lnk Leuicippus although Democritus’ mentor, largely

overlooked – referred to as ‘shady’ – ‘shadowed’. Public recognition of science contributions of one

over the other primarily because of status and perception rather than sound credibility – not to discredit Ds efforts as he did systematize understanding of the ‘particle’

Fast Forward to the 1600s

The time of alchemy – making ‘kimia’ (gold) out of something that does not possess gold

Search for the ‘philosopher’s stone’ that would make this process a reality – what a diversion!

No significant exploration into the nature of the particle until the 1600s

Robert Boyle – another European! Controlled investigations focusing upon the

collection of evidence to support scientific reasoning

Worked primarily with air in confined containers – examples

Strong mathematical basis to his work – evidence to support theory

His Model for Explaining Pressure- Volume!

Materialists in Other Cultures?

The Town of Inuvik, 68º 21'N Longitude: 133º 43' W, was located on the east side of the Mackenzie River delta, 97 km south of the Beaufort Sea. It was approximately 75 miles distant from Aklavik. (Map courtesy of Multimap.com)

Hallway of Aklavik School

Rangifer tarandus

Inuvialuit & Gwichin of Northern NWT &Yukon

Recognized that the migration route of caribou was along corridors through the mountain valleys.

Observations of migratory assisted in preparing for the spring and autumn hunts.

Migration influenced by lichen abundance. One lichen today is called caribou ‘moss’ – Cladina rangiferina

Scores of lichens but not all consumed by caribou

Hard to distinguish between them by appearance

Evidence-Reasoning-Theory Lichens are very acidic – not consumable Cladina rangiferina not as acidic as other lichens Palatable for caribou Stomach contents eaten by Gwichin - dependent on

lichen contents – for good health – especially in ill health

Stomach contents of caribou with lichen used to alter colours of plants for dyes – dark to light colours

“soapberries” used to alter colour of plants - especially flowers - for dyes- light to dark colours

Also used as a soup thickener & mild fermenting agent Note uses of the lichen based upon its properties

A variety of bioactive compounds have been isolated and identified from

C. rangiferina, including abietane, labdane, isopimarane, the abietane

hanagokenols A and B, ontuanhydride, sugiol, 5,6-

dehydrosugiol, montbretol, cis-communic acid, imbricatolic acid, 15-

acetylimbricatoloic acid, junicedric acid, 7α-hydroxysandaracopimaric

acid, β-resorylic acid, atronol, barbatic acid, homosekikaic acid, didymic

acid and condidymic acid. …Some of these compounds have mild

inhibitory activities against microbial action and are mildly depressant in

fermented state.Nybakken L, Julkunen-Tiito R. (2006). UV-B induces usnic acid in reindeer lichens. Lichenologist 38(5): 477-485.

Closing Thoughts

Our students learn science from one perspective only, not realizing that the evidence-theory connection of all science is evident in the thoughtful and purposeful thinking of all cultures.

Science must be presented in a manner that honors the thoughtful reasoning evident in all peoples. This is just not affirming the cultural diversity of the marginalized, but also helping the dominant culture to realize that other cultures are equally able to reason.Adapted from Prof. Elizabeth McKinley University of Auckland