V olume 19: Measuring up to STEM

V.19 Issue #1: Science: Searching for Answers

A. In Ancient Greece: Recognizing Reality: Lessons in this section explore the work of three Greek philosophers, whose curiosiity and independent thinking first proposed new ideas about Earth based on reason rather than myth.

• Seeking Answers: Thales, 600 BC Students make and use an astrolabe.
• Numbers According to Pythagoras, 500 BC Students make models of musical instruments and explore the relationship between size and sound.
• Living Things According to Aristotle, 400 BC Students observe examples of animal life and sort them into groups based on features they observe.
• The Math Genius: Archimedes, 300 BC Students make boats or rafts and experiment with buoyancy.

B. In the Middle Ages: Eyes on the Sky: After the end of Greek civilization, over 1000 years passed without inquiry into questions of reality. Belief in a flat Earth as the center of the universe was generally accepted...Qestioning this belief was considered heresy, punishable by death. Even so, there were individuals who found flaws in this belief and were engrossed in finding better explanationso of Earth's place in the universe.

• A Sun-Centered System of Planets: Copernicus, 1400-1500 AD Students make models of Ptolemy's and Copernicus' images of the universe and compare their beliefs.
• Ways of Seeing: Galileo, 1600 AD Students examine a variety of visual aids and investigate how they work.
• Planets in Orbit: Kepler, 1600 AD Students make spinning devices and observe the action.

C. In My World: During the Middle Ages, innovative thinkers often lost their lives. During the Renaissance, however, they were able to experiment and exchange ideas freely. There was a ferment of inquiry into both natural and physical topics. These lessons are a minimal sample.

• Investigating Lenses: Van Leeuwenhoek, 1600-1700 AD Students investigate the magnifying power of concave and convex lenses.
• A Breath of Air: Priestley, 1700 AD Students experiment with plant and animal models, attempting to achieve a balance as Priestly did.
• Unraveling Heredity: Mendel, 1800 AD Students compare their hereditary traits and analyze gene combinations in Punnett Squares.

V.19 Issue #2: Technology: Putting Power to Work

A. The Muscle Power Ages: Muscles were the primary source of energy to do work for hundreds of thousands of years. Water wheels and windmills, mostly for grinding grain, were in use 4-5000 years ago. Not until the 18th centruy A.D. and the Industrial Revolution were new sources of energy put to use, changing everyday life.

• Tools from Stone and Wood Studens investigate the properties of different types of rock and compose stories about how different rocks could be used.
• Push and Pull Simple machines make work easier by changing the direction of a force.
• Rolling Along Students investigate how to move heavy loads more easily.

B. Harnessing Energy: It was extraordinary men who had the vision and the persistence to develop better ways of getting work done. The use of wind and waterpower were early steps in this direction. Think of sails to move ships, and windmills and water wheels to grind grains! It took generations of extraordinary men and women to harness the energy in fossil fuels and power the Industrial Revolution, which made modern life possible.

• Capturing Energy Students make and use solar ovens, and consider how energy changes from one form to another.
• Linking with Nature Students make simple windmills and investigate how gears work.
• Using Electricity Students make electric circuits to turn on a light bulb, and explore how different coiled circuits affect the light bulb.
• Powering Electric Motors Students make electromagnets and explore how they work.

C. Modern Miracles: Since ancient times technological programs had been aimed at the basic needs of human beings: the most food for the least work, and buildings to protect them. By the middle of the 19th century ways to meet these needs were well developed, and technology turned to making life easier, safer, and pleasanter. Electric lighting, the telephone, trains and cars all were developed in the second half of the 1800s and changed the way of life in Europe and America.

• Breaking Communication Bariers Students model modes of communication over time.
• Getting Around Students role play the action of an internal combustion engine and consider its effect on modes of transportation.
• Feeding the Multitudes Students investigate how technology has affected our food supply and develop posters to show energy trade-offs.

V.19 Issue #3: Engineering: Structure in the Making

A. Push and Pull: Whether we think of buildings, machines, or other devices, the science of engineering is what enables us to make strong objects and structures that will endure. The logical sequence of events must begin with understanding how forces affect the structure and how to choose the right materials and put them together perfectly. Lessons in this section ask students to investigate gravity and the forces that oppose it, enabling structures such as the human skeleton to stay standing.

• What Gravity Does Students experiment with gravitational force.
• Resisting Gravity Students investigate how the center of gravity acts as a balance point.
• Shape and Strength Students experiment with tent models.
• Wind and Water

B. Over and Under: Poor Griffen! We don't suppose he attempted that impossible leap. But we do know that the history of human progress and invention embraces many such challenges. Great advances emerged from the daring of those who simply did not accept impossibility. The evolving of bridges, tunnels, and related structures is an absolute example of humans overcoming challenging aspects of their environment.

• Over The River Students investigate shapes that make bridges strong and design and construct a model of a bridge.
• Under The River Students view and discuss a segment of the PBS video, Tunnels: The Channel; then do a "meeting in the middle" activity and make a model cofferdam.
• Moving Water Along Students explore how siphoning gets water to flow uphill and what "safe yield" means.

C. Inventive Engineering: People such as inventors with creative minds are uncommon. Often they seem to be demented to their neighbors, until a way-out idea is made to work. Think of the Wright brothers and their early flying machines, and how that invention has affected everyday life! Invention often comes about from making existing things better. Lessons in this section focus on structures and how they have been upgraded over time, and ask students to practice inventing.

• How High? Students create towers as tall as they can make them from newspaper.
• Disorderly Nature Students model the affect of wind and of earthquakes on a structure.
• What's The Problem?

V.19 Issue #4: Math: The Language of Numbers