Prompt 3
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 1UNIT 3 - INVESTIGATION 3HOW CAN LOOKING AT THE SAME INFORMATION FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES PAVE THE WAY FOR PROGRESS?PurposeChanges in thinking and ideas are often central to igniting historical change. This Investigation asks you to consider how a new point of view can pave the way for new discoveries and create progress. A wonderful case study of the role ideas can play in driving innovation is the story of the change in our understanding of the material world and its elements. Lavoisier, the “father of modern chemistry,” altered the way people viewed the elements, changing a point a view that had been dominant since Aristotle’s time. His redefinition of the chemical elements and their properties enabled dramatic discoveries. These in turn led to new understanding of the elements and their relationship to one another, enabling a new scheme of organization – the periodic table – and the field of chemistry we know today.ProcessFraming the Problem: Discussing the Driving Question and Capturing Your Initial ConjecturesHow and why do individuals change their minds? How can looking at the same information from different perspectives pave the way for progress? Have you ever developed a new point of view? Did you ever see a person or an event or even a school subject differently than you had before? Did you ever hear something new in a familiar song or see something you never saw before in a favorite movie? Did you ever develop a new point of view on a familiar topic? If so, what effect did it have on you? In the late eighteenth century, Antoine Lavoisier, often called the “father of modern chemistry,” helped change the way people had viewed the chemical elements. His new point of view started chemists and other scientists down a path of innovation and discovery that led to the world we know today. In fact, some people think that this new way of thinking, which began over 200 years ago, led to changes in how we live today.But how? How can a new way of seeing things pave the way for progress? This Investigation asks you to use the documents in the Investigation Library to develop an explanation for how new points of view pave the way for progress. We have provided you with a graphic organizer that you can use to trace a path from Lavoisier to the present. Feel free to explore other influences that are not accounted for in the Investigation Library to create your path. Your teacher might ask you to use your graphic organizer, your notes, and the documents in the Investigation Library to write a five- to six-paragraph essay. Begin with your initial conjectures (best guesses) about why and how new points of view or ways of seeing things can pave the way for discovery and progress. Think about examples in your own life or from history when a different point of view opened up new possibilities.
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 2Part 1 – Explore, Read, and Analyze TextsAnalyzing Documents and Making ClaimsRead the materials in the Investigation Library about changing points of view about the elements. What do the texts tell you about new ideas in chemistry and their influence on further discovery? How do they support, extend, or contradict your initial conjectures? Do they support, extend, or contradict each other? We have provided a table for you to use when you read the documents. Filling in the table will help you capture the information in the texts to answer the question “How do new points of view pave the way for progress?”So, now what do you think? Why do new ideas drive new discoveries and progress? Review your initial conjectures, the Investigation Library documents, your notes on the documents, and your table. We have provided a graphic organizer for you to use to help you show your thinking.Part 2 – Communicating ConclusionsYour teacher will ask you to create a five- to six-paragraph essay that uses the new ideas in chemistry and their influence to explain how a different point of view can promote progress. Use the story of the change in understanding of the elements and their organization to explain how new points of view pave the way for new discoveries and progress. You should be able to connect the case to other BHP concepts, such as collective learning or thresholds of increasing complexity, as well as other events in your life or history. When you write the essay, please be sure to write a thesis statement that sums up your explanation, and then further develop your explanation in the body of the essay and conclusion. Also, try to:• Use Big History ideas and content • Refer to the sources from which you’re getting your information• Support your thinking with logic and evidence • Write a concluding paragraph to close your argumentSince most Investigations do not end with your answer, please read or discuss your classmates’ essays to compare their thinking with yours. Do others students’ arguments support, extend, or challenge your explanation?
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 3How can looking at the same information from differentperspectives pave the way for progress? Main point of the textFacts you can use to explain how new points of view pave the way for progressTEXT 01Aristotle’s elementsTEXT 02Lavoisier, “father of modern chemistry”TEXT 03Lavoisier’s list of chemical elementsTEXT 04Timeline of discovery of elementsTEXT 05The periodic table (1871)TEXT 06Importance of the periodic table TEXT 07Elements, baseball bats, and bike framesADDITIONAL EXAMPLES
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 4SHOW YOUR THINKINGHow can looking at the same information from differentperspectives pave the way for progress? Similarities:Differences:STEP 01: COMPAREAristotle’s Point of Viewon the ElementsLavoisier’s Point of Viewon the Elements
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 5Thisled to:How did Lavoisier see things differently from Aristotle?Source(s):How was this progress?Source(s):How was this progress?Source(s):How was this progress?Source(s):This led to:This led to:Thisled to:STEP 02: ARGUE
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 63INVESTIGATIONLIBRARYTEXT 01 ARISTOTLE’S ELEMENTS 7TEXT 02 LAVOISIER, “FATHER OF MODERN CHEMISTRY”8TEXT 03 LAVOISIER’S LIST OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTS9TEXT 04 TIMELINE OF DISCOVERY OF ELEMENTS10TEXT 05 THE PERIODIC TABLE 11TEXT 06 IMPORTANCE OF THE PERIODIC TABLE 12TEXT 07 ELEMENTS, BASEBALL BATS, AND BIKE FRAMES13STUDENT MATERIALS
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 7THINGS TO THINK ABOUTCan you see why people might think that everything was made up of earth, water, air, or fire? TEXT 01ARISTOTLE’S ELEMENTSHow do think early human beings regarded the material world? What did they think about the elements that made up all matter?Below we have provided a short explanation provided by John Holmyard, a historian of science and a science teacher in Great Britain. Holmyard describes the point of view of Aristotle (384–322 BCE), a Greek philosopher who studied the natural world. Aristotle’s point of view was accepted widely and it survived for over 2,000 years. Many people tried to use it to make discoveries. This view influenced the “alchemists.” In many ways, alchemy was an early form of chemistry, but it was based on a mystical understand-ing of the elements. One goal of alchemists was “transmutation,” which means to turn a material object into another object. Alchemists are most famous for their attempts to turn lead into gold. We have also provided you with a picture of how Aristotle and others could have organized what they thought were the four most basic elements in the world: fire, air, water, and earth. According to Aristotle the basis of the material world was in “four elements,” fire, air, water, and earth, which are distinguished from one another by their “qualities.” The four primary qualities are the fluid (or moist), the dry, the hot, and the cold, and each element possesses two of them. Hot and cold, however, and fluid and dry, are contraries and cannot be coupled; hence the four possible combinations of them in pairs are:Hot and dry, assigned to fire.Hot and fluid (or moist), assigned to air.Cold and fluid, assigned to water.Cold and dry, assigned to land.None of the four elements is unchangeable. FIREWATEREARTHAIRheatmoistdrycoldSourceEric John Holmyard, Alchemy (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1957) 23.
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 8TEXT 02LAVOISIER: “FATHEROF MODERN CHEMISTRY”Most historians of science consider Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) the “father of modern chemistry” even though he made his living as a tax collector and not as a scientist. He was a French nobleman who conducted experiments and made many contributions to our collective learning, including our understanding of the elements. Through his exper-iments he was able to challenge the claim that the world was composed of only four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. For example, he showed that water is actually made up of hydrogen and oxygen. Lavoisier defined an element as substance that cannot be broken down any further. How did Lavoisier’s new definition of an element influence people? In the excerpt below, Eric Scerri, a chemist and philosopher of science at the University of California, Los Angeles, summarizes Lavoisier’s contributions to chemistry. Lavoisier eliminated some of the vagueness and confusion that dogged the field of chemistry as he found it. The confusion included the chaotic way in which substances were named. It also included uncertain knowledge of weight changes accompanying chemical reactions. Prior to Lavoisier and his contemporaries, people believed that when substances burned they would release a substance called phlogiston. Although some substances do appear to lose weight when they are burned, many others show weight gain. Lavoisier used his personal wealth to commission the making of the finest balances of his day, some of which could measure changes as accurately as one part in 600,000. As a result of his weighing experiments, Lavoisier showed that substances that burned did not in fact give off phlogiston. Moreover, by accurately weighing reacting substances, Lavoisier could state thelaw of conservation of matter. This law states: In every chemical operation, an equal quantity of matter exists before and after the operation. But perhaps Lavoisier’s greatest contribution was that he was highly critical of the Greeks’ classical abstract element scheme. By adopting an empiricist approach, he attempted to remove any talk of abstract elements or principles in favor of ele-ments as simple substances, which could be isolated and which could not be further decomposed. SourceModified excerpt from Eric R. Scerri (2006-10-12), The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance (Kindle Locations 733-759). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 9THINGS TO THINK ABOUTCan you identify substances on Lavoisier’s list that we no longer consider elements? For example, is “light” an element? And can you identify substances on Lavoisier’s list that are still on the periodic table? TEXT 03LAVOISIER’S LIST OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTSLavoisier wrote Elements of Chemistry, which many people consider the first modern chemistry textbook. He also created one of the first tables of elements when he listed all the substances he could not break down into simpler substances. Though he did not create the periodic table, he identified 33 simple elements — many of which we do not consider elements today — and he published them in the list below in 1789. His new point of view about elements inspired other discoveries and other ways to organize the elements, even though we no longer fully agree with Lavoisier’s list.SourceAntoine Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry (Edinburgh: G.G. & J. Robinson, and T. Kay, 1795).
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 10TEXT 04TIMELINE OF DISCOVERY OF ELEMENTSThe following table shows the discovery of elements before and after Lavoisier published his ideas on the elements. Time of DiscoveryElements DiscoveredTotal NumberBefore 500 C.E.Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Tin, Lead, Antimony, Mercury, Sulfur, Carbon10500 CE–1730Arsenic, Bismuth, Zinc, Phosphorous, Potassium51730–1739Cobalt11740–174901750–1759Magnesium, Nickel21760–1769Hydrogen11770–1779Nitrogen, Oxygen, Chlorine, Manganese, Molybdenum 51780–1789Zirconium, Tellurium, Tungsten, Uranium4Lavoisier’s New Point of View on Elements (1789)1790–1799Beryllium, Titanium, Chromium, Strontium, Yttrium51800–1809Boron, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Vanadium, Niobium, Rhodium, Palladium, Barium, Cerium, Tantalum, Osmium, Iridium131810–1819Lithium, Selenium, Cadmium, Iodine41820–1829Aluminum, Silicon, Bromine, Thorium41830–1839Lanthanum11840–1849Ruthenium, Terbium, Erbium31850–185901860–1869Rubidium, Indium, Caesium, Thallium41870–1879Scandium, Gallium, Samarium, Holmium, Thulium, Ytterbium61880–1889Germanium, Fluorine, Praseodymium, Gadolinium, Dysprosium51890–1899Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, Neodymium, Polonium, Radium, Actinium91900–1909Europium, Lutetium, Radon31910–1919Protactinium11920–1929Hafnium, Rhenium21930–1939Technetium, Francium21940–1949Promethium, Astatine, Neptunium, Plutonium, Americium, Curium, Berkelium 71950–1959Californium, Einsteinium, Fermium, Mendelevium, Nobelium 51960–1969Actinides, Rutherfordium, Dubnium31970–1979Seaborgium, Bohrium21980–1989Hassium, Meitnerium21990–1999Darmstadtium, Roentgenium, Copernicium3Source: Compiled from http://www.pse.merck.de/merck.php?lang=EN.
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 11TEXT 05THE PERIODICTABLE (1871)By 1860, humans had discovered around 60 elements and some people began to see new patterns in the elements. For example, they noticed similarities when they used atomic weight to arrange the elements. Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907) listed the properties of the elements and placed them on flash cards. He then sorted the cards like he was playing the card game solitaire. At one point, he even pinned the cards to a wall and stood back to see if a pattern emerged. Eventually, he proposed a “periodic” table of columns and rows similar to the one we use today.Mendeleev was not the only one to propose this model of the periodic table but he was the only one to leave gaps or spaces on his table to make room for the discovery of new elements. Thus he was predicting that people would discover new elements and where the new elements would fit on the periodic table. The dashes in the table represent unknown elements in 1871, when it was published. Mendeleev’s 1871 periodic table
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 12TEXT 06IMPORTANCE OFTHE PERIODIC TABLEWhat made Mendeleev’s periodic table and new system to arrange the elements so important? To explain, we have taken an excerpt from Michelle Feder’s biography of Mendeleev, which is in Unit 3 of the Big History Project course site.[Mendeleev] used the patterns in his table to predict the properties of the elements he thought must exist but had yet to be discovered. He left blank spaces in his chart as placeholders to represent those unknown elements. When the gap was in the middle of a triad, or trio of elements bearing similar characteristics, he would guess at the hypothetical element’s atomic mass, atomic number, and other properties. Then he named these with the prefix eka, meaning “first” in Sanskrit. For instance, the predicted element designated as “eka-aluminum,” he located below the known element alumi-num. It was later identified as gallium.Gallium, germanium, and scandium were all unknown in 1871, but Mendeleev left spaces for each and predicted their atomic masses and other chemical properties. Within 15 years, the “missing” elements were discovered, conforming to the basic characteristics Mendeleev had recorded. The accuracy of those predictions led to the periodic table’s acceptance.
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 13TEXT 07ELEMENTS, BASEBALL BATS, AND BIKE FRAMESHow could a point of view proposed in 1789 possibly help change the bats we use to play baseball or the bikes we ride? Read the excerpt below, by Sam Kean, a writer in Washington, D.C. Kean makes an interesting connection between some of the elements that Mendeleev predicted people would discover. Kean’s work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and on Slate, and has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. His book about major changes in chemistry, The Disappearing Spoon, was a New York Times national best-seller.How does his description support, extend, or challenge your thinking about how new points of view pave the way for progress?Three of every four elements are metals, but beyond iron, aluminum, and a few others, most did nothing but plug holes in the periodic table before World War II.... But since about 1950, every metal has found a niche. Gadolinium is perfect for magnetic reso-nance imaging (MRI). Neodymium makes extremely powerful lasers. Scandium, now used as a tungsten-like additive in aluminum baseball bats and bike frames, helped the Soviet Union make lightweight helicopters in the 1980s. It purportedly even topped Soviet ICBM [intercontinental ballistic] missiles stored underground in the Arctic, to help the nukes punch through sheets of ice. SourceSam Kean, The Disappearing Spoon: And Other Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) 94.
STUDENT MATERIALSBIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 3 INVESTIGATION 3 141 1 Lexile measure indicates the reading demand of the text in terms of its semantic difficulty and syntactic complexity. The Lexile scale generally ranges from 200L to 1700L. The Common Core emphasizes the role of text complexity in evaluating student readiness for college and careers.2 We are using the Common Core “stretch” grade bands. The Common Core Standards advocate a “staircase” of increasing text complexity so that students “stretch” to read a certain proportion of texts from the next higher text complexity band.3 In the Flesch Reading Ease test, higher scores indicate that the material is relatively easy to read while lower scores indicate greater difficulty. Scores in the 50–70 range should be easily understood by 13- to 15-year-olds, while those in the 0–30 range are appropriate for university graduates.Analysis of texts in this investigationText NameLexile Measure1Common Core StretchGrade Band2MeanSentence LengthFleschEase3Aristotle’s elements8504–512.5260Lavoisier, “father of modern chemistry”10006-813.6735.5Lavoisier’s list of chemical elements9604-514.5645.7Timeline of discovery of elements10606-81828.7The periodic table (1871)10306-817.2055.6Importance of the periodic table9704-513.6435.5Elements, baseball bats, and bike frames12709-1019.6445.2