Atomic Timeline assignment:

Chemistry Atomic Model Unit

Introduction:

              Our understanding of the atom is based on a long history of investigation into matter.  For most of history, that investigation was not organized, and was not so much interested in “atoms” but in how matter could be used by man.  Oftentimes the desire for understanding came out of greed; greed for money, power, or prestige.  Sometimes because of the simple desire to know how things work; sadly enough, too infrequently  it was because of a desire to understand God’s creation in order to be better stewards of it.

              Although many of the views held in the past seem very different than our own (often referred to as “stupid”, which I do not ever want said in chemistry) they were sincerely held beliefs, and often based on the best observations possible at the time.  In our technological age and because of the schooling we have had, we can often see many faults in their observations, experiments, and thinking.  These faults or difficulties do not make those historical persons less intelligent than ourselves, they were in fact extraordinarily intelligent.  In the future there will be people that will look at much of the knowledge that we have and will say, just as you do now:  “How stupid; how could they ever believe that?”

              One of the things people used to see much clearer than we do now is the relationship between the physical and the spiritual.  Our society has separated the two to the point that the spiritual is very unimportant, and virtually ignored in science.  Though their beliefs often were not directed to the one true God, most previous societies intimately connected the physical and spiritual worlds.

I have two objectives for this unit:

1.  to  understand the development of the current model of atoms and the evidence for that model.

2.  to understand the change in relationship between science and religion:  what it was, how it has changed, why it has changed, and what that relationship is like now.

To achieve those 2 main goals I propose splitting our class time between both goals in the following manner:

1.  A minor part of our in class time will be spent in groups of 2 or 3, researching and creating a time line that shows 3 elements:

a.  historical people, dates, and their discoveries

b.  how those discoveries changed perceptions about matter as well as the time period during which specific perceptions were dominant.

c.  people and times at which spiritual world views changed that affected science and the perceptions of scientists.  (ie. the reformation:  how did it affect science?)

The time line will not just show the historical facts and dates, but will also show the dominance of world views, and the religious changes that also occurred.

The information in the time line should be sufficient to explain to someone else what the perception was, how it changed, and the effect that the change had.  In other words there does need to be a fair amount of detail in the time line too.

How you present the time line is up to you;  BE CREATIVE.

At minimum, the following people and ideas must be represented (these = a weak “D”): 

People:  Aristotle, Democritus, Dalton, Rutherford, JJ Thomson, Millikan, Bohr, Schrödinger.

Religion:  Magic, Greeks, Roman C.C., Reformation, Descartes(Deism), New Age

2.  The main part of our in class time will be spent looking at/experimenting with some of the specific evidences that “modern chemistry” has for the atom:  The laws of definite and multiple proportions, Rutherford, Millikan, JJ Thomson, light, spectrometry, flame tests, spectra, etc.

Most of our in class time will be in discussion and experimentation.  Most of your time line should be done outside of class time.

Evaluation at the end of this unit will be based on three parts:  time line(~40%), labs and writeups (~20%), and a final test (~40%).

The time line will be due Friday December 15; the test will be arranged later.

The time line grading criteria will be broken down as follows:

                                                          (possible points)              actual

Neatness                                                        10% (8)                 ____

 (overall presentation quality, includes spelling, etc.)

Creativity                                                        25% (20)                ___

              Unique idea, carried out well, attention to detail

Completeness of Science Information               35% (28)  ______

              Critical people and their ideas                      (16) _____

              Perceptions and changes                            (12) _____

Incorporation of Religion                            25% (20)            ______

              Critical ideological changes                      (9)   _____

              Influence of changes on science              (11)_____

Bibliographic sources                                          5% (4)         ____

Total                                      100% (80)        ______

Penalties and other adjustments (explain               ______

Total/Letter grade                     ______/_____

One final note:  If you can think of a creative way to convey the same information as is on the time line, let me know and we can change the presentation type, but it will be graded by the same criteria.

Past formats:  videos, storybooks, posters, games, mazes, maps, timelines, powerpoint, computer games, others