Meeting 4 • 17 January 2013 • Thursday
Week 2: Boats, roads & paths, legs & arms

Version:
1/23/13

picture of the week

Humboldt's canoe (source: Botting, Humboldt and the Cosmos, p. 103 [0027])

thought-bite of the week:

"I reckoned that it was my duty… to record all the data obtained from reliable sources.… The further man is from civilization, the more he enjoys astonishing people…. He says he has seen what he imagines may have been seen by others."

(Humboldt, "Personal Narrative", from Jaguars and Electric Eels, ed. & trans. Wilson, pp. 19 & 46)

mini-text of the week (start):

"At midday we stopped at a deserted spot called Algodonal.… I walked along the beach to observe a group of crocodiles asleep in the sun.… [M]y stroll almost cost me my life.… "

Humboldt, "Personal Narrative", from Jaguars and Electric Eels, ed. & trans. Wilson, p. 74 (read more)

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(5') Mini-text of the week: Our own fearful encounters with fearsome, ferocious creatures rattlesnakes & bears were the most commonly encountered scary creatures, but there was mention as well of a leopard shark and spiders

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(25') Speaking of fear: The quantitative ingredient of this course.
Why it's necessary: 1) in the footsteps of Humboldt as an explorer and scientist (see thought-bite of the week) - we need to understand how he developed the science that underlies ecology and environmentalism; 2) part of exploring main topic of sustainable environmentalism, including the controversial topic of climate change; 3) information from reading FRINQ portfolios shows that quantitative competence needs attention (learning? documentation? teaching?). What's your take on #3?; 4) later you'll have an assignment where you evaluate your education in your choice of a main subject area, perhaps math (or perhaps not)
Basic principles: 1) simulating / re-enacting some of Humboldt's key activities (whether as ends - acquiring information - or means - surviving the travel); 2) using the tools of his time, rather than modern tools (which are often built on those earlier tools); 3) strengthening conceptual / process skills (estimation, comparison, proportion, cross-checking); 4) using everyday knowledge to generate a "good enough" answer, rather than short-cutting to a source that delivers the "right answer" with no processing.

English vs. metric; using our hands and feet to fathom the world (daycare center: "How big is [child]?"); telluric vs. planetary views / consciousness; moving over the surface of the world vs. looking at the Earth from space (one of you has blogged about how the technology of travel has changed our experience of the world through which we travel)

So let's do a warmup before (next week) we SINQ the Humboldt Canoe quantatitively and maybe even actually:

Small groups (4-8): Using the basic quantities worksheet, stage 1, generate (without using outside sources) the collective sense for these everyday quantities, which can then be used to do much more quantitatively. Report and compare the groups' quantities.

Now go back into groups to use your quantities to determine these quantities (basic quantities worksheet, stage 2), which are examples of quantities Humboldt needed to work with constantly. Report and compare in plenary group.

Next meeting you'll apply your quantities to determine some real-world (sometimes life-or-death) quantities needed by people who had to get across and around the globe in earlier times, and also some quantities that we encounter in discussions of sustainability.

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(5') Humboldt's travel routes through the "New World": route on the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers (0036); along and atop the Andes (0037); through Mexico (0038); . While you look at the map, think about the distances and what it meant to cover them on foot/ horseback / water. (NOTE: These maps are from the ink-on-paper Helferich biography of Humboldt; they aren't in the electronic editions.) Soon you'll be using mobile apps to trace his route and examine the territory. √The maps are now linked from the Table of Contents frame of the main webpage.

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(5') Where are we on our course title? We've got AvH into exploring, but not into really doing science and not into sustainable environmentalism.
AvH's view of nature: not a separate, pristine entity, absent of people, artifacts, - or numbers (but Jaguars and Electric Eels leaves a lot of the numbers out)
A quick look at some key words and their original meanings: ecology, economics, environment (online etymological dictionary)

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(10') Humboldt-named schools and their role in this course

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(5') Importance of teamwork and, whether during group or individual work, recognizing and then bringing forth your individual experiences and skills. Short example: You think you may have taken a course that relates to our course. Find someone else who has taken that or a similar course; report back.

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(5') So what was I doing in Hawaii? Link to Lyon Arboretum; Arboretum Center & panorama; a threatened plant (plant; signage); professor as Humboldt in Lyon Arboretum;

Cyanea humboldtiania: preservation & restoration (1361 sterile culture; 1359 closeup of culture with student intern; 1363 in storage with label; 1389 greenhouse sprouts; 1386 in the greenhouse, start of mature plant

Foster Botanic Garden: 1461 sign "Cannonballs"; 1464 Cannonball tree; 1467 Cacao; 1470 Macadamia nut sign; 1471 coffee bush; 1474 urban surroundings

a Hawaiian canoe; history of Bible in Hawaiian; sea asparagus and sustainable agriculture;

upcoming activity: portraits of ourselves as environmentalist-explorers

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(5') Preview of mentor workshops and next class meeting; note also how I have annotated the outlines for previous mee