Meeting 15 • 26 February 2013 • Tuesday
Week 7 (cont'd.): Rocks & soil, weather & water
Week 8: Stars & numbers

Version:
2/27/13

pictures of the week


isotherms of ocean water temperatures (AvH, 1817)

Humboldt's sketch & data for map of Rio Meta

thought-bite of the week:

"I reckoned that it was my duty in this book to record all the data obtained from reliable sources…, investigate the causes and relations, and establish fixed points in the rapid course of time…"

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

mini-text of the week (start):

"…we forgot that there might be dangers descending steep slopes covered with a smooth, slippery grass in the dark."

Humboldt, "Personal Narrative", from Jaguars and Electric Eels, ed. & trans. Wilson, pp. 17-18 (read more)
Topics for today

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(5') Mini-text of the week: Who has gotten lost in the Big World Out There, perhaps on a steep place in a dark place? An example: the volcanic cliffs above Honolulu - not really lost, but kind of stranded
Picture of the week: Humboldt, isotherms, and other iso-s

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(15') Small groups discuss and report out: What techniques are used today to determine chronology back through human early/pre-history, and then still farther back to that first instant of time after the Big Bang? When were those techniques developed? (Some hints: dendro-; carbon-; C(M)BR)

The geology and paleontology of Humboldt's time - and time itself in Humboldt's time (and ours): another pointer toward why Humboldt didn't become Darwin. Time as cycle vs. arrow; neptunism / vulcanism; gradualism / catastrophism; why the evidence at the time was not overwhelming, even when they had a lot of the data. Key names: Cuvier, Hutton, William Smith, Lyell

uniformitarianism, stratigraphy, geochronology, the fossil record

Comparative validity of sources of evidence about "VERY long ago": a) pre-1700 "science" (word didn't exist then in that sense); b) oral history and tradition, including folk knowledge; c) classical ("pagan") history & "science"; d) Bible.

Some misconceptions about earlier worldviews and conflicts (science vs. science; science vs. religion): flat/round Earth (Columbus and before); rotating Earth; geocentric universe wiht "Man as center of universe";

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(15') More about reading and writing: what can we educated citizens read while we wait to see how today's contentious issues will work out and what today's classics will be? What our are reliable sources of information and opinion: electronic / paper / other; periodical press; local, quotidien; long-term knowledge? Related question: how do educated citizens become capable / better writers? Small groups: Where do you get your citizen information, opinions, conclusions, solutions, and how do you check it out? If you are into "think globally, act locally", where do you get your local info? What "signs" are there that your sources are reliable?

Example #2: The New Yorker and last year's final exam

(10') More about writing assignment #04 and the group project:

Species description deadline has been extended to Thursday, 28 February. So we have some time to look at it some more.

Basic principles: 1) write for your audience; 2) tell the story of your species - the science, the link to Humboldt, and something that makes it interesting. Examples of species descriptions written for other purposes: short descriptions of cyaneas of Oahu; US Gov descriptions of endangered plant species on Oahu (start at p. 12); How Burmese Pythons Are Devouring the Everglades; Animal Nature: Young chicks, hot action due soon at Raptor Cam [actual title!]); article about original description & classification of the Brazil nut by Humboldt & Bonpland. Not all of these texts meets all the specifications of the assignment; they illustrate types of writing for various purposes and audiences.

Educating the young(ish) learner about sustainable environmentalism, as you will explore with your projects, requires systematic learning (lesson plans!) mapped onto standards. Here are examples: Lyon Arboretum and Hawaii school standards • Hawaii STEM Intercommunity Portal • Enchanted Learning - but one of many sources of learning activities, especially for younger learners. Here's their "Explorers" page about Humboldt. Here's their section about "astronomy:Earth", with activities that could be inspiration for learning activities for Humboldt-named schools. Here is "ThirteenEd Online", about lesson plans (example: math). And here's a blog article, from Scientific American, that attacks state science education standards, including Oregon's, as "'mediocre to awful."

Similar principles apply to the group projects. appears to have been adequately covered in previous meetings and workshops

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(20') More about navigation and mapping:

1) Re-enacting latitude measurement at sea, but in a very primitive way

2) Humboldt's map of the Casiquiare (article and large-scale drawing), which (hint!) is very near the equator, was 3 degrees of longitude in error. How big was that error, in terms of miles and percent inaccuracy and in terms of what may have caused it: a chronometer or other calculation of time that was used to determine longitude? Extra glory (not extra credit): How serious an error, in terms of Humboldt's claim to scientific precision in his own time, would have been an error of 3 degrees of LATITUDE?

(5') Announcements, Checkups & Previews: 1) apps Humboldt would have liked; 2) presentation about society back then (and any time before 1800 or so), to help understand how H related to people of other classes / races (teaser: When was it that someone's ears first popped with a change in altitude?); 3) advice about "educated citizen" reading, with a short sample; 4) one focus of "interpreting the past" to the present during the rest of the course: land and water allocation and use in the American West, including Oregon, and how Humboldt play an important role in that.

One theme of next several weeks: Humboldt's influence on the development of systems of land and water measureme