Schrödinger’s Undead Cat
This post will be out of sequence compared with the subjects around it, but I need to post this today so my chemistry students can make use of the resources here during class.
As part of the STEM-Arts Alliance project I’ve implemented in my science classes over the last two years, I’ve tried out a number of different ways to help students learn STEM concepts through art and history. You’ve hopefully looked at some of the other projects we’ve done, such as making iron-gall ink and watercolor pigments, junk sculptures, element ornaments, stop motion animation, etc. For our recent project, my students and I have created a large banner, which is a timeline of the history of atomic theory.
Greek philosophers: Anaximander, Anaxemines, Heraclitus, and Parmenides. Illustrations by David Black.
I designed the banner to fit along one wall of my classroom. It is 15 feet long and four feet wide, except where a chunk had to be cut out to avoid the door. Each student selected an atomic theorist from a list and researched that person, writing up a long paragraph on who they were, what they did to advance our understanding of the atom, and why it was significant. In addition to this caption, the students also had to find a photo or illustration of the person and another of their theories or apparatus. Most of these were images found on the Internet, but a few were original drawings. One of my students, Katie, drew a picture of Erwin Schrödinger with a zombie cat emerging from his brain – well, the cat is both alive and dead, so it must be an undead cat . . .
Paracelsus, drawn by a student using homemade iron-gall ink.
My students then used my color printer to print their captions and illustrations out and glue them onto the banner paper at the approximately correct position for the timeline. We focused on the period from about 1700 through the present, and I included images from the Powerpoints I created to explain quantum numbers and atomic theory. I am posting those Powerpoints here as .pdf files so my students can download them:
The entire banner with students from my chemistry class.
In addition to the 1700-present section, I included images, photos, illustrations, and text from all of history as humanity has learned to work with materials, isolated the elements, and proposed theories to explain what they observed. I also included materials on alchemy in the Middle Ages, China, and Arabian countries. Some of these were photos I had taken of ancient texts while at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia during the summer of 2009; I’ve been meaning to put them in a format that students can use.
Students answering questions at the banner.
Once the banner was done, I wrote up a series of questions based on the students’ captions as well as my Powerpoints and the Periodic Table History video I made five years ago. Today my chemistry students are continuing to read the banner and write the answers to the questions as a take home test. Here are the questions:
Atomic Theory Banner Assignment
The Stone Age section of the banner
I am also posting photos of the major sections of the banner here as well so that they can access the banner online over the next several days.
Here are the sections of the banner:
The Bronze Age through Roman times
Medieval and Renaissance sections of the banner.
The Scientific Revolution section of the banner
Sub-Atomic particles
Section on Rutherford and Einstein
Schrodinger section of the banner.
The Standard Model section of the banner
The Elements Unearthed 