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This Unit's

Homework Page

History Lecture

Science Lecture

Lab

Parents' Notes

Unit 33: The Medieval Era and the Scientific Revolution

Reading due before our discussion:

History Web Lecture: World Views

Science Web Lecture: Science Basics

PARENTS NOTES

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Chat Preparation Essay

Post your essay answer to the questions below to the Moodle Unit 33 Forum before chat. Log into the Moodle (if you are challenged, use your own Scholars Online userid and password), click on the Natural Science course link, and then on the forum link for this unit. Read any other forum postings.

• Select two of the people on the biography list below, and write a short biography for each one.
• Select a scientific concept from the list below and write a definition for it. Post your definition to the Natural Science Glossary for this unit.

By way of review for the final, be sure that you know who the following people are:

1. Clement of Alexandria
2. Augustine of Hippo
3. Boethius
4. Isidore of Seville
5. Al-Khwarizmi
6. Jabir ibn Hayyan
7. Avicenna
8. Alhazen
9. ibn Rushd (Averroes)
10. Dionysis the Areopagite
11. Gerard of Cremona
12. Gerbert
13. Dante Alighieri
14. Johannus Sacrobosco (John of Holywood)
15. Thomas Aquinas
16. Leonardo da Vinci
17. Andreas Vesalius
18. William Harvey
19. Maricello Malpighi
20. Robert Hooke
21. Antoine van Leeuwenhoek
22. Zacharias Jansen
23. Nicholai Copernicus
24. Tycho Brahe
25. Johannes Kepler
26. Galileo Galilei
27. Isaac Newton
28. William Gilbert

By way of review for the final, be sure that you can say something about the following terms and concepts

• wave types: longitudinal vs. transverse; lasers
• wave properties: wave frequency, wavelength, amplitude, speed
• wave phenomena: Doppler effect
• wave speed = frequency * wavelength
• types of interaction with surfaces: reflection, refraction
• transmission: what happens to light entering a denser medium
• types of lenses: concave lens, convex lens
• translucent, transparent, opaque
• shadows: penumbra, umbra
• paint and light: color subtraction
• focus point, length of a lens
• math: rates, limits
• tissue types: epithelial, connective, nervous, muscle
• skeletal structures: exoskeleton, endoskeleton
• major bones of the torso, limbs, and head:....look these up!
• joints: ball-and-socket, hinge, fixed (human skeleton)
• muscle types: smooth, voluntary, cardiac
• smell/taste: chemical receptors
• sight: photoreceptors
• touch, hearing, sense of balance: pressure receptors
• nerve cell components: dendrites, axon
• brain sectors: cerebellum, cerebrum, brain stem (know the functions of each in humans!)
• autotrophic, heterotrophic organisms; filter feeders
• herbivore, carnivore, omnivore
• path of food through digestive system: mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, intestines, rectum
• path of air to the blood stream: nose/mouth, larynx, bronchial tubes, alveoli
• blood through the heart: right atrium, right ventricle, pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, left atrium, left ventricle, aorta, arteries, capillaries, veins, vena cava and home again.
• components of blood: red cells, white cells (lymphocytes), platelets
• hormones and glands
• microscope: compound and simple
• considerations of lenses: chromatic aberration, resolution
• cells: single cell organism, multiple cell organism, virus
• cells: plant vs. animal, bacteria vs. eukaryotic
• cell structure: membrane, nucleus, ribosome
• cell components: mitochondria (all), chloroplasts (plants)
• planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)
• minor or dwarf planets (Pluto, Ceres)
• moons, comets, Kuiper bodies, asteroids
• epicycles, eccentrics, deferents, ellipses, circles
• geocentric vs. heliocentric planetary systems
• falling body under constant acceleration: s = ½ * at²
• distance, displacement; speed, velocity
• average, instantaneous (velocity or acceleration)
• determinism
• Newton's laws of motion (3 of them)
• weight vs. mass
• forces: linear, torque, pressure, friction, net
• magnetism, magnetic field, monopole, compass
• gravity, centripetal force, projectile motion
• physical law, theory, hypothesis, experiment

Using any web or encyclopedia sources you need, create a timeline and properly locate on it (you may have to estimate some of these):

• Augustine, City of God, Confessions
• Andreas Vesalius, The Seven Books on the Structure of the Human body (De humani corporis fabrica libri septem)
• Galileo's publication of Discourse on the Two New Sciences
• Copernicus's publication of De Revolutionibus
• Newton's publication of Philosophiae Mathematica
• Alhazen's works on optics (Kitab al-Manazir)
• Gilbert's publication of De Magnete
• Kepler's work on Mars, De Motibus Stella Martis
• William Harvey's On the Movement of the Blood (De Motu Cordis)
• Averrores' commentaries on Aristotle
• the establishment of the first universities in Europe (Italy)
• Gerard of Cremona's translations from Arab to Latin

Think about how any two people in the biography list interacted: did one influence the other, over days or centuries? Did any two of the work together?

Prepare to answer the following essays on the final, one from each section.

HISTORY SECTION

1. How does the concept of matter change from Aristotle to Newton? Compare the differences in the properties of motion of matter.
2. Several of the scientists we studied this semester encountered resistance when their theories were first proposed. Chose one scientist and outline the arguments opposing his theory. What kinds of supporting arguments convinced those who accepted the theory? Be sure to use a specific scientist and specific examples of support or controversy!
3. Chose one of the Arab philosophers we studied and explain how his theories affected a specific European scientist before or during the Renaissance.
4. Revisit some of the books and their illustrations. How does scientific illustration change from the late middle ages through the Renaissance? How do we "illustrate" scientific principles now? How does the representation of a scientific concept affect its transmission or acceptance?

   SCIENCE SECTION

5. Explain how distance (displacement), speed (velocity), and acceleration are related, using words and formulae. Explain the difference between instantaneous and average velocity, and between constant and varying acceleration. Show how velocity is a rate.
6. A key concept in science is the concept of reductionism, or breaking down a large, complex object into components in order to understand it. An example would be taking a computer and showing how it is made of a keyboard, screen, motherboard, memory, and storage drive, then breaking each of those down to show how they are made of cases, circuits, and connectors, then breaking those objects down into metal plates, resistors, capacitors,transformers, and wires (I could keep going but you get the idea). How would you break down the human body into its constituent parts, from whole organism to cell?
7. Explain how a rainbow works. Be sure to discuss the lens-like action of the raindrop on the light.
8. Using concepts that we studied this semester, give examples of an hypothesis, theory, and physical law, and explain how the "physical law" gained its status.

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Lab: No lab!

Quiz: No Quiz!

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