Lehrer proposes a fourth culture;

“The premise of this movement—perhaps a fourth culture—is that neither culture can exist by itself. Its goal will be to cultivate a positive feedback loop, in which works of art lead to new scientific experiments, which lead to new works of art and so on. Instead of ignoring each other, or competing, or co-opting each other in naïve or superficial ways, science and the arts will truly impact each other. The old intellectual boundaries will disappear. “ J.Lehrer, SEED, January 16, 2008

Interesting stuff, but how do teachers realize this fourth culture in the classroom? One way is through cross-discipline teaching units, working with colleagues, but building such collaborative schemes is a difficult task.

Perhaps there’s another way, something a little more accessible to the average teacher. Perhaps we could become story tellers. I’m currently working on a series to teach measurement and as an experiment, I’ve used a story about my dear grandmother to teach the need for standardized units. It’s the heart rending story of the loss of a favorite recipe. I excerpt it here, you can find the full 5 part article in the feature section. The story is intended to be told while actually mixing dough and is interspersed with measuring hints.

My grandmother was a wonderful woman, naturally, since she was Irish. Like most Irish grandmothers, back in the day, she baked those delicious traditional Irish soda breads. I particularly liked her soda farls, a breakfast staple. I liked them so much, I decided to learn to bake them myself. I found a notepad and pen, and rose with the roosters, ready to record her recipe as she prepared to bake the mornings supply. She began with flour, four fistfuls to be exact, and then added a teacup of buttermilk…wait a minute, “How much buttermilk is in a teacup? “ I asked. “This much”, she said, holding up a cracked and battered teacup. My plan was in ruins, I had no way to record her recipe, the ingredients were measured in units that were inseparable from her. Alas, my grandmother has been gone for these many years, and her ancient teacup and calloused fists are gone with her. I’ll never taste her farls again, and the world is smaller place from the loss, all for the lack of a standard measure.

Stories like this humanize science, and the teacher, and provide a memorable learning experience. I know I can’t pick up a measuring cup, without remembering the incident, may my students will remember units in the same way.

Measurement is fundamental to our daily lives. We burn gas bought from metered pumps; buy food by weight, for our meals; schedule our lives, by the minute, with clocks, watches, and cellphones. We assume the pumps are calibrated, the scales fair, and clocks precise, without ever thinking about the what has to happen for it all be true. The kilogram, for instance, is the last of the seven base SI units that still has an object as it’s standard. The bathroom scale you weigh yourself on, and every other scale in the world, has to be calibrated, through some fantastic chain of comparisons to the International Prototype Kilogram, IPK. A platinum iridium cylinder that sits in a vault in France.

My summary is meant as a teacher reference for generating lesson plans and covers the key concepts for a high school science class. It is very much a work in progress. It’s my intention to add lesson plans for each concept, complete with video clips, animations, PowerPoint slides, and internet resources. The summary is in four parts;

• Part I;   Units
• Part II;  Measuring
• Part III; Precision and Accuracy
• Part IV; Propagation of error

Any corrections, teaching ideas, or lesson plan resources are welcome in the comments.