provocotive opinion Experiencing Matter Mins Minssen and Peter Nentwig Institute for Science Education (IPN), Olshausenstrasse 40-60, D-2300 Kiel 1, Federal Republic of Germany
Matter is more than atoms and molecules, elements and compounds. Matter is our own body, food, environmentstock that we work with, earth that we walk on, air that we breathe, flower petals in which we delight. Clouds, deserts. seas, and mountains are matter. In some very special cases, which human beings have undergone great labor to create, matter is also a crystal powder, acolorless solution, or a purified, odorless aas. w e h a v e all experienced matter, the infant as well as the scientist. We have seen and felt it. We have thought up adjectives of perception. Matter is smooth or crisp, supple, bright, or slimy. The experience of matter creates momentary emotions and lasting relationships. We have found nouns to describe. We feel warmth, disgust, or comfort, menace, or forlorness. Some very few of us have analyzed, purified, isolated, rationalized. The scientific approach obviously is only one of many possible ways to encounter our material environment. There are reasons for attempts to exclude as far as possible anything emotional, subconscious, or irrational from scientific experience. Thus, a superindividual system of knowledge could he established, a system which allows us to communicate questions as well as possible answers on the same intersubjective level. But scientific intersubjectivity neglects essential components on the object's side as well as on the subject's side'. Whereas no cloud is an exact duulicate of another.. no oiece of rock or wood exactly resembles its neighbor, the standardized white nowders and colorless liouids within the lahoratory are reqiired to be the same all over the world. They are stripped of an individual shape and, at the same time, of a history as expressed within the grain of a piece of wood. Thus, the highly purified substances are timeless generalA
476
Journal of Chemical Education
izations of matter a t the cost of uniqueness, specialty, and history of the object. As a parallel, on the subject's side, half of the personality, i.e., the unconscious part, seems to he excluded a s a prerequisite for intersubiectivitv. Intersuhiectivitv in turn seems to be of a purely cognitive a& intellectual n i ture, corresponding with complete suhject-ohject separation. The scientific system of knowledge presented is void of sentiments and passion-but what about the process of science? In the early stages of discoveries, glimpses can be caught of paradigm changes, glimpses, which allude to closer relationships between subject and object. Inventive dreams (Descartes, Kekulk), personal interest in the objects under investigation or esthetic judgements of research topics reveal closer involvement. During purification Marie Curie wished "her" radium to come out with a beautiful color. "One of the serpents grabbed its own tail, and mockingly this apparition swirled before my eyes. Thunderstruck I woke up and spent the rest of the night working out the consequences of this hypothesis," reported Kekul6 in his later days about his discoverv of the benzene structure.2 Though right inassuming a long chain structure of caoutschouc molecules. the German Nobel Prize winner Staudineer stubbornly stuck to a vision of rigid rod shapes against ;he -
' Minssen. M., "Vernachl&sigte Ansichten des Naturstoffs" (Ne-
glected Views of the Substance of Nature), Scheidewege, 1982, Vol. 12, No. 314, pp. 376-394. Kekule, A., "Rede anlasslich der Feier der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft zu Ehren August Kekules am 11. Mrz 1890 (Speech on the occasion of the ceremony by the German Chemical Society on March 11, 1890, in honor of August Kekule) Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft. Vol. 23 (1890).p. 1306.
growing evidence for a random coil shape. He seemed intrigued by an orderly, straight and, to a certain degree, inflexible image. About early views of polymers he wrote the f~llowing:~ Those of my colleagues, who knew my earlier publications on the chemistry of small molecules, asked me, why I had left this neat field of research and wasted my time with such unpleasant matter like caoutschouc and symthetic polymers instead-which they tended to regard as slime chemistry. Science education in school uredominantlv deals with the crystallized system of knowledge. It hands out information rather than creates onnortunities for ex~eriencinr.Our stu.. dents are denied those manifold impressions and expressions, that make the encounter of matter so fascinatina. . They are limited to the dry outcome of a lively process. Are we really that they are not concerned, do not . surprised . care, turn away? Science is fascinating for scientists because we integrate our personal emotion and cognition, rationality and intuition. We want the approach to matter to be just as fascinating for student-.
We shall briefly illustrate our attempts with two examples, which students from different schools worked on. The first subject concerns the preparation and distillation of aromatic oilsfrom plants, the preparation of creams, and the sale of the nroducts on the market. Leaves and blossoms were collected butdoors and from parent's gardens. Peels and seeds were taken from purchased fruits. Ninth century Arab recipes were utilized as well as the enfleuraee techniaue utilized hv the early perfume manufacturers in southern France, where odors are absorbed by embedding plants in fats. Extractions using alcohol in a Soxhlet apparatus and steam extractions were also done. The function of an African uot still, couied by a local potter, was demonstrated to our customers in the market. In this case of odorous substances, people obviously have to have an appreciative relationship with matter. They are attracted or repelled, they breathe more or less freely. The other example concerns the preparation of a yeast dough4 in a large, flat vessel. The temperature of the vessel is controlled by a thermostat. The dough is used to imitate several features of a material miniature landscape. As in a real landscape, the overall material substance is a composite mixture of different individual substances. Matter is not pure
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Food colors can he used to mark the different formations. The landscape provides opportunities for work in the state of preparation as well as in the state of subsequent development. Some persons may like the activities of sieving, mixing, stirring, kneading-others will prefer weighing, measuring, controlling. A gas is produced, which causes a similar effect as the human breath when led into a calcium hydroxide solution. The gas production can he measured. Upon producing the gas, the dough changes its specific weight. This can be followed in quantitative measures or detected by changing quality: after some time a lump of dough immersed in water floats to the surface. Dough placed into a small rubber balloon causes the balloon to expand and finally to burst. When a cover is put on the dough, the gas displaces the air from the surface of the landscape and alcohol is also produced. This can he found by distillation. Temperature changes affect the rate of growing as do different nutrients. The moisture content determines the cohesion and adhesion of the dough. Dry flour is a better agent to clean fingers than water is. he dough invites the observer to make tactile experiences, allows for imagination using a fantasy landscape, and provides opportunities for observing, measuring, and stating hypotheses. Aaain a scientist's or artisan's annroach to matter is .. combined with other possible ways uf experiencing matter. Without such combinations, science might soon he seen as a cold business which does not contribute co making people feel at home in their material surroundings, within the ohject world. There is value in both the feel of the smooth softness of the dough surface and the measuring of the gas production. These are, of course, different values, and, depending on a person's interest, tasks or even momentary mood, either onemay be important. Under certain conditions, a particular scientific principle may have special value while under different circumstances its shortcomings may prevail. We need to make this clear to our students if we w a i t them to live with an enlightened relationship to science and to their material environment. Thus, by our experimental arrangements, we are trying to help students gather a comprehensive approach to the experience of matter which takes into account the complexity of their personalities and enhances their nossibilities to respond.
'
Slaud nger. H , Arbellser nnerungen ' (Memores of Heweloerg. 1961, pp 77-93 Vogelher wllh W Dabrmger and W Walgenbacn
War*) rlulnlg.
Support for Science Education Activity FY 1983 The NSF appropriation for FY 1983provides 830 million dollars for science and engineeringeducation: $15 million for graduate fellowships,and $15 million for "an activity at the precollege level." This latter activity is expected largely to address secondary education in science and mathematics, hut its precise nature is presently being determined. Announcements will he made widely through NSF's usual channels of communication. Persons desiring to receive these announcements hy mail should send three (3) self-addressed gummed mailing labels to: Announcements, Officeof Scientificand Engineering Personnel and Education, National Science Foundation, Washington, DC 20550.
Volume 60
Number 6
June 1983
477
