ASSIGNMENTS OF PROMOTING CREATIVITY
9.4.1 SPECIMEN NO. 1 Read the following passage and give your opinion with regard to creativity :
Kekule was the first chemist to suggest the structural formula for benzene. He actually dreamt of this structure. Here is what Kekule had to say about his dream "............. again the atoms gambolled before my eyes. My mind's eye, sharpened by many previous experiences, distinguished larger structures of diverse forms, long series, closely joined together; all in motion, turning and twisting like serpents. But see what was that? One serpent had seized its own tail and this image whirled defiantly before my eyes. As by a lighting flash, I woke; and again spent the rest of the might working out the consequences of this idea .......... Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, and then. we may find the truth but let us beware of making our dreams public before they have been approved by the waking mind"
After reading the history of discovery of structural formula of benzene, teachers in a seminar put forth the following two opinions :
i) Discovery of structural formula of benzene by Kekule was just due to intuition and by chance. It is not a product of creative process. It you agree with this opinion, give reasons in support of your opinion.
ii) Kekule succeeded in suggesting structural formula for benzene because of creative process. If you agree with this opinion, support your opinion with reasons giving specific examples of creative process steps from the passage given above.
9.4.2 SPECIMEN NO. 2 Read the follow story of the discovery of the Archimedes' principle and give your opinion with regard to creativity :
The story of discovery of the famous Archimedes' principle is very interesting. Once kind Hieron of Syvacuse gave sufficient gold to a jeweller to make beautiful crown for himself. But the king received information that the jeweller did not use the whole amount of gold in making the crown, though the crown was of equal weight to that of gold given to him. The king suspected that the crown was alloyed with silver. He asked Archimedes to test the purity of the crown without damaging it. It was an absolutely new problem for Archimedes. He critically thought over the problem but he could not find solution in the beginning. One day, when the problem was racking his brain, he went to a public bathrooms for bathing. When he entered a bathtub full of water upto the brim for bath, he found that some water had flown out of the tub. immediately some idea struck his mind and he jumped out and ran down the street shouting 'O Eureka! Eureka!' (meaning I have found it! I have found it !).
Archimedes, like other people, knew that gold is heavier metal than silver. He also knew that volume of a cubical or rectangular thing could be measured by multiplying its length, breadth and height. On the basis of his previous knowledge and the new idea, he performed experiments and succeeded in estimating the extent of impurity in the gold crown, His finding is now famous as the Archimedes' principle.
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After reading the brief history of the discovery of the Archimedes' principle, teachers in a seminar put forth the following two opinions :
i) Discovery of the Archimedes' principle by Archimedes was just due to intuition and by chance.
It is not a product of creative process.
If you agree with this opinion, give reasons in support of your opinion.
ii) Archimedes succeeded in discovery the principle because of creative process.
If you agree with this opinion, support your opinion with reasons giving specific examples of creative process from the passage given above.
9.4.3 SPECIMEN NO. 3
MAKE A FILE : Using reference materials from the library find the names of some great scientists who worked in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agriculture, Medicine, Space Science and Meteorology. In separate manila folders, one for each scientist provide the following information :
1. Dates of birth and death,
2. Specific field of work.
3. One important achievement or event that helped to make the person great and
4. One modern day practical applications of his achievement.
FIND OUT : 1. Make a time clock showing early technologists and their inventions. The picture will help you this. Note that each hour of the clock represents fifteen years and includes a total period of time of 180 years. The first date is of the invention of heating stove by Benjamin Franklin. The last date on the clock is 19.20. Include atleast ten dates, technologists, and their inventions on the clock you make.
2. In chest form, classify the inventions under one of four headings : communication, transportation, industry and agriculture. You may find that some of the inventions can be placed under more than one heading.
3. Select one of the inventors given on your time clock. Read about his life. Try to find out the amount of science education he received.
4. Make a second time clock of inventions that you consider to be the most important for the period from 19.20 to the present.
5. Make a third time clock of inventions that you predict will be made in the next ten years.
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PLAN THE MEALS : Pretend that you are going to the moon and that you are to plan the meals that you will have while in flight. How many meals will you have? What, foods will you eat? Compare your plans with the plans of others in the class. Check your plans with the information is a references book as space travel.
DO SOME THERMOPLASTIC MOLDING : Remove the paper from a chocolate bar. Wrap the bar in foil. Warm the bar in your hands until it becomes plastic. Then with your fingers bend it into a new shape. It is thermoplastic. You are using a thermoplastic molding process. Now cool the candy bar in cold water. It sets into the new shape. You can make it plastic again as many times as you wish. It could be called a thermoplastic material.
TEST THE THERMOPLASTIC OBJECTS : Break an old plastic record so as to obtain a piece with the hole in the middle. Fasten a string in the hole, and lower the piece of plastic into boiling water. Now try this with other plastic materials, like old tooth brush handles or broken toys. Make two lists. one of thermoplastic Objects which soften in boiling water, and another of thermo-setting plastics which are not softened.
TEST MATERIALS : Try several metal objects you can find in salt water to see if corrosion takes place. Always keep one piece of each metal as a control, left on the table. Try various concentrations of salt water, one teaspoonfull to a glass, two to a glass, and so on.
STUDY PLANT DISEASES : List some plant diseases, tell why they are important, and how they are controlled. Some key words are rusts, smuts, fungi, molds, mycology.
REFRESH YOUR MEMORY : Bacteria and fungi sometimes assist other living things to digest cellulose. Read about termites, plant eating insects, and the conditions in a cow's stomach as the cow eats grass. Report to the class. You can also report as a fungus that attacks your skin. Report to the Class on athlete's foot.
LEARN ABOUT DIAMONDS : Road about how artificial or synthetic diamonds are made. Report the temperatures, resources, and the catalysts needed to make both small industrial diamonds and large gem diamonds.
CALEBRATE YOUR HEART BEAT : Put a large metal thumbtack into the end of a wooden kitchen match, opposite the head of the match. Lay your hand, back down, on the table. Place the thumbtack with its match on the place where the doctor takes your pulse. As you know, this is where an artery passes close to the surface. The match will sway back and forth so that several people can see the rate at which your heart is beating.
Now, with a good watch, record the number of heartbeats for live minutes. Divide by five for the average rate of heart beat. What is the number of beats per second?
Do this measuring several times, waiting in between the counts for atleast ten minutes. Would it be wise to do this counting just after you have rushed into your classes? Or as a day when you were nervous or excited? Perhaps you can establish a norm for girls and a norm for boys is your whole class.
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Is the heartbeat norm the same for different ages of boys and girls? Is it different for warm weather as compared to winter? You would have a hard time finding any answers to those questions in books. You can find out there answers by research in your school, however.
COMPARE : Bring to school a large old fashioned radio a modern table radio, and a pocket transistor radio. Carefully open the backs of all three, and see the changes that have been brought about by small tubes and by transistors. The process of making things smaller is called miniaturization. Now tune all three to the same station, and let them run for half an hour. Compare the heat given off by each. A thermometer inserted carefully into the middle of each radio will give you more accurate informations than will you sense of touch.
SIMULATE NUCLEAR FISSION AND FUSION : The force which holds mercury together acts in such a way as to lend itself to a simulation of nuclear fission and fusion.
Place a small drop of mercury in a small cup such as top of a gold tee. Place the tee at the centre of a shallow flat dish such as the bottom of a petri dish. Simulate the entrance of alpha particles by dropping smaller drops of mercury one by one, into the centre of the Iarger drop. Eventually surface tension, the force holding the drop in a round shape, will be overcome, and the larger drop will separate into smaller ones. Practice releasing the mercury drops from different heights starting at 4 or 5 cm representing slow and fast moving particles. A change in the size of the drops is needed to produce a atomic fission".
To imitate an atom smasher, direct a glass tube at the drop of mercury in the dish. Allow drops of mercury of different sizes to roll down the tube and strike the mercury in the centre of the dish. Practice may be needed to find the most effective size drop and inclusive to effect fission or fusion. Use an over head projector.
9.4.4 SPECIMEN NO. 4
I. Construct and use a rain gauge Questions
1 Why is a small diameter bottle used instead of one as wide as the funnel? What should be the diameter.?
2. Why should a rain gauge be observed immediately after a rain?
3. What forms of precipitation are not measured by a rain gauge?
4. Why is the location of the rain gauge important to obtain rainfall determinations?
5. Why was it necessary to compare surface area of the funnel and rain gauge?
6. How is annual rainfall determined?
7. Why are hailstorms frequently scattered and varied in intensity?
8. What are your conclusions as to why 25 cm of snow will not always have the same amount of water?
9. How does wind blowing during a snowstorm affect the amount of water in a snow sample?
10. How does an increase of temperature affect the amount of water in a snow sample?
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11. How does measuring the water depth in a can with a ruler that is inserted into the water affect the accuracy of your results?
12. How does a sampling of snow on a watershed assist meteorologists and hydrologists in determining available water supplies?
II. Observe Greenhouse Effect 1. How do you account for the difference in the temperature inside and outside a glass jar?
2. Why was it necessary to observe the air temperature as well as the temperature inside the jar?
3. How would less distance have altered the results obtained?
4. Where is light energy converted into heat energy in this experiment?
5. Why is there a difference in the amount of light energy converted to heat energy at the poles as compared to the equator?
6. How is the earth's atmosphere similar to the glass of the jar?
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