Purpose Statement
This activity attempts
to get students to analyze, synthesize, and practice inductive reasoning.
Description of Activity
I have a slight
ulterior motive in mentioning this item. So many of my colleagues have observed
me, over the years, usually with a "troop" of my students, carrying a
variety of weapons to and from the classroom, that I wouldn't be surprised if
some colleagues suspect that I'm simply conducting some kind of Show and Tell
in class. Well, they're right, of course - but that wouldn't be a sufficient
reason to go to all that trouble. There is something more involved, a something
that I'd like to share with you, if for no other reason than to satisfy your
curiosity. What DO I do with those weapons?
OK. The topic is technology as one aspect of culture, and my aim is to
introduce some of the concepts involved in cultural evolution - that cultural
change isn't purely random, but follows certain patterns. I could simply tell
them, in a lecture, what these patterns are - but I don't teach that way. I
don't like to just TELL students things; I prefer that they discover them
themselves; that way, the ideas they've discovered will probably stick with
them a lot longer than anything I tell them.
So, before class I line the weapons up on the Forum stage, in this order, from
left to right:
a Paleolithic stone axe (genuine axehead, a gift from a student from Mexico
some years ago; handle poorly constructed by me)
a long spear from the upper Amazon
a Dani (New Guinea) arrow (it lacks feathers)
a quiver of Huichol(Mexico) arrows, with bow (the arrows are fletched)
a scimitar from Afghanistan
a 19th century long-barreled musket from Afghanistan
I first tell them about each one, demonstrating some of them so they understand
the principles of physics involved: lever for the axe; concentration of energy
(mass plus motion) in the point of the spear (I ask for a volunteer from the
front row, to try to resist my gentle pressing of the point into the student's
palm; no one, not even the burliest macho guy, can withstand that pressure);
how a bow stores the energy required to bend the wood back until the release of
the arrow from the string uses that stored energy to propel the arrow; how the
curved blade of the scimitar maintains longer contact with, say, the neck of an
opponent than a straight blade would; how the explosion of Chinese-invented
gunpowder within the chamber of the musket propels the ball.
I then put one more weapon into the lineup: my puny fist, at the extreme left.
I tell them that I've arranged all these weapons in a particular order or
sequence, and then I ask them, what is that order? What pattern in world-wide
human history do they represent? -But I also warn them that , to keep them on
their toes, I've deliberately placed one of them out of order - so, figure out
the order, determine which one is out of order, and why?
The attempts at answers begin to fly: "each is better"; "progress";
"more efficient"; "more complex technology"; etc. I tell
them I'm not content. Finally someone (it was a student from Ethiopia last
week) points out that each weapon in turn enables its user to kill his enemy
(or potential meal) at a greater distance - and with a correspondingly greater
degree of safety for himself. Then everyone realizes that the scimitar is the
one out of order; the Afghan warrior still had to get up dangerously close to
use it (thus pointing out that not all cultures value personal safety; some,
like the Afghans, value courage above safety). So, as we contemplate what
probably happened throughout human history, we realize that each new invention
gave to the people who created it an adaptive advantage over people who didn't
yet have it - one of the crucial factors in cultural evolution. Those cultural
practices that provide "adaptive advantages" tend to replace less
advantageous practices.
They've arrived at the concept themselves - through the processes of analysis
and synthesis, through inductive reasoning, from analyzing particular cases to
arriving at a general principle. The students enjoy the process, and they've
not only learned some things that they're more likely to remember than if I had
just "told them so" - but they've also practiced a higher order of
thinking that I hope will be of use to them in the future.
Materials Needed
The artifacts mentioned
above.
Application
This activity takes
15-20 minutes of class time. Students seem quite fascinated by the
presentation, and participate whole-heartedly.
Related Student Services
this web page was created
on 11/3/99 at 7:50:50 PM
and modified on 11/3/99 at 7:50:50 PM