Materials, machines, structures, and electricity: systems that keep us alive, healthy, and working, and why you should understand them.
Introduction
Here is a link to my experimental blog:
[How Things Oughta Work]
This web page is about a program that teaches non-technical people how things work.
"Contemporary social life is what it is in very large measure because of the
results of application of physical science. The experience of every child and
youth, in the country and the city, is what it is in its present actuality
because of appliances which utilize electricity, heat, and chemical processes. A
child ... does not read by artificial light or take a ride in a motor car or on
a train without coming into contact with operations and processes which science
has engendered. It is a sound educational principle that students should be
introduced to scientific subject-matter and be initiated into its facts and laws
through acquaintance with everyday social applications."
John Dewey, Experience and Education, 1938, p. 79, 80
I've just removed some old stuff and will be making some renovations, most of
which will have to do with the current project. This is the curriculum I am
writing: about thirty short units on every topic I could think of. Each contains
a tutorial on the subject--e.g., refrigeration, light bulbs, printing in color,
telephone switching--plus a set of class activities, self-test questions,
and vocabulary words. If things go right, there may also be a videotape,
starring me, that helps explain and amplify the entire topic. The videotape allows me to show things
that aren't easy to get into the classroom, like the intake of a
sewage-treatment plant or the pressroom of a newspaper.
To join the How Things Work e-mail discussion group, send a blank,
no-subject e-mail message to
howthingswork-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Admission is open to everyone, including young people.
Here's the website:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/howthingswork/