Disclaimer: This summative assessment focuses on all white males. Please consider acknowledging this fact and, perhaps, discussing access to opportunities before proceeding. Thank you and have a nice day.
A Neil deGrasse Tyson youtube clip which answers the question, “What’s up with chicks and science?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inz1sdhsMCU
Name ______Science Saves the Day! MYP Summative 1.1: Criterion D Reflecting on the Impacts of Science
Presentation date: ______Assignment: ______
We can gain a better understanding of the power of doing science by evaluating the effects of scientific developments and their applications to a specific problem or issue. In this summative assignment, you will
o investigate a historically-significant scientific discovery that resulted from applying the scientific method to a real problem
o create a poster that explains what the problem was, how the scientific method was applied, and the results of the discovery— then and now
STEP ONE: THE SCIENCE IS IN THE STORY
Take time now to carefully read over your story. When you are done, answer the following question:
What important discovery will your presentation be on? ______
STEP TWO: OUTLINE AND ANALYZE THE SCIENCE
Slide 1: The title of your presentation and your name.
Slide 2: What was going on at the time? What question was asked?
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Slide 3: What hypothesis was being tested?
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Slide 4: Describe how the control group and the experimental group(s) were different.
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Slide 5: What two conditions were kept constant in the control group and the experimental group?
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Slide 6: What data was collected in order to test the hypothesis? (Dependent variable)
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Slide 7: Describe one change that could have been made in the investigation to improve it.
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Slide 8: What was the conclusion? What discovery was made?
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Slides 9: What is one way that the discovery is still affecting life today? Use factor 1 here!
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Slide 10: What is one way that the discovery is still affecting life today? Use factor 2 here!
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STEP THREE: LINKING THE DISCOVERY TO TODAY
Now you will use the Internet to find out how that discovery is affecting our lives today. You must find at least two connections between the discovery and life today. Some factors to consider:
ð moral implications— Has it affected what we as individuals believe is right or wrong?
ð ethical implications—Has it affected what most of society thinks is the right thing to do?
ð social implications— Has it changed society (the people in a community that share laws, traditions, etc.)?
ð economic implications— Has buying and selling been affected?
ð political implications— Has the government done anything different?
ð cultural implications— Have habits, beliefs, or traditions changed?
ð environmental implications— Has the natural world been affected in any way?
How will the two factors that you choose be included into your PowerPoint presentation?
Factor 1: ______
How this discovery has an effect on life today:
______
______
______
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Sources: ______
Factor 2: ______
How this discovery has an effect on life today:
______
______
______
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Sources: ______
Science Saves the Day: Joseph Lister
Top of Form
Sir Joseph Lister is a renowned English surgeon who discovered antiseptic surgery. He is distinguished as the 'Father of Modern Surgery' for his contribution to sterile surgery that led to the safety of patients who underwent complex surgeries. He developed the principles of cleanliness that changed the face of medicine and surgical practice forever. Joseph Lister is also known as the founder of antiseptic medicine and the inventor of preventive medicine. He was a religious man who strongly believed in God, religious principles and Christianity. He belonged to the Quaker homes in Upton and received education from various prestigious schools and universities. Later in life, he received various designations and honors and also served as a personal surgeon to Queen Victoria. Joseph Lister's breakthrough in antiseptic surgery saved millions of lives and also paved way to the advancement of modern surgical procedures. Read this biography to know more about Sir Joseph Lister and his contributions to medical science.
Childhood And Early Life
Born on April 5, 1827, Joseph Lister was the second of the three children born to a rich wine merchant, amateur scientist and the inventor of the achromatic double lens and compound microscope, called Joseph Jackson Lister. Lister’s father was also a member of the ‘Fellow of the Royal Society’. His mother was Isabella Harris. Lister belonged to one of the prosperous Quaker homes in Upton. Young Lister received education from prestigious Quaker schools in London and Hertfordshire. These schools were prominent and well-known for the importance given to science subjects. The Lister family led a simple and quite life, although they were wealthy.
Education and Career
After Joseph Lister completed his schooling, he attended the University of London in 1844, where he obtained the Bachelor of Arts Degree. From a young age, Lister had a keen interest in surgery. He graduated with honors in Bachelor of Medicine from London and in 1852, he became a fellow member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Lister also became an assistant to the greatest surgical teacher of that time called James Syme in 1853. He began his surgical career as a resident house surgeon in 1854 in Edinburgh. It was not until 1861, at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, where he became a full-time professor in the field of surgery. In 1877, Lister was employed as the professor of the department of surgery at Kings College, London. After retiring in 1893, he became the foreign secretary of the ‘Royal Society’. Later on he served as the president of the ‘Royal Society’ from the years 1895 to 1900. He also became the president of the ‘British Association for the Advancement of Science’ in 1896.
Lister’s Research
As a student, Lister not only practiced medicine but also conducted several researches on the subject. His initial researches were based on muscle actions in the eye and skin, the coagulation of blood, and the observations on blood vessels during early phases of infections. He presented his dissertation, titled ‘On the Minute Structure of Involuntary Muscular Fiber’, to the ‘Royal Society’. His paper was recognized and he was honored with the designation of ‘Fellow of the Royal Society’ in 1860.
Lister’s Prevention Of Infection
While he was a surgeon at Edinburgh Hospital, he observed that several patients, who had undergone surgery, had died from unattended infections. A high death rate due to surgical infection was prominent all over Europe and disturbed him greatly. During those times, many surgeons were trained to believe that infections arose from within the wounds itself. They never washed their hands or changed their blood-stained clothes as this was considered a status symbol and the mark of a true surgeon. Lister did not accept this. He conducted numerous researches and spent many years researching on how dangerous infections could be stopped. He followed strictly sterile procedures by washing his hands after every surgery and wearing clean clothes. This approach, although scoffed at by many, led to lesser death rates from infections among patients at various hospitals.
Lister’s Discovery of The Antiseptic
Joseph Lister was familiar with wine fermentation and on reading Louis Pasteur’s research papers, he realized that germs were air-borne and could also affect non-living matter, like wine, to go bad. This also proved Lister’s argument that infections did not begin from within the wound. This observation made it possible for Lister to believe that infections could be eliminated by restricting air-borne germs from contaminating the wound. Although Pasteur had used filters and heat to destroy germs in the wine, this method was not applicable for human flesh. On learning that carbolic acid or phenol was used as a disinfectant in the sewers to kill parasites, Lister began to think hard. Later, he learned that these were safe to be used on skin. He began to use carbolic acid to clean his hands, instruments, and bandages before, during and after surgery. The bandages were also soaked in carbolic acid before covering the wounds.
In 1869, Lister invented a new technique, by filling a pump spray with carbolic acid to be used in the operation theatres. Lister’s chemical antiseptic proved beneficial to kill germs and soon several hospitals adopted this antiseptic surgical practice, which saved countless lives. After demonstrating his successful antiseptic techniques in various London hospitals, this procedure was accepted worldwide.
Lister’s Surgical Techniques
Lister proved that materials that were sterilized could be left inside a patient’s body. Using a sterilized silver wire, he tied broken bones that healed safely. He also adopted the usage of sterilized catgut for internal stitches that dissolved after the scars/wounds healed.
Recognition And Awards
Joseph Lister was given much recognition for his great contribution to medicine. Although initially his work on antiseptics was met with skepticism, his approach became widely accepted all over. It was only due to his work and research that helped reduce 15% surgical mortality rate by 1860. After being appointed as Queen Victoria’s personal surgeon for many years, he was knighted as Sir Joseph Lister in 1883. He was titled Lord Lister of Lyme Regis in 1897. He also became the first British peer for services to medicine. It was in 1902 when he was made the Privy councilor and was given the ‘Order of Merit’. He was also the founding member of the ‘British Institute of Preventive Medicine’.
Personal Life
Joseph Lister married James Syme’s eldest daughter, Agnes Syme. They were childless, but his wife supported him throughout Lister’s professional career. After his wife died in 1892, Lister turned towards religion and regularly attended the ‘Scottish Episcopal Church’.
Death And Legacy
On February 10, 1912, Lister died at Walmer, Kent, England. After a long career in medicine, he retired in 1893. His principles in antiseptic surgery became universally accepted and it led to the development of various other researches. His antiseptic techniques laid the foundation for modern surgery. The ‘Listerine’ mouthwash was named after him, in his honor, in 1879. Lister was buried at Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green, London.
Science Saves the Day: Dr. Eijkman
It is 1897 and people are dying in Java, an island in Indonesia or the Dutch East Indies. They all seemed to share the same hideous symptoms beginning with overall muscle weakness, loss of appetite, and eventually they suffered paralysis and eventually death by heart failure. This disease was called beriberi by the indigenous people. This was a word from their native language that meant “I cannot, I cannot.”
Scientists thought the disease might be caused by bacteria. (After all, since the discovery of bacteria, almost all previously unknown diseases were attributed to a bacterial infection.) They decided to prove that a bacterium was the culprit by conducting an experiment. They used chickens as their trial subject. They injected a group of chickens with the blood from a patient who had beriberi and then to prove that the blood carried the “bacterium that caused the disease” they injected another group of chickens with saline or simple salt solution. Well, both groups got beriberi! So back to the starting board they went.
One of the scientists who had been sent to work on this mystery was a Dutch physician and pathologist named Dr. Christiaan Eijkman. One day, as he walked around the hospital compound he observed his surroundings. He noticed that the cook fed every one of the patients the staple diet of the nation— polished or white rice. Polished rice is wild, brown rice with the husk or outer layer rubbed off so that its color is white. It was the rice of choice of the middle class of the Indonesian people. He also noticed that the hospital staff fed the chickens (that would eventually be the chicken soup for the patients) wild rice. White rice was more expensive than brown rice, so the chickens were usually fed brown rice. Dr. Eijkman realized that this was an important observation and thought that maybe the wild rice contained something that the white rice did not. So he conducted another experiment. He divided the chickens once again into two separate groups. He fed one group of chickens only white rice and the other group only wild rice. Then he watched and waited.
It turned out that the chickens that had been fed wild rice did not get sick at all, but the chickens that had been fed the polished or white rice became weak, lost their appetite and eventually died from beriberi. Eureka, the case was solved!
As Dr. Eijkman and others continued to research this interesting case, they found that polished rice lacked thiamine, a vitamin necessary for good health. This was actually the first "vital amine" or vitamin to be discovered. It is also called vitamin B1.
We've now known for more than a hundred years that brown rice is more nutritious than white rice. But most Asian cultures associate eating white rice with prosperity and eating brown rice with bad luck. Most rice is still milled or polished, both in Asia and elsewhere. In Europe and America both white rice and brown rice are consumed, but mostly white. In fact, some white rice is chemically fortified to add back the B vitamins. In 1929, Eijkman and Hopkins were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.