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The individuals David cites below are all well and good... Yet I was
struck by his disdain for dead white men - and dead white women.
Yeah, I guess if someone was white, they're of just ho-hum.
Look, encouraging diversity is an important goal, but trying to do it in
the wrong way just won't work, imho. And declaring that if someone lived
a long time ago and was white then they can't possibly be useful to
today's students is definitely the wrong way. Concede defeat to the
creationists, cause Darwin and Wallace were both DWM.
Jonah Cohen
Outreach & Public Programs Manager
The Children's Museum
I cannot stress enough that nearly without exception one cannot randomly
combine a collection of circuitry and power supplies into an object and
"accidentally discover" that it is a fully functioning death ray. I
speak here from bitter experience.
-James Kakalios, "The Physics of Super Heroes"
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Smith
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 11:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: important energy inventors
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
************************************************************************
*****
These are certainly important inventors, but my reaction to this list is
mostly ho-hum. These are generally the same dead white men (and token
dead white woman) I've heard about a hundred times before. Robert Ohl
and Sir William Robert Grove are new to me, but the others will be in
every science book the kids have ever seen. I went explicitly searching
for women, Hispanic and African energy inventors and found some things
that might be of interest. There are dozens more examples out there -
this is just a sample of things that caught my interest.
http://www.jadcommunications.com/articles/womeninventors.htm suggests
some women that might be added to your list
You might want to look specifically at William Kamkwamba, not because
he's done anything radically new, but because of where and how he is
doing it - bringing wind power to his village with available technology
instead of waiting for a big grant to buy technology that no one can
afford/knows how to maintain: http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/
Then there's Rex Gerald, a Hispanic scientist who invented an MRI
technique for studying batteries, a tool that may make electric cars
more effective and economical:
www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2006/news061012.pdf
Rex Gerald also works with student interns and finds the idea that
inventions come from singular flashes of insight or singular geniuses to
be an impediment to developing future inventors. That same theme is
echoed in this article from the New Yorker about invention and
creativity:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?pri
ntable=true
Sometimes what makes a famous inventor famous is just luck or timing.
They weren't necessarily the first or the best, just the first to get a
patent or the best able to market their invention. Rather than hold up
10 people as singular, exemplary, geniuses, perhaps it would be more
helpful and maybe even more interesting to your audience to identify
some elements of the invention process and use more diverse, if less
well-known, inventors to show how they did what they did.
Dave Smith
On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 9:07 AM, Kimberly Kuta
<[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and
> related institutions.
>
> **********************************************************************
> *******
>
> We are developing a traveling elementary school exhibit about energy,
> part of which focuses on important energy inventors. In your opinion,
> who are the top 10 inventors that must be included? We want to provide
> children and educators with both traditional/foundational and
> contemporary examples and happenings.
>
> Here is our initial short list of 8 (not in any particular order),
> based on feedback from scientists and some other organizations.
>
> * Thomas Edison, 1880s-improved incandescent bulbs; first power
plant;
> widespread and reliable electric light via bulbs; power plant gave
> electricity to 85 customers in 1882 (enough to power 5000 bulbs)
> * Nikola Tesla, 1887-AC power; allowed electricity to be easily
> transmitted over long distances; widespread industrial and
> manufacturing uses for electricity
> * Benjamin Franklin, 1752-discovered positive and negative
electrical
> charges and that lightning is a form of electricity (kit and key
> experiment); invented lightning rod
> * Michael Faraday, 1851-electromagnetic induction (the first
> generator, leading to modern electric motor, generator and
transformer)
> * Marie Curie, 1900s-discovered pure radium, the first
radioactive
> element; Nobel Prize in 1903
> * Russell Ohl, 1950s-solar cells
> * Sir William Robert Grove, 1843-first fuel cell
> * Henry Ford, 1891-small gasoline engine and assembly line
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Kimberly Kuta
> Content Specialist
> Stepping Stones Museum for Children
> Mathews Park, 303 West Avenue
> Norwalk, CT 06850
> 203 899 0606, ext. 235
>
> Visit us at www.steppingstonesmuseum.org<
> http://www.steppingstonesmuseum.org>
>
>
--
David L. Smith
Da Vinci Science Center
Allentown, PA
http://www.davinci-center.org
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
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