FASTLY - Faith & Science Teaching

Labs and Scarcity

In Brief

Students conduct a lab and then are asked to see it differently in terms of the resources used and the implications for how we think about chemistry and character. This activity can be used with any experiment you currently use.

Goals

Students will conduct a lab and analyze what resources were used.

Students will understand that design of lab work is related to ethical questions about how to use resources of various kinds and character.

Thinking Ahead

It is important to avoid the temptation to preach at students at the end of this activity. Attend both to what you say as you lead the final part of the discussion and the tone in which it is said. The goal here is not to catch students out or to try to make students feel bad about their resource use or lack of virtue, but to create space to reflect on how virtue might be relevant to scientific work.

Use “we” language, not “you” language, and ask questions in a tone of inquiry rather than pointing to individual behaviors. Remember the adult world is not a glowing model in this area. Think about how you can make your classroom a space for engaging students in ethical reflection without it turning into legalistic sermonizing.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• You will need whatever resources are necessary for the experiment you choose

• To assess the activity, you can use the final slide of Chemistry and Shalom

Teaching the Activity

Conduct a chemistry lab that forms part of your standard curriculum.

After the experiment is completed, ask students to make a list of all the resources they used to complete the experiment. After giving them a few minutes to do this, discuss these lists with the class, and guide a conversation using the following questions:

• Did you include all of the obvious chemical resources, including reactants?
• Did you think to include the power used for the experiment including heating and lighting the room and any resources used to generate that power?
• Did you include any water used to clean apparatus after the experiment?
• Did you include any paper and writing tools used to record results?
• Did you think to list everyone’s time as a resource used?

Briefly draw students’ attention to the fact that all of these are finite resources that have been used up and ask:

• What difference would it make, in other words, what would be lost if we did the experiment in a way that took four times as long and went through lunch break?
• Or used a hundred gallons of water?
• Or used ten times as much power?
• What motivations might we have for controlling the amount of resources used?
• How might those motivations and the choices they lead to relate to love of God and neighbor and care for creation?

Finally, ask students:

• What knowledge and understanding helps us to be able to control the amount of resources used in an experiment?
• What kind of character qualities will play a role in how successful we are in controlling the quantity of resources? How are carelessness, self-control, consideration for others relevant?
• What might motivate us to seek those character qualities? How can we grow in them?

To test understanding, you can display the final slide from Chemistry and Shalom and ask students to write a brief explanation of how choices about the design of lab work can be connected to our relationships to God, creation, neighbor, and self.

Labs, Scarcity, and Choices

In Brief

This activity engages students in working with limited resources during lab work and exploring the connections between choices of resources and character.

Goals

Students will conduct a lab and analyze what resources were used.

Students will understand that the way lab work is conducted can be related to character and to Christian virtues.

Thinking Ahead

Self-control seems intentional, but the way we consume goods is often rooted in unreflective choices and behaviors. This activity promotes being mindful about resource use, but also goes beyond just thinking more about resource use. None of us spend the whole day consciously thinking through each action we take. Our formation matters, and formation and science are connected. Growing in virtues, that is, stable character qualities that can guide our actions even when we are not thinking about it, offers another approach to behaving wisely with limited resources.

Bear in mind that the intent is not to communicate that it is always the right action to minimize use of a resource, because there are times when being lavish is appropriate, but rather to help students to see connections between resource use, caring for others, and self-control. Think about what opportunities you might have in future lessons and through your everyday teaching practices to gently reinforce awareness of these connections.

Related Book Review: Song of a Scientist by Calvin B. DeWitt and After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters by N.T. Wright.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• A copy of the List of Virtues for each student

Directions:

Select a lab activity you typically conduct early in the school year that calls for the use of relatively inexpensive consumable materials. An example might be a lab comparing and contrasting physical and chemical properties that has students combine vinegar and baking soda, or red cabbage juice and ammonia, or a lab analyzing mixtures that requires the separating of salt and sand from water.

Modify your lab handout to instruct students to pour materials into an intermediate vessel before going back to their lab table and measuring the quantities specified in the lab, and to dispose of the excess material after they complete their measurements.

When putting out the supplies, purposefully put out only the exact amount that would be needed by all groups, or potentially even less, so that by the time the last group comes to gather their materials there won’t be enough. Plan for the lab to take longer than normal and use the questions below to facilitate discussion during and/or after the lab.

Teaching the Activity

If students have not already been instructed in proper lab procedures concerning use of materials, be sure to clearly communicate that once substances have been poured out of their original containers, they should not be put back in. All excess material will need to be disposed of.

Set up your lab activity as usual with the modification of the lab handout and the restriction of materials described above. Allow students to begin working on their own and wait for their materials to run out. 

When a group realizes they will be unable to complete the activities, have all groups come to a pause and begin the discussion with the following questions:

• How did you decide how much of the substances to take?
• Did you do any quick calculations in your head? Did you think about it much or was it an unconscious choice?
• What assumptions did you make about how much of each substance was available?
• Did you assume there was more than enough for everyone?
• What are the results of different groups taking different amounts?
  • If some groups took far more than necessary … other groups would have none and material would be wasted.
  • If some groups took closer to the needed amount … other groups would be able to complete the activity and less would be wasted.
• How does the quantity you took affect the whole class?
• What would it take to minimize the amount of material wasted?

Steer students toward considering how as individuals and groups they operate as part of a whole. Their actions impact others, while the actions of others have an impact on them that may be out of their control. Point them toward what is in their control, which is their own awareness of their own consumption.

Ask students to talk in groups and then record brief written responses to the following questions. Present each question individually, having students complete reflection and recording for each question before moving on to the next.

1. Does how much of each material you took say anything about your character?
   • Students may see their actions of taking excess materials as just following instructions. Ask them to think about how being more critical of tasks they perform, and their consequences, might connect to self-control.
2. How might this small exercise relate to larger questions about our use of resources on earth? Can you see any parallels?
3. Can you think of areas of your life where you are very aware of how much you consume and have a lot of self-control? Can you think of any areas where you are less careful?
   • For example, students may spend a lot money on clothes, but follow a very strict diet, or save gas but waste water.
4. Can thinking more about all our choices solve the problem? To what degree can we think carefully about every choice we make each day?

Finally, ask the class how they would define the concept of virtue. Elicit that a virtue is a character quality that becomes ingrained through practice so that it comes to guide our actions spontaneously, even when we are not thinking about it. Hand out copies of the List of Virtues and ask students to read the definitions and then identify which of the virtues listed at the bottom of the sheet might affect how we go about lab work in any way.

Challenge students to be concrete and specific in pointing to behaviors that could be affected or demonstrate growth in a virtue. To avoid lapsing into a moralizing or judgmental tone, frame this as a challenge for everyone, including yourself. Make explicit to students that a focus on the virtues that are evident in lab work, and on our formation, is one of the various ways that faith and science can be connected.

If there is time, have students finish the lab activity, providing additional resources as needed. If not, continue the lab the following day. Use this as a recurring theme when conducting lab work. Ask students to reflect on the virtues implicit in their actions and their use of materials during lab activities throughout the year.

What Is a Closed System?

In Brief

This activity engages students in learning about the concept of a closed system in the context of a laboratory experiment and helps them see how this concept might be related to larger questions about the nature of God and the universe.

Goals

Students will understand the concept of a closed system.

Students will understand that the concept of a closed system is related both to experimental work and to larger questions about the nature of God and the universe.

Thinking Ahead

This activity introduces the concept of a closed system, which will be developed further in Activity 6: Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems? and Activity 7: Trash Day. It will help you to guide students through these activities if you have reflected on how the concept can affect the details of how we work on chemical reactions and also the larger question of how we see the universe.

It will be important in this sequence of activities both to help students make these conceptual connections, and to help them see the limits of the concept. A system that is closed in terms of exchange of particular matter need not be closed in other respects, and the concept may not apply to other aspects of reality such as love, where the giving of love from one to another does not mean that the giver has less love left. Use these activities to reflect on how often you help students connect science concepts to a larger context that makes space for reflection on faith.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Presentation slides from What Is a Closed System?

Teaching the Activity

Show the first slide from What Is a Closed System? Ask students to imagine that researchers interested in food metabolism performed the following experiment: They placed a rat inside a transparent container and then tightly sealed the container so that no material could pass in or out of the container. Before tightly sealing the container, along with the rat, the researchers placed enough water, food, oxygen, and carbon dioxide absorbing component (LiOH) to last several days.

The researchers fed the rat a “cafeteria diet,” that is, a diet rich in fat and carbohydrates. Lots of calories! Ask students to suggest the composition of the diet these rats were living on, for example junk foods like donuts, French fries, Oreos, and candy bars. The entire system, which included the rat, its container, and everything inside its container, was weighed at the start of the experiment. Several days went by, the rat lived on, and then the entire system was reweighed.

Next, show slide 2 and ask students to predict the outcome of the experiment in terms of the weight of the container. Did it increase, decrease, or stay the same? Why might we expect any of these outcomes? After some initial suggestions move to the next slide and ask students to choose between the three explanations offered and explain why they chose it. Allowing a brief time for discussion with a partner could be helpful at this point in the process; students can then share their answers with the whole class.

Important questions may surface or be brought forward by the teacher, as students discuss the experiment. Students may wonder if anything can pass into or out of the container and what effect(s) this might have. Students may wonder about the effects of the diet on the rat by saying things such as, “So, if the rat is hungry and eats food, it should gain weight, right? Lots of weight given the junk food it’s eating!” Similarly, they may think about how they try to lose weight through exercise and may say things like, “Won’t the system lose weight as the rat exercises and uses up calories?” 

Eventually it is important to reinforce what can really pass into and out of the container and what cannot and the effects of these possibilities. For example, could light pass into the container? Answer: Of course. The container walls, like glass, are transparent, so light can pass through from outside to inside or vice versa. But what effect would this have on mass? Is light thought to have mass? Relatedly, heat (thermal energy) can also pass in and out of the container. If the surroundings are warmer than the container, thermal energy will flow from the hotter surroundings to the colder container. Similarly, since the rat has a body temperature higher than the surroundings, thermal energy will transfer from the rat to the surroundings.

Again, is this sort of change likely to impact the overall mass of the container? Ultimately, an important point to bring forward is the particulate nature of matter which the chemist uses to model the material world. Whether heat or light is passing into or out of the container is irrelevant with regard to changes in the mass of the container and contents because energy, such as light or heat, is not a thing (particulate) and does not have mass. However, material things, like the rat, the container, and the oxygen gas the rat is inhaling, are modeled as particulate in nature. 

If students need a reminder, you could briefly discuss at this point that chemists, and all scientists, model matter as made up of tiny, indestructible particles called atoms. Notably, particles are thought to have mass. If you add particles to something, its mass will increase, and if you take particles away, the mass will decrease. If you weigh a gas tank filled with propane gas before using it in your barbecue grill, it will weigh more than when you weigh it again after you have used gas to grill hamburgers.

Students can now use the particle model to firm up the correct answer to the rat scenario. At the same time, the teacher can reinforce the idea of a closed system and its implications. As the rat lived on in this scenario, no particles were allowed into the container and no particles exited the container. Yes, particles are thought to have mass, but if no particles were added or lost, then one would expect the overall mass of the rat and its container to be constant over time. For instance, the rat ate food and grew in mass, but the particles making up the now chubbier rat were already present in the container in the form of the food. 

The main point to lead students to is this: in this situation chemists would say that the rat and its container are a closed system. A closed system refers to a condition in which nothing in a material sense can go in or out. The entire system weighed the same before and after because all of the particles there at the beginning were also there at the end. You can use the following questions to check student understanding of this concept:

• What is meant by a closed system?
• What is meant by the particle model? What does it mean to say that “matter is made of particles”?
• Is light made of particles? 
• Is heat made of particles?
• Is a rat made of particles?
• Is the container made of particles?
• Is a donut made of particles?
• If no chemist has ever seen an atom, even with the most powerful microscope, does this mean it is bad science to refer to matter as made of atoms? Why or why not?
• If a light was shone on the container and the container warmed, would the system weigh more, less, or about the same? Why?
• Is the “rat container” a closed system with regard to oxygen? Why or why not?
• Is the “rat container” a closed system with regard to heat? Why or why not?
• Is the “rat container” a closed system with regard to the carbon atoms in the food the rat is eating? Why or why not?
• Why do we have to ask if the container was a closed system “with regard to” various different things?

Finally, introduce an idea that students will continue to explore in the next two activities.

• Is it reasonable to think of our entire universe as a closed system as in the case of the rat container? 
• Is God’s relationship to the universe like or unlike the relationship of the scientists to the contents of the container? There is no need for a long discussion at this point, but you can point out to students that the scientist/rat relationship in this experiment resembles deism, a view of the world that sees God as outside the system he set in motion and not intervening in its processes. This does not mirror Christian theism, in which God interacts with and within the universe. Compare this activity to Miracles versus Natural Processes? in the Activity Map on Newton’s Laws.

Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems?

In Brief

This activity engages students in lab work to help them connect the idea of a closed system to analysis of chemical reactions. It also raises the question of whether the concept of a closed system is a helpful model for thinking about other aspects of reality, such as love.

Goals

Students will understand how the concept of a closed system is related to chemical reactions.

Students will understand that the concept of a closed system does not work well when thinking about non-material aspects of reality, such as love.

Thinking Ahead

This activity further develops the concept of a closed system, which was introduced in Activity 5: What Is a Closed System? and is used in a new context in Activity 7: Trash Day. While some of the earlier activities in this Activity Map focused on virtue as a way of relating faith and the practice of science, this activity focuses on helping students see connections and think about how learning about science relates to big questions about the nature of reality.

When these larger questions arise with your students, be wary of moving too quickly to assert answers. Instead raise questions and allow space for students to wrestle with them and think their way through to conclusions. Consider how your classroom teaching practices can support and reward careful, thoughtful reflection on faith and science questions.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Presentation slides from Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems?

• A copy of Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems? for each student or group

• A copy of Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems? 2 for each student or group

• Large balloon

• Baking Soda

• Vinegar

• Empty Pop Bottle

• Plastic Cups

• Weighing Apparatus

Teaching the Activity

This activity follows from Activity 5: What Is a Closed System? Begin with a review and extension of the particle model. Tell or remind students:

In the particle model of matter, individual atoms can be bound tightly to other atoms to form molecules. For example, water molecules are made up of two hydrogen atoms bound to one oxygen atom. In symbols, this is written as H₂0, in which the “H” represents a hydrogen atom, and the “O” represents an oxygen atom. The small “2” after the “H” indicates that there are two hydrogen atoms in the molecule. H₂0 is said to represent the chemical formula for water because it tells us exactly what atoms we would need if we wanted to make a molecule of water.

A chemical change, or a chemical reaction, is said to have occurred whenever atoms are rearranged to form new or different molecules. This can happen if two atoms bond together to form a new molecule; if atoms attach to a pre-existing molecule; if a molecule loses some of its atoms; or if some of the atoms in a molecule are replaced by other atoms. Chemists can symbolically represent chemical reactions by writing a chemical equation. The chemical equation for cellular respiration, which every cell uses to obtain energy, is shown below and on slide 1 of Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems?

C₆H₁₂O₂           +           8 O₂           ——>           6 CO₂           +           6 H₂O

Glucose                  Oxygen gas                        Carbon dioxide            Water

A chemical equation lists all the substances reacting, called reactants, and all the new substances formed, called products. The reactants appear on the left side of the equation, and the products appear on the right side. An arrow points from the reactants to the products. In Activity 5: What Is a Closed System? a chemical reaction occurred when the rat digested food or when the rat used energy to run on the exercise wheel.

Tell students that they will investigate further what it means for chemical reactions to occur in a closed system. Hand out copies of Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems? and either have students work in groups to complete the lab activity detailed there, or do it as a teacher demonstration as students follow along. This activity involves a common reaction between baking soda and vinegar.

Next, display slide 2 of Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems? Explain that this is the chemical reaction that occurs when baking soda and vinegar mix:

NaHCO₃       +           HC₂H₃O₂       ——>    NaC₂H₃O      +     H₂O     +     CO₂

baking soda   acetic acid in vinegar     sodium acetate     water       carbon dioxide

Explain some of the substances in this reaction:

• Baking soda is written as NaHCO₃, in which “Na” stands for an atom of sodium and “C” stands for an atom of carbon. Students should already be familiar with the particles represented by “H” and “O.” Notice that in one unit of baking soda, there is 1 sodium (Na) atom, 1 hydrogen atom (H), 1 carbon (C) atom, and 3 oxygen (O) atoms.
• Vinegar is a mixture of more than one substance. While this mixture contains mainly water, it is the presence of a substance called acetic acid (HC₂H₃O₂) that reacts with baking soda. The chemical formula for acetic acid is HC₂H₃O₂. In the formula for acetic acid “H” is listed twice, so there are actually a total of four hydrogen atoms in every molecule of acetic acid. Chemists list hydrogen twice in this formula in order to convey how atoms are directly connected together. You do not have to be concerned with this minor detail.
• Sodium acetate (NaC₂H₃O₂) is made up of one atom of sodium, two carbon atoms, three hydrogen atoms, and two oxygen atoms.

Tell students that the next activities will allow them to investigate the reaction between baking soda and vinegar in detail in order to better ascertain what is meant by a closed system.

Hand out copies of Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems? 2 and have students work in groups to complete the lab activities detailed there. These activities will allow students to investigate the baking soda and vinegar reaction in more detail.

When the lab is complete, return to the reaction thought to occur between baking soda and vinegar. See presentation slide 2:

NaHCO₃       +           HC₂H₃O       —->    NaC₂H₃O      +     H₂O     +     CO₂

baking soda   acetic acid in vinegar     sodium acetate     water       carbon dioxide

To make the steps more visible to students,stand at the front of the class and use unifix cubes or some sort of concrete object to build each “player” in the reaction above. Keep track of what you use to symbolize sodium atoms (Na) and carbon atoms (C), and so on. Alternatively, use slide 3 of Are Chemical Reactions Closed Systems? which also offers a visual representation.

Have students count the different atoms listed on the right-hand side of the equation versus the left-hand side. Have them note that there are exactly the same number and kind of atoms on each side. Why should this be the case? What does this have to do with a closed system?

In chemistry we model chemical reactions as closed systems. The atoms we have at the beginning, we also have at the end. Remind students that a closed system is a system in which nothing is thought to go in or out. The transformation that takes place is that the atoms have rearranged to now be combined chemically in new ways. However, all particles are thought to be conserved overall. At times chemical reactions can be reversed to recreate the original reactants, but at other times this is so difficult to bring about that we act as if this cannot happen. We call these sorts of reactions irreversible. The carbon dioxide and baking soda reaction is deemed essentially irreversible. If you wanted acetic acid again, you could not reform it from the products obtained in the reaction above. You would have to find a new supply of acetic acid that has never participated in this sort of reaction.

Finally, return to the question reflected on at the end of Activity 5: What Is a Closed System? We model all chemical reactions as reactions in which atoms are conserved. We could “magnify” this perspective and imagine all chemical reactions together as operating in one big system, i.e. the universe. In this case we imagine atoms are conserved overall as well. Thus, we could say that the universe as a whole is a closed system.

• Does this mean God cannot act in the universe? Remind students about the “closed system with regard to….”
• Does the question of closed systems change if we are not thinking about particles?
• Is love between people best modeled as a closed system? 

People sometimes act as if love operates like a closed system. ”I love you only when you give me some love back. I will be jealous if you show care to others because it should have come to me.” In this picture there is only so much love to go around, giving love means there is less love remaining, and loving should be offered carefully so as to ensure you are loved in return. But does loving one parent mean you have to love another parent or sibling less?

This construct treats love as if it is operating in a closed system, like the closed system of particulate matter.

• Is this a good model for the kind of love that Christ shows and calls people to?
• If we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, how can there be some left over to love our neighbor?
• Is a closed system a good model for thinking about all aspects of reality?