A3.1 Science in occupations and trades
Example
Name what an elevator technician relies on and the problem it solves.
- Elevator technician: how pulleys and counterweights share a load, so a car moves with a fraction of the motor force a straight lift would need.
Example
Name what a garage mechanic and a water-quality technician rely on, and the problem each solves.
- Mechanic: hydraulic brakes — a push on the pedal passes through the brake fluid undiminished to every wheel.
- Water-quality technician: dissolved oxygen, turbidity and bacteria counts, read against what the fish and the town need.
A3.2 Science with other subjects
Example
Plan a watershed report for the school's creek using science, geography and math.
- Science: sample dissolved oxygen, turbidity and bacteria at three sites.
- Geography: map the watershed — every slope that drains to the creek — and what sits on each. Math: averages by site, graphed over the season.
Example
Plan the language part of the watershed report.
- Language: a report to council with the method, the findings, and one recommendation.
A3.3 Contributions from communities around the world
Technologies we rely on were worked out across the world: paper, the compass and gunpowder in China; rubber balls and a working zero in Olmec and Maya lands; suspension bridges of woven grass in the Inca empire; windmills in Persia; smallpox inoculation practised in the Ottoman Empire before Europe adopted it. Each was observed, tested and passed on.
Example
Explain the science in a Persian yakhchāl.
- Yakhchāl: a tall domed ice-house with thick walls and a wind-catcher — evaporation and shade keep the inside cold enough to store winter ice through a desert summer.
Example
Explain the science in Mesoamerican nixtamalization.
- Nixtamalization: soaking corn in an alkaline solution frees nutrients the body could not otherwise absorb, so corn-based diets stayed healthy.
Example
Explain the science in West African iron smelting and in Korean kimchi.
- Iron smelting: tall clay furnaces drew air through charcoal hot enough to separate iron from its ore — Korean kimchi likewise uses controlled fermentation to keep vegetables through winter.
Summary
- Pulleys, hydraulics and water tests at work.
- Subjects combine in a watershed report.
- Paper, zero, grass bridges, windmills, inoculation, ice-houses, nixtamalization, iron, kimchi — observed, tested, passed on.