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Sophia Institute online Waldorf Certificate Studies Program

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Waldorf Methods/Sciences 1

Introduction

" ... ancient wisdom contained no contradiction between body and soul or between nature and spirit; because one knew: Spirit is in man in its archetypal form; the soul is none other than the message transmitted by spirit; the body is the image of spirit. Likewise, no contract was felt between man and surrounding nature because one bore an image of spirit in one's own body, and the same was true of every body in external nature. Hence, an inner kinship was experienced between one's own body and those in outer nature, and nature was not felt to be different from oneself. Man felt himself at one with the whole world. He could feel this because he could behold the archetype of spirit and because the cosmic expanses spoke to him. In consequence of the universe speaking to man, science simply could not exist. Just as we today cannot build a science of external nature out of what lives in our memory, ancient man could not develop one because, whether he looked into himself or outward at nature, he beheld the same image of spirit. No contrast existed between man himself and nature, and there was none between soul and body. The correspondence of soul and body was such that, in a manner of speaking, the body was only the vessel, the artistic reproduction, of the spiritual archetype, while the soul was the mediating messenger between the two. Everything as in a state of intimate union. There could be no question of comprehending anything. We grasp and comprehend what is outside our own life. Anything that we carry within ourselves is directly experienced and need not be first comprehended. ... Precisely because man had lost the connection with nature, he now sought a science of nature from outside." - Rudolf Steiner in "The Origins of Natural Science."

In Waldorf education, the science subjects do not start with nor are built from theories and formulas. Rather they start with the phenomena and develop in an experiential way, by first presenting the phenomenon, having the students make detailed observations, then guiding the students to derive the concepts that arise from the phenomena, and finally deriving the scientific formulas and laws behind the phenomena.This methodology reflects the way basic science actually has been developed by scientists and trains the pupils stepwise in basic scientific thinking and reflection on the basis of personal experience and observation of the phenomena of nature and the history of science. In kindergarten and the lower grades, the experience of nature through the seasons is brought to the children through nature walks, nature tables and observation of nature around. In later grades, there are specific main lesson blocks dealing with Man and Animal, and other themes. In grade 5, scientific ideas may be taught historically through the study of the Greeks, for example, Aristotle, Archimedes and Pythagoras. In grades 6-8 the science curriculum becomes more focused with blocks on physics (optics, acoustics, mechanics, magnetism and electricity), botany, chemistry (inorganic and organic), and anatomy. In high school, science is taught by specialists who have received college level training in biology, chemistry and physics and these three subjects are taught in each of the 4 years of high school.

Course Outlines

Waldorf Methods/Sciences 1
Lesson 1: Chemistry/Kindergarten/Grades
Lesson 2: Chemistry/Classes 9 - 12
Lesson 3: Physics/Introduction
Lesson 4: Physics/Classes 6 - 8
Lesson 5: Physics/Classes 9 - 12


Waldorf Methods/Sciences 2
Lesson 1: Life Sciences/Introduction
Lesson 2:
Life Sciences/Classes 4 - 5
Lesson 3: Life Sciences/Classes 6 -8
Lesson 4: Life Sciences/Classes 9 -10
Lesson 5: Life Sciences/Classes 11 -12


Waldorf Methods/Sciences 3
Lesson 1: Geography/Introduction
Lesson 2: Geography/Classes 1 - 8
Lesson 3: Geography/Classes 9 - 12
Lesson 4: Gardening and Sustainable Living
Lesson 5:
Technology
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Tasks and Assignments for Waldorf Methods/Sciences 1.2.

Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.

1. Study the material provided and look up other resources as needed and appropriate.
2. Create examples of curriculum that addresses the learning method and content appropriate for the age group in question. Curriculum examples should include outlines and goals, activities, circle/games, stories, and illustrations/drawings:
Create 2 examples for this age group.
3. Additionally submit comments and questions, if any.

Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email.

Study Material for Waldorf Methods/Sciences Lesson 1.2.

Chemistry/Classes 9 - 12

Following a developmental theme, adolescents in  Class 9 are in a process in which the forces of their  childhood which leant on the adult world now  thrust them towards stark questions of identity.  The accompanying emotional upheavals are  sometimes cause, sometimes effect, but they are  the horse which the rider must learn to master and  take responsibility for. Through Class 10 the rider  gathers the thinking powers that make some sense  of the conflicts that are met inwardly and outwardly  until the qualities of the steed are more familiar and  the explorations have more self-discipline. In Class  11 skill in this regard reaches a high point, while in  Class 12 the individual begins to take stock of the  past and lay plans for the future.
The chemistry curriculum accompanies this  development. In Class 9, the substances formed in  the living plant and the substances created in its decay are followed up in technological processes  - for example, through the oil industry. For the  pupils in Class 10, the conceptual clarity required  to study and analyse mineral substances, meets  their new thinking ability, while in Class 11 they  are ready to compare contrasting models of how  matter is currently understood and to see how  the atomic model has arisen historically. In Class  12, the environmental and social issues that have  accompanied all these studies are examined in  their relationship to the human being and the  whole earth. At the same time unusual substances  and reactions highlight some of the lesser known  features of matter, in mineral substance and in the  living world.


Class 9

On the basis of the work done in Class 8, a more  comprehensive and detailed study of the plant  world brings Class 9 to focus on the principles  of plant chemistry and the manufacturing and  technical processes that have arisen from it.

Although much oftheworkwould conventionally  be called 'organic chemistry: the approach is to  follow the transformations of substance (e.g. sugar-  ethanol-ethanoic acid -ester) within the plant rather  than examine substance in isolation as would be  the case with a systematic study of an homologous  series. Likewise, the use of formulae and equations  is an unnecessary abstraction. Where pupils in a particular class show real interest, then it would be  much better to use structural formula.

Many of the technical processes may have been  examined in Class 8 (e.g. paper, ethanol), but these  should be extended to highlight the principles (e.g. cellophane, esters). There needs to be a focus on the oil refinery and its attendant processes as the basis for Western material progress (from fuels to medicines, plastics and pesticides).

The theme of plant decay and decomposition to  coal and oil, followed by analysis into individual  molecules, needs to continue down to elements  such as nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorine and  hydrogen, as well as sulphur and carbon with their  allotropic properties.

Class 9 needs to engage in individual practical  work to test themselves with the hazards of  apparatus and chemicals. Young people of this age  should be encouraged to explore, to trust their  senses and their thinking (though safety and health  considerations are, of course, vital). Although  they need to structure their observations, ideas  and records, following a rigid scientific procedure  with controlled experiments, testable hypotheses  and exact measurements should not be allowed to  dominate the mood of an investigation. The key  elements of the scientific process of investigation  can be distilled from the reflections that creative  and enthusiastic teaching can demand from them.  The more disciplined scientific training in method  and thinking needed for Classes 11 and 12 is built  up through Class 10.

* Photosynthesis and respiration as processes of  oxidation and reduction
* The chemistry of sugars, starch, cellulose,  alcohols, acids and esters both within the  plant and in technological applications (e.g.  cellulose, soap, artificial flavours. Explosives:  sugar, starch, guncotton)
* Enzymes. Fermentation. Aerobic and anaerobic respiration
* Alcohol abuse. Addiction  * Carbon and nitrogen cycles
* The chemistry of oxygen and carbon dioxide.  Air pollution. Ozone
* Destructive distillation of wood and coal
* Factional distillation of oil
* Exploration and drilling for oil, refining and  catalytic cracking, products of oil refining
* The chemistry of hydrocarbons and its everyday  application (e.g. plastics, refrigerants)
* The chemistry of hydrogen
* The ecological and environmental conse-  quences of the use of hydrocarbon derivatives  (e.g. carbon dioxide, pesticides)
* Our personal, local and global responsibility  for their use. Alternatives. Recycling
* The chemistry of non-metals (e.g. sulphur,  chlorine)
* Biographies (e.g. Alfred Nobel and those not  told in Class 8)


Class 10

Class 10 have gained sufficient control over their  thinking to grasp concepts and work with them  in following processes and in practical work to  follow procedures. They seek clarity and are ready  to take on the discipline of measurement through  precision instruments - weighing and volumetric  calculations. By way of contrast, projective  geometry brings another kind of precision and  quite a different perspective on crystalline form.

The mineral world provides rich opportunities  to focus Class 10 on these considerations. Acid-  base polarity in the forming of salts leads to  practical work whose principles can be followed in  living organisms as well as in the human being. The  reduction of ores and the chemistry of metals leads  to the Reactivity Series and the Periodic Table,  laying the basis for the atomic theory in Class 11. 

* Mineral forms
* Geology and geography
* Geometry and symmetry
 * The origin and history of common salt 
* Crystallising, dissolving and melting
* The biological significance of solutions (e.g.  osmosis, plasmolysis)
* The thermal decomposition of salts (e.g.  calcium carbonate)
* The formation of salts from acid and base (the  lime cycle, cement)
* Acid-base polarity in the living world (e.g.  breathing, the digestive system). Indicators  and titration. Insoluble salts
* Analytic chemistry: tests for acid radicals and  metal ions
* Electrolysis of a molten salt (e.g. lead bromide)  * Industrial applications (e.g. electroplating) and  historical discoveries (e.g. sodium, aluminium  etc.)
* Chemistry and technology of metals,  particularly those discovered by electrolysis
* The Reactivity Series


Class 11

At this age, the pupils' thinking ability can firmly  grasp the clarity of a model while holding a  perspective which can challenge it as well as  consider other possibilities.

Quantitative chemical laws should be introduced and the historical discoveries which led to  the Periodic Table. This should be presented as  only one way in which a coherent picture of the  chemical elements can be summarised.

This is the age at which the atomic theory can  be taught in detail. Although only a small number  of students are likely to be considering chemistry  as a science to specialise in, when the approach is  historical with attention to biographies and to the  moral, social and environmental implications of the use of nuclear fission, the whole class can be  engaged.

Contemporary research indicating the intimate  electromagnetic relationship between water and  chemicals could be included alongside some  discussion of the biography of Samuel Hahnemann  and homeopathy. The emphasis throughout,  however, should be on scientific methodology and  the nature of 'proof': formulating a question based  on observation; forming a rational conjecture  (hypothesis); making predictions based on this;  testing the predictions through experiment;  analysing results (deduction). This could be  contrasted with mathematical modelling, where  existing evidence is used to make predictions  on the balance of probability (also argument  from analogy). A contrast can be drawn between  complex living processes, which can permit  only limited observational intervention, and the  relative transparency of experiments in chemistry  (organism and test tube).

Such discussion would be harder in Class  10 and probably impossible without vehement  polarisation and adversarial argument in Class  9!

The mood should always be entirely positive  towards a science that is ready to develop new  ideas, remainmg open-minded towards all  phenomena and grounded in clear thinking and  exact observation. It is unfortunate that science is  usually presented as synonymous with technology  and that its current ideas, from 'big bang' to  Darwinian evolution, are to be believed as if they  are absolute truth. This is not a healthy point of  view for the future of science.

* Establishing the concepts of element,  compound, mixture and the basic laws of  chemical combinations
* An historical and practical approach to:
* Laws of conservation of mass, constant  and multiple proportions
*  Relative atomic mass, the use of formulae and equations 
* Gas laws
* Avogadro's number 
* The Periodic Table
* Radioactivity, the atomic theory and the  Manhattan Project (along with the Physics  main-lesson)
* The moral, social economic and  environmental effects of nuclear power
* Homeopathic and/or other models of the  interaction of matter and life
* Biographies (e.g. Dalton, Lavoisier,  Mendeleev, Curie, Bohr, Rutherford,  Oppenheimer)


Class 12

As in other areas, Class 12 needs the opportunity  to have an overview of the subject. Such an  approach would survey the origins and historical  development of contemporary atomic theory  already worked with in Class 1, look at the  global effect of chemical technology (economic,  social, environmental) and consider the effects  of a range of chemical substances on the human  organism.

The exploration of unusual chemical reactions  gives a practical side to studies at this level and  keeps alive the sense of the unknown in such  phenomena.

* From Greek ideas of the atom and the elements  and those represented by Dalton, Bohr and  modern Quantum physics
* The impact of petroleum products on twentieth  century, building on Class 9 and looking to the future of transport and renewable energy  sources
* Enzymes, hormones and other biosecretions  and their relationship to bodily processes
* Poisons - curare, mushrooms, cyanide
* Addictive substances and their relationship to  consciousness
* Impact of chemicals on the environment (e.g.  nitrates, hormones, pesticides)
* Carbon as the physical/chemical vehicle of life.  (Concepts such as allotropy, an homologous  series, polymerisation, the benzene ring)
* Unusual reactions, e.g.: Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction (spatial forms from a chemical reaction); Nitrogen iodide (unusual explosive); Phosgene (luminous spontaneous combustion);  Iodine 'clock' (time reaction); Sequence reactions (colour changes and  gaseous emissions)
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