Waldorf Methods/Sciences 2
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 2.4.
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.
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 2.4.
Introduction/Upper School/High School/Life Sciences
The essential question in Upper School teaching is not how to spread the enormous range of content in the life sciences over the timetable, but rather: what best serves the developmental process of adolescence? What role can the life sciences play in helping the young person in their discovery of themselves and their understanding of the world? The pupils are not there for the subject, rather the subject is there for the pupils. Adolescence engages a deep range of hidden questions that young people become aware of and opportunities are needed throughout the curriculum for them to be articulated.
One area of immediate interest to the adolescent and one that holds the potential to address fundamental questions about life, death and the human condition is the study of what is conventionally known as human biology. However, biology implies the study of organisms, so this sets up an expectation that real knowledge about the human being comes through a study of the human physical body and its constituent parts and processes, cells and genes, all of which add up to make a person. Biology implies animals and plants, human biology being the particular study of a particular organism, a species of mammal whose nature can be explained as any animal can be - reproduction, survival etc. A higher animal, but animal nevertheless.
Classes 9 and 10
The title 'human science' already allows the possibility that such a study can include all human experience from self-awareness, creative genius and inner feelings, to bruises, sweating and digestion. This approach can engage Classes 9 and 10, and the question of whether humans evolved from animals can be left open for study in Classes 11 and 12.
Alongside the Classes 9 and 10 human science main -lessons (ten to twelve weeks over the two years in blocks of three or four weeks), other life science studies are taught.
Class 9 need to engage in practical fieldwork with observations and projects which have an emphasis on the care and renewal of the land - compo sting, planting trees, tending ponds and hedgerows, for example. These would then become the basis for classroom studies, which could retain their link to the whole context of the environment from which they arose.
In Class 10, the increased powers of thinking are well met through laboratory-based studies of a more conventional kind, where the control of different variables in the growth of plants or the relationship of water to soil, brings the forming of an hypothesis and the concept of experimental proof into focus. By postponing the usual early emphasis on hypothesis, measurement and proof until Class 10, intellectual clarity can be developed at the same time with losing a wide perspective on the living world.
Another feature of life science study in Classes 9 and 10 is the introduction of biographies through which scientists can appear as real human beings with whom young people can identify. The qualities that are needed in real scientific investigation, rather than cardboard textbook cameos, come to life: single-minded dedication, passion, meticulous observation, inspiration, creative and lateral thinking, co-operation with others, fortuitous meetings and conversations, as well as practical ability and clear thinking.
Class 11
In Class 11, young people's thinking powers have matured to form the basis for a power of judgement, which had been all too easily clouded by the passions and extremes of adolescence or swayed by peer group pressure.
With their thinking more in hand, they are ready for a focus on the ideas and ideals in contemporary science, such as cell theory and genetics (parallelled by the atomic theory in the earth science curriculum). By taking an historical approach, there is a context for the theories showing how they arose out of the previous ideas through particular personalities and key experiments.
The study of botany provides a good basis for this, with practical work on plant cells and use of the microscope and with practical genetics through the germination of seeds. Narrowing the view oflife through the microscope needs to be balanced by a macroscopic perspective. The study of landscape and of the major vegetation zones of the earth can provide this, and help in translating from one realm to the other can be given by projective geometry. The history of science provides a context, too, in which analytical and classificatory thinking (e.g. Linnaeus) rose to prominence, spawning a growth in knowledge about plants and a technology that advanced from fertilisers to genetic engineering. At the same time it reduced our relationship with the biosphere to a mosaic of factors, but no real wholeness.
The problems of the environment are the direct result of a certain way of thinking about the living world, which can be contrasted with Goethe's in a study of his method and approach to plants which emphasises exact observation, while retaining the context of the plant in its environment and its relationship to the whole.
The study of botany also provides the basis for consideration of the theory of evolution in general and Darwin's in particular, a theme to be taken up more strongly in Class 12.
Class 12
A holistic life science curriculum needs to make the human being central to enquiry into the nature of life. This has been an implicit theme throughout the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum from the kindergarten, articulated in ways appropriate to the age of the children.
Now, in Class 12, the issue needs to be raised in the fullest possible way so that environmental and ecological aspects can find their context within fundamental questions about the nature of the human being and the evolution of the earth. Social, political, spiritual and moral questions lie at the heart of an environmental education and all the Class 12 curriculum themes are relevant.
The focus in life science for Class 12 is zoology. The immense range of animal life is examined through considering the architecture of the main phyla. Each phyla establishes a new aspect ofindependence (e.g. from the water in reptiles, from the temperature in mammals) and consciousness (e.g. amoeba, insect colonies, dolphins). The question of evolution and a detailed study of Darwinism lead inevitably to the issue of the responsibility of the human beings for the earth and for all life, now that they possess the commercial power to exploit it to extinction and the technological power to manipulate it at the genetic level.
One area of immediate interest to the adolescent and one that holds the potential to address fundamental questions about life, death and the human condition is the study of what is conventionally known as human biology. However, biology implies the study of organisms, so this sets up an expectation that real knowledge about the human being comes through a study of the human physical body and its constituent parts and processes, cells and genes, all of which add up to make a person. Biology implies animals and plants, human biology being the particular study of a particular organism, a species of mammal whose nature can be explained as any animal can be - reproduction, survival etc. A higher animal, but animal nevertheless.
Classes 9 and 10
The title 'human science' already allows the possibility that such a study can include all human experience from self-awareness, creative genius and inner feelings, to bruises, sweating and digestion. This approach can engage Classes 9 and 10, and the question of whether humans evolved from animals can be left open for study in Classes 11 and 12.
Alongside the Classes 9 and 10 human science main -lessons (ten to twelve weeks over the two years in blocks of three or four weeks), other life science studies are taught.
Class 9 need to engage in practical fieldwork with observations and projects which have an emphasis on the care and renewal of the land - compo sting, planting trees, tending ponds and hedgerows, for example. These would then become the basis for classroom studies, which could retain their link to the whole context of the environment from which they arose.
In Class 10, the increased powers of thinking are well met through laboratory-based studies of a more conventional kind, where the control of different variables in the growth of plants or the relationship of water to soil, brings the forming of an hypothesis and the concept of experimental proof into focus. By postponing the usual early emphasis on hypothesis, measurement and proof until Class 10, intellectual clarity can be developed at the same time with losing a wide perspective on the living world.
Another feature of life science study in Classes 9 and 10 is the introduction of biographies through which scientists can appear as real human beings with whom young people can identify. The qualities that are needed in real scientific investigation, rather than cardboard textbook cameos, come to life: single-minded dedication, passion, meticulous observation, inspiration, creative and lateral thinking, co-operation with others, fortuitous meetings and conversations, as well as practical ability and clear thinking.
Class 11
In Class 11, young people's thinking powers have matured to form the basis for a power of judgement, which had been all too easily clouded by the passions and extremes of adolescence or swayed by peer group pressure.
With their thinking more in hand, they are ready for a focus on the ideas and ideals in contemporary science, such as cell theory and genetics (parallelled by the atomic theory in the earth science curriculum). By taking an historical approach, there is a context for the theories showing how they arose out of the previous ideas through particular personalities and key experiments.
The study of botany provides a good basis for this, with practical work on plant cells and use of the microscope and with practical genetics through the germination of seeds. Narrowing the view oflife through the microscope needs to be balanced by a macroscopic perspective. The study of landscape and of the major vegetation zones of the earth can provide this, and help in translating from one realm to the other can be given by projective geometry. The history of science provides a context, too, in which analytical and classificatory thinking (e.g. Linnaeus) rose to prominence, spawning a growth in knowledge about plants and a technology that advanced from fertilisers to genetic engineering. At the same time it reduced our relationship with the biosphere to a mosaic of factors, but no real wholeness.
The problems of the environment are the direct result of a certain way of thinking about the living world, which can be contrasted with Goethe's in a study of his method and approach to plants which emphasises exact observation, while retaining the context of the plant in its environment and its relationship to the whole.
The study of botany also provides the basis for consideration of the theory of evolution in general and Darwin's in particular, a theme to be taken up more strongly in Class 12.
Class 12
A holistic life science curriculum needs to make the human being central to enquiry into the nature of life. This has been an implicit theme throughout the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum from the kindergarten, articulated in ways appropriate to the age of the children.
Now, in Class 12, the issue needs to be raised in the fullest possible way so that environmental and ecological aspects can find their context within fundamental questions about the nature of the human being and the evolution of the earth. Social, political, spiritual and moral questions lie at the heart of an environmental education and all the Class 12 curriculum themes are relevant.
The focus in life science for Class 12 is zoology. The immense range of animal life is examined through considering the architecture of the main phyla. Each phyla establishes a new aspect ofindependence (e.g. from the water in reptiles, from the temperature in mammals) and consciousness (e.g. amoeba, insect colonies, dolphins). The question of evolution and a detailed study of Darwinism lead inevitably to the issue of the responsibility of the human beings for the earth and for all life, now that they possess the commercial power to exploit it to extinction and the technological power to manipulate it at the genetic level.
Life Sciences/Classes 9 - 10
The rationale is elaborated with some examples out of the wide range of topics that could be chosen for a particular class.
Skin and sense organs
Adolescents are exploring inner and outer boundaries. They are also intensely occupied with their surface appearances and their senses. The skin and the sense organs have a natural interest for them.
* Structure of skin, eye, ear, organs of smell, taste, movement and balance: adolescents are exploring inner and outer boundaries. They are also intensely occupied with their surface appearances and their senses. The skin and the sense organs have a natural interest for them.
* Health and social issues: sweat, spots, cuts, bruises, fingerprints, skin colour (and racism), eye care, glasses, blindness, deafness (how do we relate to those we meet who are deaf and blind? How does society treat them?)
Rhythmic system - heart and lungs
Heart beat and breathing are very direct bodily experiences and carry health issues which are relevant to an adolescent (e.g. smoking, fitness).
The central heart and the peripheral circulation need equal emphasis, demonstrating the heart and capillaries as polarities. The circulation of blood can be contrasted with the lymphatic system. The heart as pump model suggests a mechanistic relationship that does not match what is now understood from cardiac psychology and systems medicine generally. There is a complex interplay between circulation of the blood, emotions, circadian rhythms and the hormonal and nervous systems, a characterisation of which can be given.
* Structure and function of the heart, veins, arteries and capillaries
* The embryology of the heart and circulation
* Structure and function of the pulmonary and systemic circulation
* Composition and function of blood
* Structure and function of respiratory organs
* Lung disease - smoking and industrial disease, air pollution
This could lead on to consider many ethical! rights issues such as:
* The change of attitudes to the protection of workers over the last century
* Our personal involvement in buying products from other countries where safety and health standards are well below what we now expect
* Present laws about the age at which people can buy cigarettes
* 'Passive' smoking
* The predicament of young children whose parents smoke
* The rights of non-smokers in any house community
* Air pollution and the fact that air recognises no national boundaries.
* Blood transfusions, heart, lung and other transplants: the reality that foreign proteins are rejected by the immune system leads to the topic of blood groups, 'rhesus' babies, vaccination, AIDS and the whole nature of disease
* Illness and health: the limitations of the 'germ' theory, which omits the part played by the immune system and the degree to which this is strengthened by exposure to illness. Can some illnesses (e.g. childhood illnesses, common colds) actually be necessary? What should the role of medicine be - to 'knock out the invader' or to strengthen the immune system? Is health the same as the absence of illness?
Class 10
The rationale is elaborated with some examples out of the wide range of topics that could be chosen for a particular class.
The increased maturity of Class 10 goes hand - in- hand with a new stability in their thinking. They can follow more complex and abstract processes such as those in the digestive tract, where different food substances are subject to a sequence of breakdowns through the action of different enzymes. A study of the metabolic system is an appropriate challenge for them.
The anatomy and physiology of the skeletal and muscle systems have received some attention in Class 8 and it may be better to leave this topic to Class 10. Although the teaching approach is different, a Class 9 that has just entered the Upper School may not be keen on material that seems to take them back to their previous year's work. This is not necessarily so, but leaving the skeleton until Class 10 also allows comparative studies with animals, which raise evolutionary considerations which can be handled in more depth at that age.
Metabolic system
* Food and nutrition - including cultural and philosophical values (e.g. macrobiotic/vegan)
* Organs and biochemistry of digestion - nourishment as an active process, not a passive filtering of lists of chemicals
* Liver, gall bladder, pancreas, spleen: diabetes, medically and socially
* Kidneys - no passive filtering but active, selective re-absorption
Skeletal system
* Anatomy and physiology of the skeleton and muscles - polarities of form and function; those features that allow uprightness and freedom of the arms
* Comparative study of human and mammal skulls
* Joints and levers
* Bone formation and growth - ageing and bone disease
* Personal health in posture (e.g. sitting and lifting)
Nervous and hormonal systems
This is another topic where it is hard for most adolescents to grasp more than a crude 'electric cable/computer' model until Class 10. Similarly, the endocrine system, where crude 'chemical switch' models can prevent any real appreciation of the subtle and powerful interactions of glands and organs.
* Structure of brain/central nervous system; cerebro-spinal fluid
* Nerve function - inadequacy of telephone/ electric cable model; limitation of the motor/ sensory model
* Latest research on brain function - inadequacy of the 'mapping' approach and the computer analogy
* The open questions: memory, thinking and consciousness
* The endocrine glands - sensitivity of the body to hormones; (e.g. growth, excretion); special influence of the pituitary; ovulation and menstruation
Embryology
Hormone influence leads naturally into a study of human embryology, a rich area for Class 10, and again one which demands the emotional and intel- lectual maturity that has been achieved by most pupils by the end of Class 10. The ability to follow the development of several features at the same time, to appreciate the transformations of shape and size, to relate to the responsibilities and the issues involved in sexual relationships and parenthood, demands that the young people have emerged from a general phase of sexual knowledge and interest. A number of young people in Class 10 will have entered a serious relationship and for those who have not, the prevailing mood of a Class 10 is usually one in which both sexes can feel comfortable in asking questions and stating their opinions, without fear of the crudities that are more prevalent in Class 9. While it is assumed that all young people of this age are fully conversant with 'the facts' it can also be surprising to find there are confusions and misunderstandings, too. If the mood of the main-lesson is one of genuine respect for the developing body of a unique individuality, deep questions can stir in the young person, along with the sense of won- der for the way in which conception, gestation and birth take place so smoothly.
Child development and the idea that we continue to grow inwardly our whole lives, with new crises and new opportunities, can help to balance the picture young people can have that 'growing up' is all about getting to be 18 or 21. The knowledge that their mother and father may be going through the physical and psychological passage of menopause and mid-life, could contribute to their finding a new relationship with their parents. It would also help to change their perception of old people, whose inner needs are not so easily perceived as their more obvious outer ones.
* Pregnancy and birth - physical and emotional changes for mother and father.
* Implantation and the development of the embryo from conception to term along with the surrounding membranes.
* Conception, abortion, embryo research, surrogacy and similar topics
* First three years of physical and emotional development; standing, speaking, memory
* Child development, personality, temperaments
* Adulthood - what is it?
* Old age
Skin and sense organs
Adolescents are exploring inner and outer boundaries. They are also intensely occupied with their surface appearances and their senses. The skin and the sense organs have a natural interest for them.
* Structure of skin, eye, ear, organs of smell, taste, movement and balance: adolescents are exploring inner and outer boundaries. They are also intensely occupied with their surface appearances and their senses. The skin and the sense organs have a natural interest for them.
* Health and social issues: sweat, spots, cuts, bruises, fingerprints, skin colour (and racism), eye care, glasses, blindness, deafness (how do we relate to those we meet who are deaf and blind? How does society treat them?)
Rhythmic system - heart and lungs
Heart beat and breathing are very direct bodily experiences and carry health issues which are relevant to an adolescent (e.g. smoking, fitness).
The central heart and the peripheral circulation need equal emphasis, demonstrating the heart and capillaries as polarities. The circulation of blood can be contrasted with the lymphatic system. The heart as pump model suggests a mechanistic relationship that does not match what is now understood from cardiac psychology and systems medicine generally. There is a complex interplay between circulation of the blood, emotions, circadian rhythms and the hormonal and nervous systems, a characterisation of which can be given.
* Structure and function of the heart, veins, arteries and capillaries
* The embryology of the heart and circulation
* Structure and function of the pulmonary and systemic circulation
* Composition and function of blood
* Structure and function of respiratory organs
* Lung disease - smoking and industrial disease, air pollution
This could lead on to consider many ethical! rights issues such as:
* The change of attitudes to the protection of workers over the last century
* Our personal involvement in buying products from other countries where safety and health standards are well below what we now expect
* Present laws about the age at which people can buy cigarettes
* 'Passive' smoking
* The predicament of young children whose parents smoke
* The rights of non-smokers in any house community
* Air pollution and the fact that air recognises no national boundaries.
* Blood transfusions, heart, lung and other transplants: the reality that foreign proteins are rejected by the immune system leads to the topic of blood groups, 'rhesus' babies, vaccination, AIDS and the whole nature of disease
* Illness and health: the limitations of the 'germ' theory, which omits the part played by the immune system and the degree to which this is strengthened by exposure to illness. Can some illnesses (e.g. childhood illnesses, common colds) actually be necessary? What should the role of medicine be - to 'knock out the invader' or to strengthen the immune system? Is health the same as the absence of illness?
Class 10
The rationale is elaborated with some examples out of the wide range of topics that could be chosen for a particular class.
The increased maturity of Class 10 goes hand - in- hand with a new stability in their thinking. They can follow more complex and abstract processes such as those in the digestive tract, where different food substances are subject to a sequence of breakdowns through the action of different enzymes. A study of the metabolic system is an appropriate challenge for them.
The anatomy and physiology of the skeletal and muscle systems have received some attention in Class 8 and it may be better to leave this topic to Class 10. Although the teaching approach is different, a Class 9 that has just entered the Upper School may not be keen on material that seems to take them back to their previous year's work. This is not necessarily so, but leaving the skeleton until Class 10 also allows comparative studies with animals, which raise evolutionary considerations which can be handled in more depth at that age.
Metabolic system
* Food and nutrition - including cultural and philosophical values (e.g. macrobiotic/vegan)
* Organs and biochemistry of digestion - nourishment as an active process, not a passive filtering of lists of chemicals
* Liver, gall bladder, pancreas, spleen: diabetes, medically and socially
* Kidneys - no passive filtering but active, selective re-absorption
Skeletal system
* Anatomy and physiology of the skeleton and muscles - polarities of form and function; those features that allow uprightness and freedom of the arms
* Comparative study of human and mammal skulls
* Joints and levers
* Bone formation and growth - ageing and bone disease
* Personal health in posture (e.g. sitting and lifting)
Nervous and hormonal systems
This is another topic where it is hard for most adolescents to grasp more than a crude 'electric cable/computer' model until Class 10. Similarly, the endocrine system, where crude 'chemical switch' models can prevent any real appreciation of the subtle and powerful interactions of glands and organs.
* Structure of brain/central nervous system; cerebro-spinal fluid
* Nerve function - inadequacy of telephone/ electric cable model; limitation of the motor/ sensory model
* Latest research on brain function - inadequacy of the 'mapping' approach and the computer analogy
* The open questions: memory, thinking and consciousness
* The endocrine glands - sensitivity of the body to hormones; (e.g. growth, excretion); special influence of the pituitary; ovulation and menstruation
Embryology
Hormone influence leads naturally into a study of human embryology, a rich area for Class 10, and again one which demands the emotional and intel- lectual maturity that has been achieved by most pupils by the end of Class 10. The ability to follow the development of several features at the same time, to appreciate the transformations of shape and size, to relate to the responsibilities and the issues involved in sexual relationships and parenthood, demands that the young people have emerged from a general phase of sexual knowledge and interest. A number of young people in Class 10 will have entered a serious relationship and for those who have not, the prevailing mood of a Class 10 is usually one in which both sexes can feel comfortable in asking questions and stating their opinions, without fear of the crudities that are more prevalent in Class 9. While it is assumed that all young people of this age are fully conversant with 'the facts' it can also be surprising to find there are confusions and misunderstandings, too. If the mood of the main-lesson is one of genuine respect for the developing body of a unique individuality, deep questions can stir in the young person, along with the sense of won- der for the way in which conception, gestation and birth take place so smoothly.
Child development and the idea that we continue to grow inwardly our whole lives, with new crises and new opportunities, can help to balance the picture young people can have that 'growing up' is all about getting to be 18 or 21. The knowledge that their mother and father may be going through the physical and psychological passage of menopause and mid-life, could contribute to their finding a new relationship with their parents. It would also help to change their perception of old people, whose inner needs are not so easily perceived as their more obvious outer ones.
* Pregnancy and birth - physical and emotional changes for mother and father.
* Implantation and the development of the embryo from conception to term along with the surrounding membranes.
* Conception, abortion, embryo research, surrogacy and similar topics
* First three years of physical and emotional development; standing, speaking, memory
* Child development, personality, temperaments
* Adulthood - what is it?
* Old age