well good afternoon everybody my name is
mr. Stevenson and I will be your science
teacher but you can call me Tim you know
science is a fascinating subject to
teach there’s so many interesting
concepts let me show you a couple of
them I have here a bowling ball and a
golf ball and I’ll say to my students
sometimes if I were to hold them up and
drop them at the same time from the same
height which one would hit the ground
first often times the answer comes back
well obviously the bowling ball it is
heavier therefore it will fall faster
won’t it well let’s just find out any
guesses well that’s interesting they
landed at the same time so what is it
about gravity that causes the Force to
draw on two different masses equally
here’s another one you look at the
International Space Station and the
astronauts appear to be weightless now
is that because in the blackness of
space there is no gravity and many times
the students will come back and say well
yes that’s exactly right in the
blackness of space there’s no gravity
and I’ll say well then why then is the
moon orbiting Earth or why is the earth
orbiting the Sun if there’s no gravity
in space that couldn’t happen which
continues to beg the question then why
do the astronauts appear to be
weightless the classroom is a fun place
to be the students asked lots of
questions I encourage that I want to
hear their questions in fact some of the
best lessons I’ve ever been involved
with are the ones where I have something
planned and I put it aside because as
the students file into the classroom
they start to ask things they’ll ask big
questions what’s a black hole what would
happen if the Sun were to explode right
now what would happen to life on Earth
funny questions and I’ll say well you
don’t wait a minute wait a minute
because if you’re going to ask you that
question they’re not easy questions they
don’t just have simple answers you know
you need to be patient to wait for me to
teach you a couple things and along the
way I may have to ask you more questions
that you’re not even really aware of
I like to remind my students that they
really haven’t come to the class to get
the answers they’ve really come to the
class to find out what the questions are
now I mentioned that I’m a science
teacher I’m not a scientist I teach
chemistry and astronomy you know really
see astronomy that has molded the way
I’ve been teaching for the last several
years so why this fascination with space
i think it was back in nineteen seventy
three I was a young eight-year-old boy
in the back seat of my family car we
were heading down to Florida for a
spring break vacation on the second day
we were traveling south of detroit on
the i-75 when we encountered a very
significant snowstorm my parents decided
you know we really need to pull over
this is getting to be too dangerous so
we did we we rolled into a small town
called wapakoneta ohio now what’s so
significant about wapakoneta well it
turned out this is the hometown of Neil
Armstrong we found this out when we
walked into the lobby and there was a
small exhibit of the Apollo 11 mission
that he had just been on some four years
earlier when we got down to Florida we
of course went to Disney World and we
took a swing though over to Cape
Canaveral and I saw that we had a tour
of the Kennedy Space Center I saw the
vehicle assembly building an interior
roof line of 500 feet remarkable the
vehicle that carried the rocket from the
Assembly Building out to the launch pad
these are massive structures as in as a
young boy I was fascinated by this I
really was hooked you know I’m really am
blown away by what we’ve learned about
space you know really from our lonely
place in the cosmos simply through the
power of thought we’ve been able to peer
deep into space and learn so much I say
to my students we don’t really need to
go to the Stars the stars come to us in
the form of their light we need only to
be smart enough to learn how to
interpret that light
and interpret we have I like the way
Carl Sagan said it we stand on the shore
of the cosmic ocean and recently we’ve
waited a little ways out and the water
seems inviting but the water is on earth
are changing I had an opportunity to
listen to a very good speaker one time
and many of them today and this one
fellow said to me in the whole audience
he said what is it that breaks your
heart and that really stuck with me I
would encourage all of us to consider
what is it that breaks your heart and
then sit away said about a way to fix it
for yourself or the people around you or
perhaps even the entire planet well you
know what breaks my heart rising oceans
break my heart dying coral reefs breaks
my heart melting glaciers rising
temperatures these things affect me but
this isn’t the first global crisis that
we encountered I think of Sputnik and
there’s a lesson to be learned from
Sputnik you know here was the first
object to orbit earth in space launched
by the Russians during the Cold War a
time when there were no guns being fired
there were no bombs being dropped there
was no frontline war effort but there
also were no deniers nobody was denying
that there was a global threat to
security and what happened was we turned
to the schools because we knew that
somewhere in the classrooms there there
would emerge the scientists and the
engineers who would help us regain
technological superiority I was teaching
this very lesson to my class one time
and in walked Ken Taylor Ken’s a long
time teacher and he said no I was a
small boy I was young boy but I
remember what it was like we came back
to school after Sputnik and everything
was different new math and science
curriculum new textbooks teachers were
much more invigorated to teach this
subject there was a concerted effort in
the schools because there was a race to
be won and we were being motivated by a
great orator and here he is in 1962 john
f kennedy at rice university in texas
saying we choose to go to the moon we
choose to go to the moon not because
it’s easy but because it’s hard and he
went on to say other things such as this
is a challenge we’re willing to accept
this is a challenge we won’t postpone
this is a challenge that we are going to
win and when we did because they’re in
1969 july we heard those famous words
tranquility base here the eagle has
landed and neil armstrong opened the
door to that lunar landing module and he
clamored down that ladder and he said
that was one small step for a man but
that was one giant leap for mankind and
the people on earth cheered and the
average age of the scientists and the
engineers who put Neil and Buzz Aldrin
on the moon was 28 12 years earlier they
were the high school students who are
being encouraged to learn your science
learn your math because we got a job to
do and they did it you know these days
we see politicians and I worry sometimes
about the way we look at them we say
things like we don’t like this or that
in our society what are you going to do
about it mr. politician I think that’s
wrong I think we need to continue to
look to the schools you know these guys
came out of the climate conference in
Paris
last year and they said yes we agree the
earth needs to be carbon neutral by the
end of the century they said 2100 is
when we will accomplish this goal that
to me is not a bold move not like John F
Kennedy he said by the end of the decade
I like the way former astronaut might
call and set it where moon when end of
decade very simple these guys end of the
century you know we still drive into
parking lots and we see an electric car
charger and we say oh isn’t that neat
what a novelty or perhaps someone put a
solar panel up on their host oh isn’t
that neat he must be very progressive we
live at a time when it’s just not the
norm I believe these should be normal
things and we should be seeing much more
of them what about moving ourselves
around the streets what about electric
cars I know what the skeptics say they
say the range is no good they’re too
expensive I know because I drive one my
wife and I decided we’re going to move
forward into this new way of operating
and so we bought an electric car and
here it is being charged at various
places around the community I also know
what the skeptics will say about the car
they’ll say sure your car doesn’t need
MIT any fumes but all you’ve really done
is transfer the problem from your car to
the electric generating station and if
it’s a coal-fired generating station
you’re right i like to think in british
columbia where we have ninety two
percent of our power coming from
hydroelectricity that perhaps there’s no
greenhouse gases being emitted I feel
better about that but the mega dams are
not innocent themselves the mega dams
flood river valleys that were once
agricultural that were habitat for
animals that have been occupied by First
Nations for thousands of years the dams
are not innocent so I’m conflicted as
well but I feel I’m taking a step and
I’m living by example
of a new way of doing things I think
today’s moon race is climate change and
sure you’re going to say it’s just me
it’s just one car I had to get to work
what else am I going to do and I get all
of that and sure might be my car emits a
poisonous gas but it’s just one car
isn’t it I think we need to turn back to
the schools and really get to some of
these difficult answers I’m going to
show you something that’s going to scare
you on the next slide sure you’re
thinking melting glacier or perhaps a
drowning polar bear no a grade 11
chemistry problem what I have here is
average molecular formula of gasoline
average molecular mass a combustion
reaction something we like to call
stoichiometry where we can calculate the
mass of e of a product based on a mass
or volume of a particular reactant and
if I work the numbers I’ll teach my
students this they need to have pencil
to paper to figure out the hard problems
it shows that one tank of gas is going
to produce on average 97 kilograms of
carbon dioxide well it’s a maybe a lot
maybe it’s not depends on how you
interpret that that’s just one car what
if there’s 22 million cars each of them
traveling 24 thousand kilometers per
year it turns out to be one hundred
thousand million grams of carbon dioxide
that can’t be good maybe you say it’s
not bad but it can’t be good and that’s
just one country and that does not
include air planes buses factories that
doesn’t include recreational vehicles or
farm equipment that’s a lot of carbon
dioxide but if all we were to do was to
talk about problems in math you know we
probably get very depressed I’d like to
say to my students I’m not interested in
your problems I want to get to this
Lucian’s kids this is a great time to be
alive because there are some very
wealthy people saying the government’s
are laying down some goals we can do
better when very wealthy people say
we’re going to give away our money
they’re not in the business of giving
away money they’re they’re not dumb
people so when they pledge large dollars
and say we’re going to we’re going to
accelerate the green technology in the
revolution then this is a wave we need
to encourage our students to get ahold
of I’m also trying to help not only do I
have an electric car but my classroom I
got my hands on this solar panel because
I I was buying a coach off of craigslist
i went to the fellows house i went in
and i noticed he had to electric cars in
his driveway he said we haven’t been to
a gas station in three years by the way
my wife drives our electric are more
than I do she has not been to a gas
station in almost a year you ask her
later if she misses going to gas
stations well this fella said I have
solar panels I would be willing to
donate to you to your school well of
course I’m going to accept the offer and
so I brought this solar panel back to my
classroom and now what do I do with it
well what i did was i mounted it on us
an old TV cart i connected it to a
battery pack that i was able to purchase
with money I got from BC Hydro I would
roll this thing out into the courtyard I
would charge that battery I would roll
it back into my classroom and this was
an interesting teaching tool to
demonstrate to students that there is an
alternate way to power our lives you’ve
heard of solar but of course the common
expression is well what about nighttime
what about when it rains well what
they’re forgetting of course is
batteries jump on the battery wave of
the 21st century you know lithium will
be the next gasoline we’re all sitting
right now on some lithium every one of
us is using it and battery storage is
the way we’re going to bridge that gap
between the intermittency of sunlight
and wind and the daily and demand
demands we have for electricity but this
was a neat idea but it wasn’t exactly
what I wanted but I work in a very
progressive School District Langley and
the leadership said we can do a bit
better and so what they’ve gone done now
is they’ve mounted that panel on the
roof of my school and my classroom is
solar-powered now I’ve got mm-hmm so now
my students study to the light of 15 LED
lights that is running off of
electricity generated by the Sun and
they no longer have to wonder how does
solar power really work because they see
it and they study under it on a daily
basis you know there’s nothing that
would warm my heart more than to go into
a cafe perhaps and see some of my
students gathered around a table and
engage in some deep conversation perhaps
even an argument over energy over the
ways we move our selves around our
communities over climate and the change
that we’re seeing and co2 emissions but
I don’t want them to argue out of a
point of emotion I don’t want them to I
don’t want to hear them say Oh curses
that generation before us they burned
everything and left us with the ashes
old that’s an argument out of emotion I
want them to argue their point from a
point of understanding and education I
want them to say yes LNG perhaps a
better fuel than cold but is it just the
lesser of two evils pipeline sherb may
be safer to transport oil by pipeline
but it is still moving a product that is
bringing about climate change is there
another way that we could power our
lives and what about the half-life of
the radioactive isotopes that are coming
from nuclear energy these are some big
questions and there are not easy answers
we have economies to think about and we
have nation’s wealth that we’re standing
on top of an oil and coal we can’t
ignore that but is there a way to burn
it carbon free is there some sort of way
to capture
dad let’s think of those things you know
back in the days of Pythagoras his
students were worried about is the Sun
the center of the universe or is the
earth the center of the universe today
our students are considered considering
more deep questions but you know they’re
referred to as the Millennials aren’t
they the Millennials have all kinds of
negative connotations associated with
them well I believe that they are going
to be quite frankly and more than likely
the most important generation this planet has ever seen thank