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Natural Science - Year II

Fall Semester Review Unit

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History Weblecture for Review I

This Unit's Homework Page History Lecture Science Lecture Lab Parents' Notes

History Lecture for Fall Semester Review:
People and Concepts to Know

For Class
Outline/Summary

Biographical information

Be sure that you can identify the following major contributors with their scientific theories, and explain the importance of certain non-scientific texts and artifacts to the history of science. For each person on this list, you should know roughly when they lived (which century), their nationality, their contribution to science, and their relationship to others on the list. For example, Aristotle was a pupil of Plato, and the teacher and partner of Theophrastus; he also drew on the discoveries of the Milesian materialists like Thales and the theories of Eudoxus and Empedocles in forming his world view.

Now is the time to review the introductory unit discussion of study methods, and practice them diligently as you review the materials in units 34-49.

Study suggestion for people: make a timeline table! Organize the entries in first-to-last order by dates. This will help you identify early philosophers whose ideas might influence those who came later.

Person or workPeriodLocationContribution and Importance of ContributionInfluence or other Notes
John Daltonfluent 1800-1820EnglandChemist who reintroduced atomic theory, formulated laws of conservation of matterEstablished laws of multiple combinations, whole-number ratios used to balance chemical reactions
Charles Darwinfluent 1850-1870EnglandWrote Origins of Species outlining theory of evolution and natural selectionInfluenced modern evolutionists; but did NOT influence Gregor Mendel!

Other ways to study this information: make flash cards, have your parents or siblings drill you. Write a biography entry on the Natural Science Glossary (extra credit) with the information you can find on the individuals below.

  1. Paracelsus
  2. van Helmont
  3. Franciscus Sylvius
  4. Robert Boyle
  5. Georg Stahl
  6. Joseph Priestley
  7. Joseph Black
  8. Henry Cavendish
  9. Antoine Lavoisier
  10. John Dalton
  11. Amadeus Avogadro
  12. Joseph Guy-Lussac
  13. Dmitri Mendeleev
  14. William Ramsay
  15. Nicolas Steno
  16. Georges Buffon
  17. Abraham Werner
  18. James Hutton
  19. William Smith
  20. Charles Lyell
  21. Louis Agassiz
  22. Alfred Wegener
  23. Jean Baptist Lamarck
  24. Jean Baptiste Robinet
  25. Charles Bonnet
  26. Georges Cuvier
  27. Charles Darwin
  28. Richard Owen
  29. J. H. Gladstone
  30. Samuel Wilberforce
  31. St. George Mivart
  32. Gregor Mendel
  33. James Watt
  34. Sadi Carnot
  35. James Joule
  36. Rudolf Clausius
  37. Herman von Helmholtz
  38. William Thomson
  39. Ludwig Boltzmann
  40. Thomas Young
  41. Augustin Fresnel
  42. William Herschel
  43. Robert Bunsen
  44. Gustav Kirchhoff
  45. Wilhelm Röntgen
  46. Arthur Compton

Essay Topics

The second part of the exam will ask you to put information together to draw conclusions about what happened, or why something that should logically have followed, didn't apparently happen.

The following are sample essay questions on historical topics we have covered, with some suggestions on how to tackle the topic. These are suggestions only; you might come up with something equally good. Just be sure to ground your claims in concrete examples drawn from the material we covered.

At least one question on the exam will be drawn from this list. Remember that an "essay" answer has several well-organized paragraphs that introduce your main point, describe two or more actual examples to support your point, and draw a good conclusion. One sentence does not (in this case) an essay answer make!

  1. Chose one of the following scientists and explain why his ideas first met with opposition when proposed: Antoine Lavoisier, Charles Darwin, Alfred Wegner. What happened to make the theory proposed more acceptable to society?
  2. How does the concept of matter change between the end of the Middle Ages and the mid-19th century? What "advances" in scientific methods make the reassessment of matter possible?
  3. How did studies of heat flow lead to changes in the concepts and use of energy and power and ultimately result in the laws of thermodynamics?
  4. The fossil record shows the abrupt end of several types of animals: they simply don't show up in later geological formations. Select two different geologist/biologists and describe how they explained the disappearance of species.
  5. Describe two ways scientists tried to explain the phenomena of light before 1850. What were the shortcomings and strengths of each theory?

Study/Discussion Questions:

Further Study/On Your Own

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