From: Jack West (jackwest1972@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Apr 19 2002 - 17:17:44 PDT
Message-ID: <20020420001744.69306.qmail@web11805.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 17:17:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Jack West <jackwest1972@yahoo.com> Subject: re:pinhole nonWestern countries contributions to science
Raleigh,
This was incredibly informative and will make it into
my classroom. Thank you very much.
Jack
--- Raleigh McLemore <raleighmclemore@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> There are a many works that describe
> African-American
> inventors and scientists. Ivan van Sertima's book
> "Black Scientists and Inventors" is a good overview
> but deserves a skeptical eye as some of his claims
> (and his researchers, such as Hunter Adams) are not
> well supported. It remains an interesting work and
> is
> worth reading though and is very thought provoking.
>
> "The Real McCoy" is a book with some of the
> historical
> background of the kind of knowledge that slaves
> brought with them to the US and is well supported
> and
> fascinating. It includes a short section of the kind
> of knowledge that the Africans brought from what
> westerners called the "windward" or "rice" coast of
> Africa. The knowledge that the African slaves had
> was
> critical in establishing a rice crop in the
> Carolinas,
> where europeans had failed to produce a decent crop.
> "The Real McCoy" is published by the Portia Museum,
> a
> part of the Smithsonian. There are other books that
> are a "Who's Who" of Black Scientists. The
> Exploratoruim has (had?) two excellent small teacher
> guides one on multicultural science and the other on
> mathematics. The experiments were excellent and
> using
> these experiments is often an eye opener for
> students
> who haven't been initiated to the idea that there
> are
> other people on this planet and they learn and
> survive
> quite well, thank you, in their own way.
>
> The Explortorium book on navigation had some good
> stuff on Polynesian navigation, and there are
> (were?)other sources at the Lawrence Hall of
> Science,
> and there are some excellent videos about it.
>
> I haven't spent much time on Asian cultural
> contributions to science, but I'm sure it is well
> documented. I have a few things on the development
> of
> gunpowder and rockets. When I was in high school I
> wrote an essay about how the first documented
> attempt
> to reach the heavens appeared to have been a wealthy
> Chinese landlord who did not survive the experience
> of
> lashing (hundreds?) of rockets to his sedan chair.
> He
> apparently succeeded in reaching heaven in one
> attempt.
>
> There used to be a "Black Pathways" at the
> Exploratorium, and Eric is working on the idea
> again.
> I worked with many others on the first and while
> setting up the displays ran into some Native
> Americans
> at the museum and we had a great talk. I remember
> asking them how their knowledge of science and the
> environment would fit into a place like the
> Exploratorium and they laughed..."Our science
> wouldn't
> match up because there are a lot of "tools" and
> mechanical things. This wasn't where our science
> knowledge expressed itself. Maybe we did a good job
> understanding relationships in nature, but don't see
> where that fits in at this museum." I guess I add
> this
> as a warning that as a western science person I tend
> to equate fancy tools with fancy knowledge. If you
> live in the middle of the dessert and you know how
> to
> make a solar still from available materials you
> express an incredible understanding of the nature
> around you, even if you haven't made a super
> gizmotic
> atomic distillery to do the same job.
>
> Sorry about going on so long. If you would like I
> can
> send you a bibliography of books and literature that
> I
> have made, and is in no way complete.
>
> With firm handshake,
> Raleigh
>
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