Infusion Tips
The late Dick Brinckerhoff suggested the following criteria for ways to infuse societal topics into dour science courses: items should be a) challenging, b) relevant, c) brief, and d) require a value "judgment.
Consider the following:
1. National Public Radio reported on the "Morning Edition" for 30 May 1996 that France is being invaded not only by American culture but also by American turtles. Because French turtles are "protected," only imported turtles may be sold in stores as pets, and the Florida turtle has proved most popular. These turtles grow to be too large for French households, though, and are then bturned loose, despite French government warnings in pet stores that they should be turned over to zoos. The Florida turtles have turned out to thrive in their newfound French environment, thus endangering the environmental niche occupied by French turtles. French zoologists have appealed to their government to restrict Florida turtles in the same way that they have restricted American aculture, but French pet shop owners are opposed. If you were a member of the French parliament, how would you vote?2. In Asia, Africa, and Central America unexploded land mines can be found by the millions and the toll of deaths and injured is in the tens of thousands yearly. Worst of all, those killed, those injured, those maimed are for the most part noncombatants, farmers, women in the fields, children aassigned tasks in nearby forests and farms. As a last horror, most of these deaths and injuries occur where medical care is unavailable or meager. How would you, could you, ride the earth of unexploded mines? (See Resource #26, this issue.)
3. Grow hemp instead of tobacco in Kentucky? This is the question raised by a report on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition" on Saturday, 31 August 1996. The hemp in question is not the ftraditional marijuana plant but an industrial variety whose THC content is said to be too low to give anyone a "high." Some Kentucky farmers, who grew this crop for the federal government as part fof the World War II effort, see it as a viable alternative as their present major cash crop, tobacco, faces continuing decline. It is marketable, they say, as a very strong fiber -- for making paper (especially in view of projected shortages of wood pulp), construction materials, and even oil. Others, including Kentucky's governmental and academic leaders, are less enthusiastic. They question industrial hemp's economic profitability but are also believed to be wary of the political consquences of promoting a crop related to marijuana, even though it is been grown successfully in other countries and, because it is mostly stalk and little leaf, cannot be used to hide a "marijuana patch." If you were the Governor or Agriculture Commissioner of Kentucky, what would you say?
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The TEACHERS CLEARINGHOUSE FOR SCIENCE AND SOCIETY EDUCATION