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Women and the World of Science and Exploration
Teacher's Student Activities
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Environmental Studies, Geography
- Students appreciate the importance of science as related to environmental issues.Students learn about careers in science.
- Students will be able to better understand the interrelationships of the scientific and environmental issues pertaining to the seas, jungles and space.
- Examine these guide materials.
- Have students complete the pre-program activities so they will be ready and able to participate in discussions regarding the program. Discuss the "Issue Question" and poll your students.
Originated from Orlando, Florida and San Francisco Explorers share a zeal for adventure and a passion for science. Our guests share a determination to travel to the unknown, from the 1,250 foot record-breaking dive of Sylvia Earle, to Jane Goodall's research on chimpanzees in the jungles of Africa, to Jackie Parker's pioneering flights in F-16 fighter jets. The marriage of science and exploration has produced tremendous advancements for science. Ocean exploration has produced important advances and products for medicine and industry. Understanding the chemistry of the seas is important to determine how much the oceans can mitigate global warming caused by pollution. Dr. Goodall's research in Tanzania, Africa has led to advancements in understanding social behavior. Major Parker's flights have helped introduce a new era of military operations. Students will join Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Sylvia Earle, and Major Jacquelyn Parker. Our guests discuss their work as it relates to world issues such as conservation, exploration, and overpopulation.
JANE GOODALL, Ph.D.
Jane Goodall is the founder and scientific director of the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania, Africa. She was a young and adventurous doctorate student from Cambridge University and a protÇgÇ of Dr. Louis Leakey. Jane worked as a waitress to earn money for plane fare to Kenya so that she could fulfill a childhood dream of studying animals. Dr. Goodall eventually set-off into the Africa bush unarmed to observe potentially dangerous apes. Over the past 31 years, she has devoted her life to studying the intricate social behavior of wild chimpanzees (genetically, the closest living relatives of humans), in the longest continuous field study of any living creature. This pioneer naturalist is heralded as "the most influential and renowned primate researcher in the world."
She doesn't look or sound the role, but there's no question about it, Dr. Jane Goodall is a gutsy maverick. Twenty-five years ago, she talked the famed anthropologist, Dr. Louis Leakey, into supporting her in a long-term study of chimpanzees in the wild.
Leakey was criticized then for daring to send a defenseless girl into the harsh African bush, and the scientific community predicted she would not survive more than two days.
"It's ironic how little we've studied our closest living relative in the animal kingdom, and how much knowledge there is to potentially learn about ourselves as human beings," Goodall said a quarter a century ago.
Her National Geographic TV specials and books ["In The Shadow of Man" and "My Friends: The Wild Chimpanzees"] have focused public attention on her beloved great apes. Goodall said that today she's most concerned about learning how child rearing affects subsequent behavior in the adults. So far, her results seem to indicate that human mothers in our culture might take a lesson from the chimpanzees.
". . . I wonder if the odd way we now have of bringing up human primates in the West isn't also very traumatic, I think we're denying our babies their natural birth rights. A primate, human or nonhuman, has evolved to expect certain responses. For instance, if the infant cries, it expects to be cuddled. Infants expect devoted mothers, who are there when needed."
Goodall explained that she isn't against the idea o women having careers, but that she is concerned that human babies in the West aren't getting the attention they need.
While in the states, she also will continue organizing a new project called Chimpanzee, a study of captive chimps in which a number of participating zoos will share data via computer and compare their findings with her findings on wild chimps.
"I hope to learn how to make life happier for chimpanzees in zoos," Goodall said. "We still have a lot to learn about captive chimps and the chimpanzees at Gombe. The more we learn about them, the more we may find out about ourselves."
(From Chicago Tribune, August 24, 1986)
SYLVIA A. EARLE, Ph.D.
Sylvia Earle is one of the most acclaimed oceanographers and marine biologists in the world. She was a bright and curious student who was always fascinated with nature, and spent her time at the sea shore exploring the fields and small creatures. Sylvia graduated from college at age 19 and earned her doctorate at Duke University. In the 1970s she led the first team of woman aquanauts during the trailblazing Tektite Project in the Virgin Islands and went on to hold the world's record for solo diving (3,000 feet). Dr. Earle later advanced deep sea diving in the "Jim suit" when dropped to 1,250 feet, the existing record of an untethered dive. This "explorer of the dark frontier" and "champion of the deep" has logged more than 5,000 hours underwater during some 50 expeditions. She is the recipient of many honors, including the Society of Woman Geographers Gold Medal, the Explorers Club Award, the Charles A. Lindbergh Award, and the Order of the Golden Ark.
Sylvia Alice Earle was born in 1935, in Gibbstown, New Jersey. Though times were tough, their father, Lewis, did have steady employment, as an electrician with Du Pont. His wife, Alice, kept house and looked after the children. When Sylvia was three years old, the family moved to a farm, which turned out to provide an ideal setting for the future biologist.
"We lived in a big brick-and-stone farmhouse that was built before the Revolutionary War," Sylvia told me. "There were lots of wonderful, wild creatures there. We had squirrels and raccoons, and so many birds-the sky was filled with birds, as I haven't seen them since. And I really owe a lot of my interest in wild things to my mother. She just had a natural rapport with the world around her.
Soon after beginning work on her Ph.D., she fell in love with a graduate student in zoology, married him, and suspended her studies. "I had been stuffing my brain with books and lab work for as long as I could remember," she said. "I was still only 21, and I think I was suffering from information overload. I decided that I wanted to go out and do things that were real.
"In the summer of 1964, 1 received an invitation to go on an expedition and it turned out to be one of those things that changed my life forever," she told me. "I was asked to join a scientific team aboard the National Science Foundation's research vessel Anton Bruun, for a six-week voyage to the Indian Ocean and other places. It was not the usual thing for women to go off on expeditions like that in those days. A few other women had done what I was about to do, and had had a terrible time, because they were either harassed or kidded to death. I think the reason that I was able to handle it was that it wasn't the first time I'd been alone, working in a group of men. In fact, I've found throughout my life that there are just about as many advantages as disadvantages in being a woman. Naturally, there have been obstacles. And later in life I learned that the business world can be especially difficult for a woman. But in science, at least, I've often found that the door is open because you're a woman, and they want to give you a special opportunity. Then, of course, it's up to you. You can fall flat on your nose unless you can carry your weight."
(From The New Yorker, July 3, 1989)
MAJOR JACQUELYN S. PARKER, USAF
Jackie Parker attended the University of Central Florida, majoring in mathematics and computer science. She graduated from college at age 17, the youngest graduate in the school's history. Jackie became an intern at NASA's Johnson Space Center, and was responsible for analysis of onboard computer systems. She was the youngest flight controller in NASA's history. After completing Officer Training School in 1980, she entered pilot training at Reese Air Force Base. She received her pilot wings in 1981, later becoming the first female T-38 instructor there. Between 1983 and 1985, she was named "Most Outstanding T-38 Academic Instructor" five times. Jackie transitioned to C-141 transport aircraft and was assigned to the 76th Military Airlift Squadron as an instructor pilot and squadron executive officer. In 1989 she graduated from the Air Force Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base as the first female test pilot in the history of the United States Air Force. She is twice the recipient of the prestigious "Kitty Hawk" Award for achievements in the field of aviation. Major Parker is currently in training as an F-16 fighter pilot at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas.
Regardless of what curriculum you are teaching, your students will benefit more from the program if they read the student handouts and complete the pre-program activities. Discuss featured guests and the reasons they are on the program.
Are women discouraged from pursuing careers in exploration? Tom Wolfe authored a behind-the-scenes look at the history of American space exploration. Traditionally the role of space pioneer has been considered the domain of men. Major Parker, however, broke new ground by becoming the first female test pilot. Look up biographies of women who have succeeded in careers in science. Some examples: Dr. Sally Ride, Dr. Diane Fossey, Amelia Earhart, Madame Curie, Dr. Barbara McClintock, Dr. Mae Jemison. What characteristics do these women share that might predict their success?
One of our program guests, Dr. Jane Goodall, was severely criticized for her research methods. She lived among the chimpanzees she studied, named them rather than identifying them by number, and wrote anecdotal descriptions of their behavior. Because of this, she was dismissed as amateurish and lacking objectivity. Have her research methods been validated? Is her approach to research a more intuitive, thus "feminine" approach?
Research the work of Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge. What breakthrough discoveries resulted from their research? Why did Louis Leakey encourage the work of Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey, Shirley Sturm, and Birute Galdikas-Brindamour with primates?
Dr. Sylvia Earle, our other program guest, was leader of Tektite 11, an all-women team, which for two weeks lived in a space-age underwater dwelling to explore the region's marine life and learn the effects of isolation on the aquanauts. In spite of such efforts, funding for undersea exploration has not kept up with funding for space exploration. List some of the reasons why under sea exploration is important to human understanding. Why do you think that space exploration succeeds in sustaining popular and financial support while undersea exploration has been unable to win similar support?
In 1993 Congress finally permitted women, on a limited basis, to participate in military combat. What do you think this means to the future of women in the military? Do you think this is a positive step for women?
- Aaeronautics:
a science dealing with the operation of aircraft
- Ethology:
the study of animal behavior with ties to certain other disciplines such as ecology and evolution
- Oceanography:
science dealing with the oceans, the physics and chemistry of their waters, marine biology, and the exploitation of their resources
- Paleontology:
science dealing with the life of past geological periods as known from fossil remains
- Sound barrier:
sudden large increase in aerodynamic draft that occur as aircraft approach the speed of sound
- Submersible:
vehicle used for undersea exploration
- Tektite:
glassy body of probably meteoric origin and of rounded but indefinite shape found at the bottom of the ocean
- Study the writings of Jane Goodall. What did her studies of chimpanzees teach us about human beings? How did her work complement the findings of Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge?
- How do increasing human populations threaten the wildlife that inhabit the world's jungles and rain forests?
- Developed and developing countries exhibit an insatiable appetite for oil and its by-products to fuel their industries. Investigate the effects of accidents involving oil drilling platforms and tankers over the last five years, and document their impact on the surrounding ecosystems.
- Animals are commonly used in medical research and in testing products before they are sold for human consumption. Their furs and skins are used as clothing, and some animals are eaten as food. Research these issues and analyze them, asking students to take a position in support or opposition of each. Poll the students to obtain a consensus of class opinion.
- Environmental watchdog organizations conduct costly, highly publicized campaigns to save endangered animal species such as whales. However, whaling is an important industry that provides a living to numerous people particularly in Japan. Northern spotted owls are endangered, yet the timber industry states that efforts to save them cause people to lose jobs and suffer economically. Research these and similar instances where the interest of saving animals conflicts with the economic interests of a region or industry.
- Investigate one or more of the following careers related to science. Find out what the person does; the educational background required: whether the person works a regular 40 hour week; whether there are part-time opportunities; the salary level one can hope to reach.
- Archaeologist
- Astronaut
- Botanist
- Chemist
- Computer Analyst
- Dentist
- Engineer
- Environmentalist
- Inventor
- Metallurgist
- Midwife
- Museum Curator
- Nurse
- Nutritionist
- Pharmacist
- Physicist
- Psychologist
- Science Writer
- Scientific Illustrator
- Veterinarian
- X-ray Technician
The following places are key to better understanding science and exploration. We urge you to use this assignment as a geography quiz by having your students locate the places on a map and describing their significance:
- Tanzania, Africa
- Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean
- Makapuu Point, Oahu
- Edwards Air Force Base, CA
- Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
- Kennedy Space Center, FL
- London, England
- Site of Tektite expedition, St. John, Virgin Islands
- San Francisco, CA
- Orlando, FL
Some facts and figures about the Earth's oceans:
Area: Oceans cover 71 percent of the planet.
Volume: By volume, oceans make up 99 percent of the planet's living space.
Depth: The planet's deepest spot is the Mariana Trench in the Pacific floor, six miles below the surface. By comparison, Mt. Everest is five miles above sea level. The average depth of the oceans is about two miles.
Surface: The top 10 feet of the oceans hold as much thermal energy as in the entire atmosphere.
Uses: Substances from marine plants and animals are used in such products as medicine, ice cream, toothpaste, gasoline, cosmetics and livestock feed.
SOURCE: Woods Hole Oceanographical Institute |
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