Stieee an Education 7 73-201, 1985 (© 1986 Rewer Academic Dublshr. Printed in the Netherton ‘Using History to Teach Invention and Design: ‘The Case of the Telephone! MICHAEL B. GORMAN® AND J. KIRBY ROBINSON** ‘recknology, Culture & Commaricnions, Schoo of Engnering and Applied Science, Unive of Virgin, Thorton Hal, Carlowese, VA 22008, US A. *Cognie Scone, Collegeof Ar & Science, Univeny of Vein, Charlene, VA 2280, ABSTRACT: This paper shows how a historical cas, te javemon of the telephone, cam be ued to teach intenuon and desig in a Way tat combiaes eaginerig scl sens Ski humanities The stale of tami sesh was tured ito an ie leering rod, im whic students rout to improve patents obained by cai telephone Inventore Uke Alexander Gran Bell and Elbe Gray, using equipment silat t0 whet Shudeneffom 1 wide range of major worked in tm, eventually produc patent ‘pplication. As part af te projet they were allowed to search strc materials he the Bul sotehoos, whih were made avaiable on hae. This expetence gave then eter Sdertaning ofthe fenton sod Sen prove INTRODUCTION |A growing literature on psychology of science has demonstrated that aspects of discovery can’ be systematically: studied, and that simular methods can be applied to invention (Gorman 1992). In order to discover, scientists sometimes have to invent. Consider the devices Faraday had 10 build im order to explore eleetveity and magnetism. On a larger scale, consider Emest O. Lawrence's invention of the eyclotron, which made it possible to explore the universe of elementary particles at new levels of precision and depth (Kevles 19/7)" Edison said, “in truth, we electricians are discoverers, not inventors’ (Baldwin 1995, p.182). Edison's point is that inventors have to discover. or example, wien experiments with a. glider in 1501 railed to mect ‘oxpectations, the Wrights constructed a wind tunnel and disconfirmed the vwidely-accepted value for the coefficient of lift. In order to invent an ‘airplane, they had to discover new coefficients (Crouch 1992). ‘The creation ofthe atomic bomb is full of examples of the close relation- ship between discovery and invention (Rhodes 1986), Much of the techno- fogical ana scientine knowledge emmbocted in taissnVention Was tacit, and ‘could not be recovered simply from documents and formulas (even clas fied ones) (Mackenzie & Spinardi 1995). These tacit discovery and inven- tion skills need to be Kepr allve by practice, and are best transmitted DY apprenticeship (Collins 1990). But most students who need to lear about invention and discovery can be apprenticed 10 a mentor, particularly if ‘We lake tne view espoused Dy Rota and mis colleagues unat*. .. members174 MICHAEL E. GORMAN AND J. KIRBY ROBINSON bora setouuncamy au teetmotugleamy auvanced suciety sould ve abIE Ww ‘make critically informed choices. As part of this scientific and techno- logical literacy, one would expect students to experience and learn how scents a engineers prouuce new Cait) £46, That fy sku Stu experience not only ready-made science (and technology) but also sciencecn-the-making ..." (Roth, McGinn, & Bowen 199%, pp. 458-9) ‘Owe way Ww Have Sule expericMee seciee ait! engineering inthe= ‘making isto have them apprentice with mentors ~ working scientists and eegineers. This is an excellent idea, but itis not always possible to put Students sicae mentoring situations, especially given the range of activ ties and problems students need to master in school “Another solution has been to expose students 0 detailed case-studies, wheie studeuts have to wake decisions lke those an expert would make, to teach design (Chou & Calkins 19%; Fitzgerald 1995), Experts themelves learn and reason from cases (Klein 1989; Kolodner 1991). {Cines pevust stunts W apply lial Hey ove leaning Wy situations that hhave a higher potential to transfer to real-world problems. As Michael Clancy argued in a book on using cases to teach Pascal, “Using ease stidca, students help design solutions to problems they could wot sive alone, ‘The concepts of design are illustrated in the context of large com- plex programs where these ideas make sense, The case studios engage the Stedent a team mombor whe sontrivbtes to the program dong St 2 QED (eo oS wan Uahig Gases Fig 4 Fine photophone devin by 9 sadent group Jn which the reflector was mounted, attaching it to the can with rubber bands and finally mounting it on a rubber membrane, This produced a positive result, though students were careful to note that some of the uctuation might be due to factors ather than the Voice Overall, the group concluded that there was sil too litle Aucutation, and experimenting with the magnification had not made a significant im- proventent, Despite their reservations, they had to submit a caveat, sig ig their intention to invent a photophore, and they felt the design sill had potential, But the patent examiner who reviewed the caveats provided the group with a copy of Bell's original photoptione patent, ‘and the group discovered that their main claim to novelty, concerning ‘manipulation of magnifying glasses, was also claimed by Bell and therefore 1was part of the state of the at, (CHANGING RESEARCH DIRECTION ‘The day Blisha Gray oubmitted a caveat for a “opeaking telegraph’ he hhad an experience similar to this student group: he learned that another inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, had just submitted a patent covering epolen tranmision. The patont office doclared that Gray's caveat and186 MICHAEL £, GORMAN AND J. KIRBY ROBINSON, lWel’s patent were in anterference, meaning that Belt couta not pe granted ‘8 parent until it was clear that his claims were either prior, or different from, Gray's. Bell learned from the patent examiner that the point of tnterterence concemed a clause Well had inserted ar tne last minue in Which he claimed the possibility of using variable resistance to create ‘an undulating current, Elisha Gray had featured a variable resistance Transmitter in his caveat, and Ealson woula base nls successful carbon transmitter on the same principle (Carlson & Gorman 1992). After several weeks, the interference was declared invalid, on the grounds that Bell's patent hag amnvea in the ome earer. ‘But Bell's conversation with the patent examiner may have suggested 4 change in direction. At this point on March 8th, he inserted a dish of ‘water in the electromagnetic Induction slot, Bell (Bell 1908) later claimed he got the idea from a spark arrester he attempted to patent in Jamwary 187, in which he broke a cigcuit and inserted the ends into water. The spark arrester snows tnat Hel undeTSIOOM NOW LO Use wallet ass mii of variable resistance, but the idea of trying this sort of arrangement at this stage probably came from his conversation with the examiner. ‘Sumllany, studeots in me phorophone group subued tet vavet for review by & patent examiner, who brought with him a copy of Bell’s ‘original photophone patent. The group realized that their caveat design ‘ata not fepresent a patentable Improvement uu Be’s (see FLUE 2), Figure 6 shows the next line of experiments Bell conducted, beginning ‘with a new slot diagram, in which the electromagnetic induction slot is Feplucet! by one bused! oo resstauce meUlgin aint die uasiales slot i replaced by "eontacts'. The “resistance medium’ slot indicated that Bell ‘experimented with acidulating the water and, later, substituted other quits Ike wieieuiy. The “conse” slots represented the fact ther Dell focused on the relative sizes and depths of the contacts in the water, [Rell began with the experiment shown in the slot diagram (see Figure oy: wn sound’ resulted. The diagonal arrow to the next experiment indicates that this was a somewhat positive result, Next, he acidulated the water, producing sour! Kia! etlough #0 eount es @ punitive result. Inerensing the distance between the tuning fork and the conducting wire had no effect. He added a strip of brass to the conducting wire, which made the souin! ‘much louder"; immersing this wire in the liquid’ made the sound “very loud’ (Bell, 1876). Next, he switched to the vibrating contact, substi= tuting a bell for the tuning fork in order to see what hiappened when he Imaainizcd Use see uf dn ibvaling woutaet, The seaull was negative. Note how Bell in this sequence of experiments systematically altered ‘one variable at atime to improve transmission. At this point he hypothes- ined that the best rezulls could be obtained whoa tho vibrating contact was smallest and the contact on the other end of the circuit was largest. This is shown in Figure 6 by a trapezoidal box, denoting a hypothesis Bell cctually wrote down.USING HISTORY 70 TEACH HISTORY 187 [city tier tant C50 meted ney membrane ‘ate mognssan Fi. 5. Caveat design of sear group, Bell sketched the dovioe thet would result from this hypothesis, and om the next day (March 9th), Bell and Watson built a device following this sketch in which a needle on a cork was substituted for the bell, attached to a sounding bor with « hole eut into the tep into whieh one could spout (these substitutions are shown on the left-hand side of Figure 7). One of Bell's reed receivers was placed in another room. Bell listened while Watson sans, and was able to hear the pitch of Watwon's voice. When ‘Watson spoke, Bell heard “a confused muttering sound like speech but could not make out the sense. When Mr. Watson counted ~ I fancied T could perceive the articulations “one, two, throe, four, five” but this may have been fancy ~ as T knew beforehand what to expect. However that may be [am certain that the inflection ofthe voice was represented.” (Bell 1876). Ao far ao Bell was coneerned, this waa « postive result hnence, the horizontal arrow to the next experiment, conducted on the next day. ‘On March 10th, the two substituted a platinum pips for the brass ribbon and a speaking tube for the sounding box, Bell spoke the famous words “Mr. Watson ~ Come here ~ I want to see you’ (Bell 1876). ‘The tedente in the photophone group had to do tho same kind ofMICHAEL £. GORMAN AND 5. KIRBY ROBINSON 188 sunpou 2asat vse saponin yg sited Wg ps 30 BeRENET 9 As189 USING HISTORY TO TEACH HISTORY amg : Soe sy oat ‘o1 ew 9 le 981 ‘eure190 MICHARL E. GORMAN AND I. KIRBY ROBINSON, ‘ereful experimenting after they submitted their savest, revising their original intentions in the light of their interference with Bell's actual photophone patent and also given that their initial design hacl not per- formed very well. They desided the solar cell syply could not detwet the small vibrations of a mirrored surface, Instead, they tied shining the light directly on the cel, jiggling it and varying its intensity. The most positive reoults were obtained when the intensity of the light wae changed, rather ‘than when it was merely vibrated (see Figure 8) ‘They now had a new goal: to “ind some way to vary the intensity of the light rather than just sibrating it’ Thoy brainstormed, then hypothe ied “that somehow the vibrations of the membrane could be wed in a cireuit to intermittently open and close the circuit. This should cause the light t0 flach in @ pattern corresponding to the vibrations.” They were considering what Bell called an intermittent current ~ a succession of on- off pulses. Bel’ fist telephone patent described why such a design would fot work why one needed an undulating, current insteod. The group apparently did not recall Bells analysis, and plowed ahead. This point in the photophone group's process was described by a member as follows: "Many ses, the inspirations for what can ater Be seen a9 breakage fom changin te perspective of your efor. In thi case, when catonted wih the Hell tent Dtate, we had to change oor ene foes. "Stpping ote of heat” el Be ‘ad oem hiking than wan a signe, and aes actal “vente prose, We iso sepped oat of the “hist” mad, and foked at oar problem from a modern, rulsdipinary vantage poi ‘To approach this goal, the group did a series of experiments in the contacts slot, beginning with a device that included a piece of aluminum foil on the mombrane that was connsoted to the negative lead on the battery by a length of solder (see Figure 8). The solder was put as elose as possible to the foil without touching it. They tested this arrangement by shouting “Tasting, 1, 2, 3° into the mouthpives, and obtained a nagetive rotult, whieh they attributed to the fact that the foil was not rigid enough. So they replaced it with a tack pointing upwards, which made enough contact ‘with the caldor to couee the ight ta shina, hut nat anoogh to activate the solar cell. This was « somewhat positive result, promising enough to suggest that their current goal deserved further pursuit Rot it did lead to a change in their hypothasis. Instead of making the light fash on and of, they decided to let it stay on. Now they were back ‘on Bell’ idea of exeating an undulating current "They found thot the sibratione of the membrane caused the Hight to fluctuate in intensity, too slightly to affect the readings from the multi meter. They hypothesized that ifthe two contacts had more surface area, the signal would he impraved (see Figaro 9). Thay tried tw tacks, wih their flat Surfaces facing cach other. They then achieved a dramatic Positive result ‘a seemingly nice, reproducible flutvation in fight intensity was made On checking the resistaner of the solar eall Cand thereby theUSING HISTORY TO TEACH HISTORY IL vn z rg 9, ros-eneus den vy aoe yup ‘euntcit) we saw shat resistance did change proportionelly to words spoken into the mouthpiece”. ‘The group then moved to stabilizing this arrangement, adding features like # platform that would make their experimental setup into something, more reliable. Students were allowed to hook their devices into modern ‘amps and tape-recorders for demonstration; using such a set-up, this group fas crentually able 10 obtain a scratchy recording of speceh. They also produced a patent, which included the following summary of the design: In respons 1 sound sot throu ended) mouthpiece,» daphragm seed ove the opps nd of fe motes ibales. Tis ualtion ater the Pow of cure between rw closely spaced metal eens one of which ached to he au apap ‘When touching, the wo contacts complete «ert contaning ight nl power source rye ti Sey spn Aasomten wih the tant of een ep {othe Ligh sou, These varia cmsions fom the ight ae voce by & metas for ‘runforming solar energy to elec curet. The means fr tansoraiag Nas analog arg Ns othe vee Fe Lp Tio cane eo ge ‘This detailed account of one group's progress shows the way in which students’ invention prowesses can parallel these of @ historioal javentor,MICHABL B. GORMAN AND J. KIRBY ROBINSON | aw! fo emma nen nes) IY) ar 0USING HISTORY 10 TEACH HISTORY 193 Some ot this parallel was created by the students’ famniarny wen Bet’ cognitive processes, but itis important to emphasize that students were aot required to follow Bell's path and that they ended-up with an original design ‘Similaey, student teams could learn different patterns and styles from ‘ther scientists and inventors. For example, one could take advantage of David Gooding’s (Gooding i990) extensive work on Micnaei Faraday, \hiel included replications of many of his experiments and development fof a computer programming language that allowed him to investigate Faraday’s discoveries (Gooding & Adak 1990, Seprember 14-17), Goo ing’s work could serve as a basi for an active learning module that would pat students in the shoes of one of the greatest scientists of alltime. PATENTS Like all groups, the one on the photophone wrote a patent and presented it with a workiag model to a patent examiner. He agreed their design had patentable features, Other nna desigas inctuaea a eransmiier Mt coupled ‘carbon transmitter with a photophone which amplified the signal, and the combination of a resonant chamber with a earbon rod, which acted as-a sliding resistor. Ina version of the module adapted for secondary students, groups came ‘up with interesting variations on 19th century devices like the liquid and ‘carbon transmitter, the phorophone snd tne vleceromagneue revelver, One ‘group even combined electromagnetic and liquid designs into the same transmitter, Many of the variations resembled those created by historical raventors. For example, one group put their diaphragm between two transformers without realizing this desiga closely resembled a polar relay Bell tried to transform Into & telephone trunsmiuer. ‘These tnscauees of 1e-inyeution gave us a chance to {alk about the invention process ‘Many of the problems encountered by students also resembled those encountered by faventors. FOF exumpte, ou group Came wp with a design that resembled one of Edison's in which the vibrations of a diaphragm ‘compressed carbon, thereby alternately increasing and decreasing the current, They found that die Garbo grauwally lost it fiabiity, and the ‘current no longer changed. Edison had a similar problem; le eventually ‘ereated 8 compact carbon button which he put tight on the diaphragm (Carson 1989).194 MICHAEL E. GORMAN AND J, KIRBY ROBINSON Overall, students in both post-secondary and secondary contexts appear vo nave Weurned au least thfee things from ths Moov 1. How to work in groups ~ particularly interdisciplinary groups. There ‘as a kind of ‘culture clash’ in the Invention and Design class, which drew fom wo populations ~ students tn a senoor OF engineering ana students ‘majoring n other fields, ineluding psychology, cognitive science, and archi- tecture (Gorman & Kegiwada 1995). In the latest Invention and Desi course, sever stuuems commented hat the engineering students Were more botiom-up in their approach, whereas the students from outside of engineering were more top-down. Students from fields like mechanical ical engineering were more likely to jump into building 8 working device, while non-engineering students were forced to take a larger view of the project, tying to figure out the overall goals. This difference was fas froth universal, towever; the course airtel st Iege group OF systems engineering students, who were trained to adopt a top-down approach, As groups worked together, disciplinary stereotypes gradually disap ad were replaced witha rexuunition oF Ue auNantage OF (aking perspectives on a problem. The photophone group described above provides an example of the kind of close, multi-discipinary teamwork that could emerse. ‘One-third of the students in a recent class emphasized that learning the strengths and weaknesses of individual group members and allocating work atively were vw OF Ue anose lnnpostant dings ik sueLerseul group work. Open communications and respect for group members were also considered extremely important in group work by the stademts. One student summed it up: ‘Every groug is different, one person cat radial affect a group's dynamic, delegation is important, but communication o expectations and ideas is most important. ‘The secondary gifted students showed @ similarly diverse pattern of intragroup relations. At any given time, one group might be building a prototype, while another group argued about their respective roles. In a third group, only one atudent might be working while the others eppenscal to daydream and disengage from the task. We quickly found that we had to help groups ereate sound divisions of lnbor (Steiner 1972) based on the ‘multiple intelligences present in the groups (Gardner 1983), In several srroups, strong leaders emerged, and we had 10 warn them of the dangers of groupthink (Ianis 1982), We found it useful to give the students mini fecturca on topics like Obs Low when they had seached « guint in their design process where they were primed to take advantage of the information, One of the inventors of telecomanications technology at Boll Labo spent a day with the students and remarked that he wae “surprised how well some of the experiences the students related mapped ‘onto the way things often go in an existing engineering organization like ATAT Boll Laboratoriee + »'The students showed a groat doat of insightUSING HISTORY TO TEACH HISTORY 195 nto the process and team Issues their groups ran into... Exposing cunem) to these process and teamwork issues and giving them opportunities 10 develop those skills that make them effective team participants can really fenhance their long-term career success. (Gorman, Plucker, & Cauianan In Press). 2. That invention involves a combination of Eurcka and frustration ~ ‘and that tne Eureka frequentiy follows the frustration. interestingly, wnree ‘of the four groups in the latest postsecondary iteration of the modile had ‘what they described as “epiphany” experiences, where one member had a Eureka moment after tne group was stuck. For example, one group Wits persistently trying to use liquid as a medium of variable resistance, and failing. At one point, one group member simply substituted « disk of ‘carbon for the water, and hag the same kind of experience Faison did a century ago ~ carbon worked much better. This epiphany was made poss bie by hard preparation, however; the group had an apparatus into which ime carbon could be suostituea ‘ang an Understanding OF HOW WO Lake advantage of this postive result. As one engineering student said, ‘We hhad some of the characteristics of a true inventor... We got frustrated, 0% a git OF Insight, and thus Usea Ths IMsIgMt tO Duss Our device 3. That any Eureka moments have to be followed by hard work and further revision, especially if one wants to patent 2 device ‘Groups learnee the Imporince Of incremental expenmestauon, lustead of trying to transmit speech on your frst try with a new device, try to send an on-off signal. When even this fails, decompose your device to Seiren {Or Me futlty components, Be alete fOr ests whieh suygest a ‘promising alternate direction, like the carbon button, ‘The photophone group described above was frustrated when their fist ‘eesign fated 10) work sl was shnlclpaeed Uy Bell's patent. Their Busca ‘came wheo they focused the flashlight on the solar cell and tried turning it on and off and jigaling it. They had followed the heuristic of trying 10 [produce an on-of sgh snd Ind so eeonapaned tel device, elim ing the mirror component. This, coupled with an analogy of the communi- cation proces in whic there is. a sender and a receive, fed them 10 wy the Prowse 10Uke SigwEMteN Oy switehing the Highe om end Of, and it led 10a success design ‘One secondary group succeeded! in transmitting audible speech with a pluatoplnnc, achieving a tesult as good as that achicved by the University {group. In this group, as with many others, we found we had to give ‘practical instruction on the basies of scieniie experimentation. ‘This group Starved wut tying tant spocde wih a woumplea scan a it filed We taught them to decompose the design, isolate components and test them separately. (We did much less ofthis detailed educational scaffolding ‘with she Univeisity groups, relying more on Bell's notebooks av @ guide.) ‘On a survey administered at the end of the secondary course for gifted students, 80% of the participants noted that it exceeded their expectations n four aveas, cach of which ip followed by & quotation from « student:196 MICHAEL E. GORMAN AND 1. KIRBY ROBINSON +) sontont ffoarmed more in these three weeks then floasned ll year in science clas, ») career awareness It was inspiring -1I plan on doing mote inthis fet’, «) hands on learning: “The hands on lenvning gave me o personel exper ence with inventing and leapning in general’ and 4) level of challenge “(It was) challenging, which means more exciting Wes a Tot better thon filing pepers like they melo mo Jo hon Pm finshed of bored at my school” (Gorman, Plucker, & Calahen Tr Press). Student’ postive reponsas ware eshoed by their performance. An ost side evaluator made the following comment alter sccing proups present their telephone projects, “(The groups) clearly reflected an understanding ‘of what they had done.» why things work and don’t, where their theory falls short of being realized, and the steps necessary to span the Bap - Ie was clear they have read and heard much complex information which thay con tenelato into practice aad ther thoy have a conse of hore thsit inventions are relative to Bell's early wor REFLECTION ‘One of our goals wae to make students into reflective practitioners, whe ‘would learn how to analyze and modify their goals and strategies, It is less clear that we suceceded in this area, As an architecture student noted: “Our progroce wae gradual, Vet, we kept at it and very time we met we ‘would improve on Some part and brainstorm for the next meeting. How- ever, I think we needed to reflect and read our notes moze on what we Jnad dono and oupand fram thora. think ou team jampod into thie project ‘and we needed to take some time aside and observe what we had done." ‘One way to aecomplish the goal of making stadents more reflective is have his heuristics ~ expliity stating his reliance on the anslogy of nature, sketching thought experiments, reminding himsel! 10 replicate previous ‘experiments Indeed, bis second tolophane patent emerged aut af a carafe re-reading of his notebook; he re-discovered an experimental result he hhad noted several months earlier, in which a heavy metal diaphragm had facilitated the transmission of speech. He made an improved version of this diaphragm a key part of his second patent. ‘We would argue that his careful record-keeping and reflection was one ff the "woorat wnapans’ that onabled Rell tn dotoat rivale ike Gray) and Edison ia court. Whereas they had difficulty reconstructing thei invention processes, Bell produced a lengthy, detailed narrative, buttressed by let- tere, references and aventionsl notehonk entries Charles Twardy at the University of Indiana has put Volume T of Bel’s notebook on line (see upsfiefferson.villag. virginia edu/~meg3cfd/AGBYindex him); this wi faellitte smdent access and hopefully give them a move! of reflectiveUSING HISTORY TO TEACH HISTORY wT invention. But model is not enough ~ we need (0 hnd Deiter ways oF encouraging students to reflect. CONCLUSION In conclusion, this module appears to have fulfilled the goal of teaching students about the invention process, using historical materials combined ‘with hands-on experimentation, Modern students often make the mistake of seeing 19th century technology as ‘simple’. This module shows, how ‘ever, that close examination of historical metiiods, and the application of those methods to contextually similar projects, can teach students the invention process. The experience of tying to create a telephone modeled after one of the 19th century design quickly dispelled the illusion of simplicity, and led students to & deeper understanding or tne processes o invention and design. ‘This course was focused primarily on invention, but these materials could be used ta explore the Telationsmp DetwWeen science ana technotozy. When he saw one of Bell's eatlicst telephones, James Clerk Maxwell remarked that, ‘When at last this little instrument appeared, consisting as Hoes, of pars, everyone (Ste) oF wien is ramillar 10 us, an eapable ot being pot together by an amateur, the disappointment arising from its ‘humble appearance was only partially relieved on finding that it was really able to talk, BU pernaps the telepfione, OWN simple tu respect OF Ios ‘material and construction, may involve some recondite physical principle, the study of which might worthily occupy an hour's time of an academic ‘tidience: T can omty say that Lave not Yet met anyone acyuatnted wi the first elements of electricity who has experienced the slightest ficulty jn understanding the physical process involved in the action of the tel- phone” (MaxWell 1890, p. 742), Maxwell Went On 10 fame Ue welepltone fn terms of the researches of Faraday and Helmholtz, and gave Bell credit for combining knowledge of electricity and acoustics. Maxwell made the point that ths sort of creanve eross-rerumzalon “cannot VE petformed early by collecting treaties on the different sciences, and binding them to an encyclopedia. Science exists only in the mind, and the union ff the selences cum take place only is living person (Maxwell 1890, p. 751). Following the werk of David Gooding, who has documented Faraday’s Ununking processes in detail and replicated & number of hy experiiueaty fone eoild construct an active learning module concerning the discovery of electromagnetic ficlés (Gooding, 1990, Cantor, Gooding, & James 1996; Oooding & AUG 1993), This todule Cuuld prevede the one om the telephone, Students would not only learn much of the science by following in Faraday’s footsteps, they would also be able to explore the relationship between selene Hi luvetulon. THE physics of the relephone could be198 MICHAEL E. GORMAN AND J. KIRBY ROBINSON, sdcrivee front Faaay’s uscovertes, but ML requlred Bel’s magination ana additional expertise in acoustics to develop a new form of communication ‘One could also use such modules to teach scientific reasoning, in com pany with outer peuspugical wectigues Uke une use OF sOstact Teasonlng tasks (Gorman 1986). Students could work on abstract problems that allow them to explore, say, the relationship between confimation, discon- ffumation and replication, eonuasting perspectives ke Mose of LAKACOS (Lakatos 1978) and Collins (Collins 1985). Then they could use their insights about reasoning processes to reflect on their own experimental strategies as they work ull a couples acuve learning module my Walch rach of the cognition is embodied in devices and practices (Gorman In Press). They could begin to explore the relationship between instrumental skills and deliberate reasoning and see the way in which science depends ‘on both. Combining the Faraday and Bell modules would teach them the close relationship between seience and technology. Notes ° The research sn coma innovations repr! bere were supported by eins fom the Geraldine R- Dodge Foundation aad kom the Leadarhip in Sxence and Hurnites po {Pos Seconbary Education, and the Natonl Endonment forthe Humanities, * Inerestingy, Lawrence's obsession with produing « aullonlt eoton may bave prevented hin fom being the it wo dsntgrate a naceu witha parse ean ~ Casket fa waton ins a the Cavenaso tht mech ty butt operted at 50) ols (eves 197. Mande 1991 includes a dete discussion of whit he als instruct salen, the dog that “somemporar science is more thn accidental ~ it even — mtd {eosin istcumentaton” (ps). eve king poly about tse ‘ments selenite us, and wean stations where scents nvent nsureat 4 sie However ts Goods hs shows, Farady's cei constaas re cibedded athe appa erated sty drome the (Oona 150) “AIT the materia sudeats ceived are avainb on the, World Wide Web at URL ngpfeteron. sap sirgia.edu~mes%ehGTCCSSTCCSIS hn, ialoing Gry’ si ‘ea several of Bes pater, selections om is notebook, te Sthe'onm Inada toe pejcologsn, Mine! Cont tnd Lay G. Richards and 3 systems engineer, Willa T Scherer. These thee comin to teamteach he Invention and Design course. W. Bernal Caron. a historin of tehnongy, consid on contacon of {he tephona nwt: Fre Renn wnviaingi inthe Edun Deparment, sated {he evaliation. The development ofthe ours was supped by a rat fom the Leadership Opportnes in Science apd Humanities program, july sponsored bythe NSF, he NEF an PSE. Riya & 4 soul (HOW sam FEppErS BOMEE Aha TALIY Mee AYpeNRES. or example, Wason (Wason 19H) fold subject the number pet 2.6 corresponded to ful, and asked them te generate adlona iis inorder to dover the re. He fod tha subjects dipajed what he elles 3 "veifetion bis’, proposing onl rls consent With tsp rei “nurbers go up by twos! and aly proposing instant Hike 3.5" hat might fast Sut a ue Kyran He countered hy arin that Was s eenon ‘Mas corsesponded to reach for postive res and that pone sear i 2 pomeréal ee Soe led ete se conkemeton oy Scere ater ene sfUSING HISTORY TO TEACH HISTORY 19 lone prone 82; 14 400 and mete nent He ype Seen py ‘vos would be fied. Bells notebooks can be used to show sudens the Flaonthip [etwocn sonfmation and dscontrmition and posive end esate tes, ide entra these, ostrmeatl reat approach is phibsophy of Science to an alder spprosch tat oso pimasiy on aspotbetes nse 181) [REFERENCES 1850, The Tetphone Sul: Bell Teliphone Company Et AL.» Peer A. Dowd. Pat Th Ethibis of Compliant and Defendant. aire ude & Son, Law Pitts, Boson Albano. AM. 190, ‘Morse andthe Begining of Telegrapy’ io David P.Biington and ‘lpn Mi Athans (oe) Epic iw sin Penne’ The Sone and the Telegraph J, Wayman Wil Assoites, Basking Rie, NI ‘Baldwin, N= 1998, Eason: Inventing the Cen, Hyperion, Now York Basal, ©. 198, The Evoluion of Technology, Cambvidge Univesity Pres, Cambridge, Bel A.G. 1876, ‘Experimcats Made by A. Graham Bell, (Vo. 1) Bell Family Papers, Libary of Congas Bal As 198, The Hell Telophone: Deposition of Alecander Graham Bell, Asean Bell, “Telephone Co Bost. 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