Site BlogIn the last post, Drafting a subject-topic index, I presented a heavily pruned draft of a subject-topic index. In this post I provide a longer, unpruned version. I believe our goal is to arrive at a list that is somewhere in between these two extremes.
This index came from several sources. First topics were found from syllabuses and curricula. State standards were were briefly examined. The Earth Science topics came from the Table of Contents of a couple of textbooks. A few other items were examined. In general, the list is best suited for high school courses as it came from their requirements.
I worked on the list as an outline. The pruned outline of the last post was kept at two levels. In this outline, the matter section the outline is six levels deep. Level 1 is bold, level two is plain, level three is italics, level four is asterisked, level five is hyphenated, and level six is plain again.
The subjects of ‘Technology and Applied Science’, ‘Science as Study’, ‘Science and Christianity’ have not been repeated for this post.
Some of these levels are more natural than others. This raises questions of how to treat natural subtopics. For instance, should the ‘Sun’ be a topic called ‘Solar System: the Sun’?
I could use feedback. Thanks.
–Patrick
The Outline
Astronomy
The Cosmos
Galaxies and Stars
The Solar System
Discovery and exploration
Sun
Planets (Inner planets and Outer planets)
* Mercury
* Venus
* Mars
* Jupiter
* Saturn
* Uranus
* Neptune
Asteroid belt
Dwarf Planets
Comets
Kuiper belt
Earth Science
Earth’s Properties, Structure, Composition
Seasons
Solar intensity
Latitude
Structure and Composition of the Earth’s Interior
The Earth’s surface
Plate Tectonics
* Earthquakes
* Volcanoes
Minerals and Rocks
* Igneous Rocks
* Sedimentary Rocks
* Metamorphic Rocks
* Rock Cycle
Soil and Soil Dynamics
* Weathering and Formation of Soil
* Erosion and Deposition
* Soil Conservation
Earth’s Envelope
The Atmosphere
Atmospheric composition
Atmospheric Layers
Energy in the Atmosphere
Air Movement
The Hydrosphere
Oceans
Freshwater
Ice Masses
Water Cycle
Weather and Climate
Atmospheric Water
Changing Weather
Storms
Weather Forecasting
Climate Patterns
World Climates
Climate Change
Earth’s History
Origin and Development of the Earth and Its Envelopes
Eras and Periods of Geologic Time
Fossils Record
Earth’s Resources and their use
The Earth’s Energy
*Energy Consumption
- Fossil Fuel Resources and Use
- Formation of coal, oil, and natural gas
- Extraction/purification methods
- World reserves and global demand
* Nuclear Energy
* Hydroelectric Power
- Dams
- Flood control
* Pollution
- Soil, air, water, noise, light
* Agriculture
* Forestry
* Mining
Ecosystems
Ecosystem Structure
* Biological populations and communities
* Ecological niches
* Interactions among species
* Keystone species
* Species diversity and edge effects
* Major terrestrial and aquatic biomes
Energy Flow
* Photosynthesis and cellular respiration
* Food webs and trophic levels
* Ecological pyramids
Ecosystem Diversity
* Biodiversity
* Natural selection; evolution
* Ecosystem services
Ecosystem Change
* Climate shifts
* Species movement
* Ecological succession
Biogeochemical Cycles
* Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, water
Physics
Classical Mechanics
Motion
* Velocity, Speed
* Acceleration
* Linear Motion
* Projectile Motion
* Circular Motion
* Spring-Mass Oscillators
Newton’s Laws
* Newton’s First Law
* Newton’s Second Law
* Newton’s Third Law
Energy
* Conservation of Energy
* Kinetic Energy
* Potential Energy (Gravitational)
Forces in Nature
* Gravity
* Newton’s Universal Law of Gravity
* Electrical Forces
Momentum
* Conservation of Momentum
Fluid Mechanics
* Hydrostatic pressure
* Buoyancy
* Fluid flow continuity
* Bernoulli’s equation
Matter (see chemistry)
Heat and Thermodynamics (see chemistry)
Waves
Wave Description
* Transverse, Longitudinal
* Wavelength
* Frequency
* Wave speed
Wave motion (including sound)
* Traveling waves
* Wave propagation
* Standing waves
* Superposition
Types of Waves
* Electromagnetic waves
* Light waves
* Sound waves
* Water Waves
Physical optics
* Interference and diffraction
* Dispersion of light and the electromagnetic spectrum
Optics (Geometric)
* Reflection and refraction
* Mirrors
* Lenses
Electricity and Magnetism
* Electrostatics (Static electricity)
-Electric Charge
Coulomb’s law
-Electric field and electric potential (including point charges)
-Gauss’s law
-Fields and potentials of other charge distributions
* Conductors and Insulators
-Electrostatics with conductors
-Capacitors
Capacitance
Parallel plate
Spherical and cylindrical
-Dielectrics
* Electric circuits
-Electric Current
-Electric Resistance
-Electric Voltage
-Electric Power (Watts)
-Ohm’s law
-Transistors
* Magnetism
-Magnetic Fields
* Electromagnetism
-Electromagnetic induction (including Faraday’s law and Lenz’s law)
-Inductance
-Maxwell’s equations
Non-Newtonian Physics
Special Relativity
* Mass–energy equivalence
General Relativity
Quantum Physics
Chemistry
Matter
States of Matter
* Solid
-Structure of solids
-Lattice energies
-Crystals
* Liquid
* Gas
-Ideal Gases Laws
Equation of state for an ideal gas
Partial pressures
-Kinetic molecular theory
Interpretation of ideal gas laws on the basis of this theory
Avogadro’s hypothesis and the mole concept
Dependence of kinetic energy of molecules on temperature
Deviations from ideal gas laws
-Changes of state
Critical points
Triple points
* Changes of state
* Plasma
Structure of Matter
* Atomic theory
-Proton, Neutrons, Electron
-Atomic masses, Atomic number, mass number; isotopes
-Electron energy levels:
Atomic spectra,
Quantum numbers,
Atomic orbitals
-Periodic Table & Periodic relationships
Atomic radii,
Ionization energies,
Electron affinities,
Oxidation states
* Chemical bonding & Molecules
* Binding forces
-Ionic,
-Covalent,
-Metallic,
-Hydrogen bonding,
-Van der Waals
-London dispersion forces
* Polarity of bonds
* Molecular models
-Lewis structures
-Valence bond
-VSEPR
* Geometry of molecules and ions,
-Structural isomerism
-Coordination complexes
-Dipole moments of molecules
-Geometry and chemical properties
* Quantum theory
-Photons
Wave-Particle duality
* Crystals
* Polymers
* Compounds
* Solutions
-Solubility
-Concentration
-Normalities
-Raoult’s law and colligative properties (nonvolatile solutes)
-Osmosis
Nuclear decay
* Half-lives
* Radioactivity
Chemical Reactions
Reaction types
* Acid-base reactions;
-Concepts of Arrhenius, Brønsted-Lowry and Lewis;
-Coordination complexes; amphoterism
* Precipitation reactions
* Oxidation-reduction reactions
* Oxidation number
* The role of the electron in oxidation-reduction
* Electrochemistry:
-Electrolytic and galvanic cells;
-Faraday’s laws;
-Standard half-cell potentials;
-Nernst equation;
-Prediction of the direction of redox reactions
Stoichiometry
* Ionic and molecular species present in chemical systems: net ionic equations
* Balancing of equations, including those for redox reactions
* Mass and volume relations
-The mole concept
-Empirical formulas and limiting reactants
Equilibrium
* Concept of dynamic equilibrium, physical and chemical;
-Le Chatelier’s principle
-Equilibrium constants
* Quantitative treatment
* Equilibrium constants for gaseous reactions: Kp, Kc
* Equilibrium constants for reactions in solution
* Constants for acids and bases; pK; pH
* Solubility product constants
-Solutions and precipitation
-Dissolution of slightly soluble compounds
* Common ion effect; buffers; hydrolysis
Kinetics (study of rate of chemical reactions)
* Concept of rate of reaction
* Reaction rate laws
* Temperature & rate of reaction
* Energy of activation
* Catalysts
Thermodynamics
State functions
Laws of Thermodynamics
* First Law of Thermodynamics: Conservation of Energy
-Enthalpy
-Heat of formation
-Heat of reaction
-Hess’s law
-Heat of vaporization
-Heat of fusion
-Calorimetry
* Second Law of Thermodynamics
-Entropy
-Free energy of formation
-Free energy of reaction
-Dependence of change in free energy on enthalpy and entropy changes
Heat & Work
Engine Cycles
Entropy
Life Science (Biology)
Cells and Their Structures
Biochemistry
Cell Functions
Heredity, Genetics and Evolution
Classifying Life
Evolutionary patterns
Survey of the diversity of life
Phylogenetic classification
Evolutionary relationships
Examining Types of Living things
Plants (Botany)
Animals (Zoology)
Fish, Reptiles, Snakes, Birds, Mammals, etc.
Biological Systems (Physiology)
Skin, Bones, and Muscles
Food and the Digestive System
Cardiovascular System
Respiratory and Excretory Systems
Controlling the Body
Diseases and the Body’s Defenses
Reproductive Systems and Life Stages
Ecology
Population dynamics
Communities and ecosystems
Global issues
Health / Nutrition
Most high school physics texts (and certainly all of the AP variety) will also include inductance along with capacitance in their electrical circuits chapters. In fact, the topic is substantial enough that I break down my own electricity units into a DC unit designed to get them thoroughly comfortable with Ohms law, Kirchoff’s laws, and DC power concepts in series, parallel, and combination circuits. And then we begin an “AC circuits” unit that deals with RMS values, RL, RC, and RLC circuits with concepts of phase shift, frequency response, among other things.
I notice you do mention ‘transistors’, which I don’t usually include in a single year’s high school physics course. RLC (AC) circuits is considered more basic than transistors in most texts. Transistors are typically reserved for more specialized electronics semesters. I doubt that physics teachers would have time to reach that far unless they do so at the expense of covering other more foundational physics topics in an already crowded two-semester course. Not that I’m insisting you remove ‘transistors’ –can’t hurt to “over-list” rather than omit.
Also, I don’t know if this should properly be considered in separate categories, but would any ‘historical’ or ‘biographical’ be worthy of separate mention. Nothing spices up an otherwise mechanical or mathematical course like telling stories of relationships; e.g. Galileo’s tensions (& friendship!) with the establishment of his day, or the opposition between Edison and Tesla over AC & DC concepts. Those things can naturally be included in units where they come up, so perhaps they don’t need separate mention. But they are pertinent –and all the more so in curricula for a homeschooling or religious environ.
–Merv
I didn’t see anything about the strong and weak forces, quarks, etc.
The division of life into animal and plant kingdoms, although still useful, is rather out of date.
Most of this is very thorough.
I’m not sure why I didn’t see that you do have ‘Inductance’ listed under the Electromagnetism section, which makes sense, and answers much of my concern in the post above. I guess I’m just used to teaching a more practical (non-calculus based) version of circuits at the high school level, and so we don’t go as deep into electromagnetic theory as college engineering texts would. But as far as broad topics go, you have it covered at a more rigorous level.
–Merv
Here’s the challenge as I see it – or at least as I originally envisioned this index:
Subject and Topic will be two specific data fields in our backend database. This means that the goal is to collapse this outline to just two levels. I asked Patrick to disclose the more detailed outline so that we could consider what we mean by the higher level titles and can provide advice about their arrangement. Whichever titles we decide do not “make the cut” (i.e., are third level or lower) will be relegated to the ordinary category of “keywords”.
The questions are:
1. Which lower level “subtopics” should be raised to the topic level, and which topics should be demoted to a “subtopic” level (and thus no longer count as a topic)? For example, I’d suggest raising “Electricity and Magnetism” to the second level (out from under “Waves”).
2. Are the titles of each subject and topic worded to best capture the collection of detailed subtopics that Patrick lists? In other words, what is the best way to phrase the titles of each subject and topic?
3. Are there other low-level “concepts” or “keywords” that we need to know about so that we associate them (on the back end) with the appropriate topic and subject?
Thanks in advance for the input.
RE Biography:
The prior post has some topics that include, the “History of Science.” I would tag biographies and histories with this topic. If the biography was about Galileo’s dispute with the church, I would tag it with the topics “Science and Christian theology.” I would also free tag it with “Galileo.”
RE quarks & quantum forces:
Looking at the outline, I see two spots were these could be: Physics-quantum physics, and Matter-Quantum theory. Neither of these is quite right. Do you thing we need a topic of “Matter-Standard Model” with sub topics of quarks, fermions, bosons, leptons, weak force, strong force?
(I think “Physics-quantum physics” should be dropped for some “Matter” topic.)
RE division of life:
Biology is my weakest subject. I will let those more knowledgeable than I drive biology. I picked up the topics in “Examining Living Things” from elementary standards and a 6th grade life science curriculum.
Doug:
Those are challenging questions. I would say the last post was too short and this list is too long.
New keywords:
This outline is missing additional keywords for the subjects of “Technology & Applied Science” and “Science & Christianity” as well as for
“Unifying Concepts and Processes”.
I would keyword individual “Scientific Instruments”, e.g. microscope, telescope, (weight) scale, ruler, spectrometer. I would add these as needed.
I would keyword individual “Inventions”, e.g. telephone, airplane, computer. I would add these as needed and only when treated as a study of invention.
In “Technology and Applied Science,” I would add a topic of medicine.
In “History of Science” I would keyword individual scientists and inventors as needed.
If I am misunderstanding this whole topic index project, and it has nothing to do with web searches, please delete this post.
1. From a “looking for homeschool materials” functional perspective, will the Subject and topics be the SOLE search (data field) terms with keyword level words not searchable? If yes, we might want to change and expand topics list to include what we are now calling keywords. Most homeschoolers are not going to type in a topic term such as “Examining Types of Living things”. They are going type, for instance, “Biology” with an overwhelming number of results (see #2) or get no results for narrower keyword terms such as “Birds.”
2.Another concern- if subject and topic are only search terms, a search of “Biology” will result a cluttered list of just about every primary and most secondary textbooks from every publisher which, by design are a mile wide and an inch deep for grades K-12. The specialty books, such as the Life Cycles of Butterflies: From Egg to Maturity… , are simply going to be buried. If site visitors CAN search by keywords (level 3 and beyond), they should have less results clutter as long as we have a way for them to sort or view by grade level…but we do need a lot more keywords. Example: butterfly is not on the list. I personally would like Nature Study to be a sort mechanism. It will not apply to most textbooks, but it will apply to a lot of specialty books.
Hi Kimberly,
The short answer to your question is, “No, the subject-topic index is not primarily for search”. Nevertheless, I did approve your comment because part of what you say is still relevant and ought to be considered. So, here’s the long answer…
All data fields (and the full contents of each review) will be searchable. Therefore, if we reviewed “Life Cycles of Butterflies: From Egg to Maturity”, both the title of the book and the keywords (e.g., butterfly, butterflies, metamorphosis, caterpillars, chrysalis, etc.) and any words used in the body of the review itself would be searchable.
The subject-topic index is more about refining (narrowing or filtering) search results or providing a way to browse to general types of content. Thus, as long as “Examining Types of Living Things” makes sense when presented as an option, it doesn’t particularly matter if it isn’t a phrase that people would type in a search box. People that are looking for a very specific item, such as the butterfly book you mention, will find it quickest by search. What the topic-subject index would do is enable that user to “see” that this particular book is classified under “Insects/Structure, Growth and Life Cycles of Living Things/Biology”. Thus, when they are viewing the web page review of Life Cycles of Butterflies, they could browse up one level to “Insects” to see other very similar items.
Likewise, someone ought to be able to get to a reasonably specific list of related book reviews merely by browsing. Our predetermined subject-topic index would allow the user to very quickly navigate to this “Insects” category. Of course, they could also then narrow the list by other dimensions defined in other data fields, such as “Grades 4-6″ or “Motion Picture” or both.
Nevertheless, your general point is still valid. Each of these subject-topic “titles” should be unambiguous and meaningful to our audience. It should not be too technical (e.g, “Classifying and Naming Life” is better than “Systematics and Taxonomy” since parents may not know what the latter terms mean). In the case of “Examining Types of Living Things”, I think it is not very clear how that is different from “Survey of the Diversity of Life” (at least I would not have known the difference if I weren’t already seeing the topics that are listed under each one). I would merge those two categories or refine the titles somewhat (like I did in the example above).
–Doug
Doug,
I believe that “Examining Types of Living Things” is a very poor title. It is probably the worst one I created!
I recommend and accept the merging of the two categories: “Survey of the Diversity of Life,” and “Classifying and Naming Life” into “Classifying and Naming Life”.
Could any others ‘titles’ be replaced?
Good list to start with, but NOTICEABLY MISSING are the following (not exhaustive):
Philosophical underpinnings of science (metaphysics, epistemology) – age-appropriate level of course.
Ethics
Social (human) Sciences – psychology, economics, political science, sociology, research on human nature
Hi Adrian:
Actually, Patrick had not forgotten about the philosophical aspect. It’s in the earlier post about this…
Science as Study
* Unifying Concepts and Processes
* Science as Inquiry
* * Scientific Method
* * Measurement
* Nature /Philosophy of Science
* History of Science
* Science & Society
Science and Christianity
* Science and belief in God
* Science and the Bible
* Science and Christian theology
* Science and Christian practice
As for the social sciences, I guess we had somewhat excluded them up to this point. However, I’ve encountered several things recently (besides your comment) to suggest that we should attempt to add at least some of these domains of science to our project. Psychology, at least, is largely a natural/physical science.
We had also left off mathematics.
–Doug