Luke doesn't ask for many things, but he saw a Galileo Thermometer in one of his books and got so excited about it he begged me to help him find one. I've never heard about these thermometers before, have you? If you look on Amazon you'll see they sell quite a few of these pretty thermometers. If you want to know how they work, you could read here.
Since getting this thermometer, Luke has decided to do his 4th Grade Famous Person report on Galileo. Galileo is pretty fascinating. It's been fun learning about him. Science as we know it barely existed before him, because the universities at that time were full of philosophers, who followed the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. These philosophers spent their time discussing how things MIGHT work, rather than testing their theories. Galileo rejected the traditional approach because he believed that an idea couldn't be accepted as true until it was tested and proven. This laid the foundation for our modern experimental method.
Galileo got in a lot of trouble for his discoveries. It's fascinating to read about the time period he lived in, in relation to science. Galileo was born in 1564 and at that time in Italy the Catholic Church controlled all aspects of life. The church was especially strict about areas in which the bible seemed to give guidance on what was true. One example of this was the idea that the earth was motionless at the center of the universe, with all the stars and planets moving around it. In 1600 a man named Giordano Bruno had been burned at the stake in Rome for claiming that the earth moved around the sun (an idea first published by Copernicus in 1543). Galileo was being led toward the same dangerous view as he studied with his telescope. Although Galileo was a good Catholic, he could not deny the evidence that Copernicus was right. He agreed with Cardinal Cesare Baronio, who said that the bible was a book about how people go to heaven, not about how heaven goes.
Well, that is just the start. His life is really interesting. You'll have to read about it. For starters watch this kids video on Brainpop about Galileo. Brainpop is an AMAZING website! The videos often make tough concepts easy to understand. Some videos are free. Others you have to have a subscription for. You can get a free subscription for a month though so try it out!!
2 comments:
That thermometer is SO COOL! I want one for myself! Isaac is going to love that site, thank you so much for sharing.
Well aren't you the expert now? Luke is making you become smart!!! Someday I have to do these experiments with Jonny. He would love it! I am too tired to right now. Maybe I can hire Luke to do it for me (: Luke can be his science tutor.
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