In a message dated 3/6/01 1:11:13 PM Central Standard Time, rwolfson@SIU.EDU
writes:
<< Well, Robert, I can tell you this. When I talked to my daughter about
energy levels, and Hund's Rule, and such, her comment to me was, "Well,
wonder why she didn't tell us that?"
Why are the energy levels the way they are? Where did Hund's Rule come from?
I hope your daughter realizes that the energy levels are the way they are
because, that's the way it is, rather than because of human observations of
the game. When two objects interact, the forces of interaction are equal and
opposite because of Newton's 3rd, right? Wrong. This is an observation of
nature. That's the way it is.
So you can talk about us not knowing the "why" of the universal rules all
you want. I don't pretend to know "why" the universe is as it is. But I do
know some of the rules, and I can try to explain them as best I can to a
student. I will NEVER (keyboard isn't broken....all caps on purpose!) tell
a student "That's just the way it is."
At some point, this is exactly what you must say, if you are honest. Unless
you have better connections than I do.
Besides....why try to teach about electron configuration in Biology class?
Seems there are plenty of topics to cover in that field that she actually
knew something about. Or should be at least.
Again, was the electron configuration she discussed wrong? Also, I think
there would be a number of Biologists that would disagree about the
importance of chemistry in biology.