Classical Science

Thomas Aquinas defines wonder as the desire for the knowledge of what a thing is and why it is. This is different from curiosity, which is simply a desire for information, regardless of whether or not that information is useless or harmful to us, whether or not that information leads to wisdom or folly. This is why the old maxim says, “Curiosity killed the cat.” Gossips are curious, and this curiosity frequently squelches their wonder.

Aristotle says, “All men by natue desire to know,” but the ultimate aim of man is not the knowledge of ephemeral things, the surface of reality, but the deep knowledge of the essences and causes of things. Ultimately, this is knowledge of God, but the knowledge of nature also inspires that yearning because it directs our thoughts to the very deepest realities.

The error commonly promulgated by the standard STEM curriculum is that the purpose of mathematics is to construct scientific theories, while the purpose of scientific theories is engineering applications to make technologies. But the truth is that math, though useful for science, is primarily for the sake of math. Most of the new areas of mathematics have no known application to physical entities. Most of the digits of pi (and when I say “most”, I mean an infinity of them!) are useless – the first 60 are more than enough for any application. But this does not stop mathematicians from caring! Likewise, many areas of physical science have no application to engineering or technology. Scientists do not study black holes or the Big Bang so they can make them! Although engineering and technology needs math and science, we study the deepest mysteries of mathematics and nature to satisfy our wonder, simply because these realities are true, beautiful, and good to know.

The St. Michael School science curriculum is founded on wonder. When a child sees anything mysterious in nature, it is the most fundamental human response to ask “what is it?” or “what causes this to happen?” The less we know something, the more unexpected it is, and so the more it excites our desire to know. Nature is full of wonders, and yet a culture immersed in technologies becomes divorced from nature and so fails to see these wonders. When our only concern is how to bend nature to submit to our desires, we become obsessed with ourselves, our needs, and our own inventions, and so we never rise above our appetites. Engineering and tech are good so far as it goes, but they cannot address our deepest yearnings.

This is why St. Michael School does not have a STEM program in the usual meaning of the term – where science, technology, engineering, and math stand on an equal footing with one another, or even worse, where science and math are subservient to engineering and technology. The primary aim of a classical science curriculum is a deeper understanding of nature. This is why classical education does not study nature in the spirit of the engineer, whose aim is to dominate nature and bend it to make his technologies. For although technologies can assist us in reaching scientific knowledge, technology itself is not the aim of science. Technology is a work of man, but nature is the work of God; and so when we better understand nature, we better understand ourselves as a part of nature, and the divine Artist who made nature to show forth His Glory.

The case is similar with mathematics. The primary aim of mathematics is to understand quantities and the relations between quantities, and since nature is quantified, the scientist can apply this knowledge to his goal of understanding nature. This does not mean that our students are ignorant of engineering and the technologies that engineers make, but rather that our students also understand that math and science are worth knowing for their own sake.

Week of March 11-15, 2024:

 “He who wonders discovers that this in itself is a wonder.” - M. C. Escher 

Our 8th Grade scientists went out into the neighborhood on a quest: to find pocket-sized natural objects with potential secrets, secrets hidden beyond the reach of our eyes. And they returned with an assortment of common things: a spider web, leaves, moss, plants roots, a millipede… Then the mysteries of these common items were uncovered in the laboratory, in the light and lens of the microscope. Peering into the tiny structures of these common things exposed these young scientists to a world of incredible detail and beauty, a world of wonder!

Having seen that even the things they commonly experience have mysteries to behold, and having practiced their microscope skills on the visible world, these young scientists were then prepared for a deep dive into the invisible world, the microworld of flatworm planarian, protozoa, protists, and diatomaceous earths. And this is exactly what they did!


Week of March 11-15, 2024:  Chemistry class observing acid and base reactions

Have you ever noticed how lemon juice turns black tea yellow?

Most people assume the color is nothing more than yellow pigments added from the lemon juice, but the fact is that the color comes from the black tea itself! Our Sophomore scientists had the opportunity this week to study the effect that acids and bases have on certain organic pigments.

Beginning with a red cabbage donated by the first grade classroom, and a teabag smuggled out of the teachers’ lounge, students created two different solutions of organic pigments – the brown thearubigins in tea and purple anthocyanin in cabbage. Students then observed how

• both the citric acid in lemon and orange juice and the acetic acid in vinegar turned the thearubigins light yellow, and the anthocyanin red,
• while the alkaline salts in washing soda, wood ash, and quicklime quickly turned the thearubigins an opaque black,
• and the anthocyanin turned the red pigments first back to purple, then to blue, and then to green, as they neutralized the citric acid, and then overwhelmed it.