Next Step

You've found some really great information about Laviosier, phlogiston and done a great job of keeping a log of websites. Next, you need to print a copy of the paper that you chose for this assignment and read it. I suspect that you will have questions as you read, will need to have a way to figure out what it all actually says. So, I would like for you to keep a record of your questions and post that to the blog. If you can only read a portion of the paper, that's fine...just try to get through the whole thing before next week. I'll be curious to read what you've discovered.

Great job!

You've done a terrific job so far - just so you will know - you are right - the title of this paper is concerning philosophy. However it's not the kind of philosophy you might be recognize today. Early in its existence, the field of science was considered a kind of "natural philosophy", which meant people were trying to find explanations for things they saw by reasoning (not the way we think of trying to find explanations today, through scientific investigations).

As an example, I would like for you to look at the phlogiston theory. This was the theory about why things burned. Alchemists and early chemists believed that phlogiston was similar to flammability and/or oxidation. Post what you find about phlogiston.

Also, I may not have been clear about keeping track of your sources. You need to be sure that you keep a record of the internet sources you've used so far and all of those that will be used during this project. If you keep a record of them here, it will keep things all in one place!