McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson CIII · Part 10: Granada, Hamlet and the Union
109. The Influences of the Sun (John Tyndall)
Goal: Your student can explain Tyndall's idea that the power in wind, water, plants and animals all comes from the sun.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook and pen
- A dictionary
What's in the book
A short science passage by Tyndall: the sun is the source of nearly all the force on earth. The heading is in the middle of the page, after the note to Webster's speech; a note at the end explains Proteus.
The lesson, step by step
Words and meanings
Read the notes printed at the end of the lesson together before reading. The book explains, among others:
Proteus: a mythological divinity whose distinguishing characteristic was the power of assuming different shapes
Ask your student to find two other hard words in the lesson, guess their meaning from the sentence, then check a dictionary.
About the author
The book says Tyndall (born 1820) was an Irish-born scientist and a pupil of Faraday, and became Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution of London in 1853. He is known for experiments and writing on heat, light and sound, wrote about the Alps and their glaciers, and lectured in America.
Read aloud
Read the first sentence together and talk about it before going on.
Listen for these lines:
As surely as the force which moves a clock's hands is derived from the arm which winds up the clock
Talk about it
SayTyndall compares the sun to the arm that winds a clock. What does the sun 'wind up'?
SayHow does the sun make wind? Rivers? The growth of plants?
SayWhy does Tyndall mention Proteus, who changed shape?
SayWhat do we now get from the sun directly, that Tyndall did not know about?
Narration
Your student draws a simple chart: the sun in the middle, with arrows to wind, rain, plants, animals and coal, and explains each arrow.
Writing (optional)
Explain in a paragraph how your breakfast got its energy from the sun.