UNIT: My People, My Identity

Learning Plan: 7 of 9

Class: Standard 1 Theme: The People

Duration:1 day Topic: Local Scientists

Context: CONSIDERATIONS:
It is important that from an early age students recognize the roles ☐HFLE
scientists play in our lives. They should also be aware of the local
scientists who have distinguished themselves locally, regionally and
Literacy
internationally.
☒Reading
Outcomes:
☒Writing
At the end of this learning experience students will:
☒Oral
 share information about fish and scientists through a reading Communication
activity
 discuss the role of a scientist ☒Media &
 identify three local scientists Information Literacy
 create a poster on the life and contribution of a local scientist
 reflect in their journals on the life of a local scientist.
Numeracy
Activities:
☒Problem Solving
Hey, Fishy, Fishy
☒Critical thinking
1. Students listen to short reading “How Does a Fish Get its Name?”
Students respond to questions based on the reading. ☒Communication
2. Students conduct research to find out how other fish got their names. ☒Representation
They share these with the class.
3. Students, in their groups, observe and identify the fish in given ☒Reasoning
pictures. Students explain/ are told that these fish can be seen all
over the world as well as in rivers, ponds and streams in Trinidad
(especially the Aripo River). Students name the fish/are told that ☒ICT Skills
these fish are called guppies.
4. Students suggest how the guppy might have got its name. Students ☒Differentiated
read a short paragraph explaining how the guppy got its name.
Instruction
Students explain that the fish is named after a scientist from Trinidad.

Who’s a scientist? ☒Assessment for

Learning
5. Students in groups discuss what a scientist does. They may include
that scientists are people who work in science in the areas of
medicine, technology, food production, animal/habitat preservation,
 etc.

Local Scientists
6. Students listen to information about three local scientists and their
contribution to science locally and worldwide. They discuss what they
hear of each one. Important aspects of the scientist’s life (the name,
date of birth, what they do/did) are highlighted. They stick pictures of
the scientists in their copybooks. They write short sentences about
the scientists’ life beneath the pictures.
7. Students use the information to create a Poster highlighting one of
the scientists. The posters include a picture of the scientist, his/her
date of birth (and death), and his/her contribution to science.

Journaling
8. Students write sentences in their journals to reflect their thoughts on
the life of a local scientist. Additionally or alternatively students
illustrate these activities.

Resources:
 “How does the fish get its name?” (see CD), Information on local
scientists (see CD)

Assessment:
 Checklist
 Oral Reporting
 Observation
 Task completion
Teacher may use the following checklist to assess a group presentation.

Group Task Completion Checklist

Group No. ______
Members: _______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Members stayed on task
The task was completed on time
A local Scientist/Scientist connected to Trinidad and Tobago was identified.
Essential contributions of the Scientist were shared with the class
Short background of the scientist shared
Group members worked together cooperatively
Group members supported presentation (added to presentation in some way)
 Robert John Lechmere Guppy (August 15, 1836 in London – August 5, 1916 in San
Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago) was a British-born naturalist after whom the guppy is
named. He was one of four children of Robert Guppy, a lawyer and the Mayor of San
Fernando (Trinidad), and Amelia Parkinson, a painter and one of the pioneers of
photography, who navigated the Orinoco River accompanied by only a few native
Indians.

"Lechmere," as he was called, was raised by his grandparents, Richard Parkinson

and Lucy Lechmere, in Kinnersley Castle, a 13th-century Norman castle
in Herefordshire. Richard Parkinson wanted Lechmere to take over the castle, a role in
which he had no interest. Having come into an inheritance from another relative, he left
England at the age of 18 and was shipwrecked on the coast of New Zealand in 1856.
After living with the Māoris for two years and mapping the area, Lechmere left New
Zealand for Trinidad, where his parents were living. He married Alice Rostant, the
daughter of local French creole planters and a descendant of the Counts of Rostant,
French aristocrats who had fled to Trinidad to escape the French Revolution and
became Trinidad's first Superintendent of Schools. Although he had no formal training in
the sciences, (he was a civil engineer by trade), Lechmere wrote and published
numerous articles on the paleontology of the region.

Guppy discovered the Guppy fish in Trinidad in 1866, and the fish was
named Girardinus guppii in his honour by Albert C. L. G. Günther later that year.
However, the fish had previously been described in America. Although Girardinus
guppii is now considered a junior synonym of Poecilia reticulata, the common name
"guppy" still remains.

Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_John_Lechmere_Guppy

 Medical Researcher - Courtenay Felix Bartholomew

Courtenay Felix Bartholomew grew up in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He attended

Nelson Street Boys’ R.C. School and then St. Mary’s College.

In 1964 he was the first West Indian to obtain a specialty degree in the subspecialty
of gastroenterology from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

He is especially reputed for his work on scorpion induced pancreatitis, viral hepatitis
and on pioneering new approaches to the diagnosis of bowel disease in the Caribbean
using endoscopic procedures. He has also been credited with the diagnosis of the first
cases of AIDS in the English-speaking Caribbean.

He was awarded the Chaconia Medal (Gold) by the Government of Trinidad and
Tobago in 1975.
 Dr. Rudranath Capildeo - Mathematician

Rudranath Capildeo was born in Chaguanas on 2nd February 1920 to Pundit

Capildeo and his wife Sogee at the Lion House. This building made famous by another
distinguished descendant, V.S. Naipaul. His father died when he was five and he helped
his mother in the family store. He was educated at the Canadian Mission School at
Chaguanas and later attended Queen’s Royal College (QRC) due to the determination
of his mother who persuaded the principal of Queen’s Royal College (QRC) to admit her
son to the school. In those days East Indians rarely entered secondary schools. His
mother accompanied him to Woodbrook for the school week, where he studied up to
sixteen hours a day at times. On Friday evening they both returned to Chaguanas to
work in the family store.

Though he left Trinidad in 1939 to study medicine, Rudranath Capildeo changed his
course of study, focusing on Applied Mathematics and Physics. He was committed to
understanding the nature of space and time and this sparked his interest in
understanding Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. This work led to several new
theories, which had practical implications in aerodynamics and space. They included
“The Flexure Problem in Elasticity” (Ph.D. thesis) and his study on the “Theory of
Rotation and Gravity” named Capildeo’s Theory, which had applications in early outer
space expeditions in the 1960s and 1970s. He was awarded the Trinity Cross in 1969.
 Dr. Grace Sirju-Charran

Dr. Grace Sirju-Charran was born on 20th December, 1946 in Princes Town,
Trinidad but spent most of her childhood in the village of Tortuga. She remembers
herself as always being inquisitive about nature from an early age. This interest
propelled her outstanding academic performance in the sciences and, later, a rich
professional life in teaching and research. She describes her greatest achievement as
being able to manage a family of a husband and three children, while also building a
career in a male-dominated field. Her life motto is, “Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you... to give is to receive.”

Dr Grace Sirju-Charran is a respected plant biochemist and lecturer who is well

known for her special interest in gender studies. She has contributed to the field of plant
science through her study of tropical tuber crops and legumes. Work on her doctoral
thesis led to the discovery that sweet potato, which produces root tubers, can also
produce stem tubers, and that light was an important environmental factor in this
process.

Her long career in teaching science began at Naparima Girls’ High School, after
which she then moved on to Aranguez Junior Secondary School. She now holds the
post of Senior Lecturer at UWI, St Augustine. She is also a former Head of the
Department of Life Sciences and the Institute for Gender and Development Studies.
 Dr Sirju-Charran has also contributed to the field of gender studies as she is
committed to examining the dynamics between gender and science, and gender and
agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago. She developed and taught an undergraduate course
on gender and science at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine,
Trinidad, and is working on a publication entitled “Perspectives and Contributions of
Caribbean Women Scientists”. In 2003, she received the Centre for Gender and
Development 10th Anniversary Award.
 Professor Julian Stanley Kenny - Zoologist

Julian Kenny was born in Woodbrook, Trinidad on 27th January 1930. He attended
Belmont Intermediate School and then St. Mary’s College where he wrote Higher
Certificate examinations. He completed Grade 13 at a Canadian Boarding School, and
was 17 when he entered the University of Toronto to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree
in science. After graduating in 1951, he worked at a fisheries laboratory in the north of
Toronto. When he returned to Trinidad, he joined the staff of the forerunner to the
Fisheries Division as a scientific officer. He spent nine years there, leaving in the post
of Senior Fisheries Officer. He completed his doctorate from Birkbeck College of the
University of London in 1963, and in that same year, joined the staff of the Department
of Biological Sciences at UWI, St. Augustine.

Professor Kenny spent 29 years on staff in the Department of Life Sciences at UWI,
St. Augustine. He was a lecturer on various aspects of Zoology, but was best known for
his work in zoogeography - a specialised branch of ecology which studies the factors
influencing the distribution of animals - and his knowledge of the natural history of the
Caribbean. He worked extensively with research students at UWI developing ecological
profiles of the Tamana Caves, the Caroni Swamp and the Aripo Savannas.
 Professor Julian Kenny was a zoologist who made his mark documenting the natural
history of the Caribbean. His research uncovered details on the distribution of
freshwater fish species in Trinidad and Tobago and provided information on the species
of anurans to be found in these islands. He also spearheaded research at the
University of the West Indies (UWI), which highlighted information on the ecological
dynamics of some of the country’s natural areas, including its savannas, wetlands, cave
systems, marine systems and coral reefs. His work contributed to the protection of
sensitive ecosystems, the management of fisheries and the development of a National
Trust.
 Camille Alleyne

Over the years, Trinidad and Tobago has excelled in many areas. Some of these
very diverse areas range from beauty queen to cricket, music to literary. But it was
refreshing to note that Camille Alleyne is flying the Trinidad and Tobago’s flag very high
as a NASA Rocket Scientist. Undoubtedly her journey was challenging as she was not
only a woman but a woman of colour, in the field of rocket science and space
engineering. But she survived and has grown into a well-respected person in her field.
What is also good to note, not only has Camille excelled in her field, she has
established the Brightest Star Foundation.

She currently serves as the Crew Module Systems Engineering, Integration and Test
Technical Manager at the NASA - Johnson Space Center. In that capacity she leads
the integration and testing of all the subsystems in the crew capsule for the Crew
Exploration Vehicle (CEV) - the next generation of human space vehicle that will have
the capability to return astronauts to the moon by the year 2018. Ms. Alleyne has spent
the last 12 years leading and managing highly technical projects and has been
dedicated to the advancement of aerospace and space technology. She served as the
Systems Engineering and Integration Lead for Requirements in the Exploration Systems
Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Before working for NASA, Ms. Alleyne
served as an Aerospace Systems Engineer at both the Missile Defense Agency and the
Department of the Navy. There she led analysis and integration of several ballistic
missile projects. Ms. Alleyne started her career at the NASA Kennedy Space Center
as a Flight Systems Test Engineer where she conducted integration and testing of the
Space Shuttle environmental control systems.