Introduction

B3.1 Portrait of Setuk Muccon
Calgary, Alberta, unknown date
Photographers: Boorne and May
C-049480

Long before the invention of beakers, labs, and test tubes, humans were using chemical substances to meet their basic needs. They ate foods that provided vitamin C to prevent scurvy, used salicylic acid from willow bark tea to reduce fevers and inflammations, made heaters using moss and animal fats, and used natural dyes to adorn clothing. By the end of this lesson, you should have an idea of some of the historical uses of chemical substances.

  Targets

• identify historical examples of how humans worked with chemical substances to meet their basic needs
• identify examples of chemistry-based careers in the community
  

  Watch This

Historical Examples of Uses of Chemicals

© flickr.com CC2.0
B3.2 Hide being prepared for processing

Before the dawn of modern chemistry, humans utilized chemical substances and chemical reactions, even though they did not fully understand the principles behind the events.

Indigenous Canadians used many chemical substances and reactions to enhance their way of life; for example, the process of brain tanning. Rawhide is by nature hard and not waterproof. It can be made into various items, such as whips, drums, string, and even casts for broken bones. However, by chemically reacting the rawhide with materials such as brains and smoke, you can create a soft, pliable, waterproof material known as buckskin. Buckskin can be used to make clothing, blankets, and shelters.

  Watch This

Tanning @ the Musée Régional de la Côte-Nord  https://quick.adlc.ca/tanning

This video is in the Innu language (there is a transcript provided). It shows the processing brain for tanning hide.

Other uses of chemical substances included

• animal fats and petroleum products used as waterproofing materials and as sources of fuel for heaters and lamps
• plant material such as blueberries, cranberries, lichen, indigo, and delphinium used as dyes for adorning fabric and porcupine quills
• many plants used for medicinal purposes, such as
• the leaves and flowers of wild roses being used to make tea to treat bee stings, colds, and diarrhea
• the flowers and leaves of yarrow are used to treat headaches, as a local anesthetic, as a coagulant (to stop bleeding), to aid digestion, and to help eliminate cold/flu by causing perspiration
• Echinacea is used to treat viral infections,
• lamb’s quarter is used as an antispasmodic to treat epilepsy
  
• balsam fir being used as an antiseptic
  
• cranesbill being used as an astringent (a substance that causes body tissue such as skin to contract)
  
• other medicinal plants
  

Some Indigenous cultures within Canada used fermented materials that have acidic properties to etch seashells, which are composed of calcium carbonate (this utilizes an acid-base reaction.) Other tribes mined copper ore and, using very hot fires, purified and annealed it, making it stronger. Ash from fires, which is alkaline (or basic), was used for many purposes, including making detergents and tanning hides. As you can see, the list of applying chemical principles to enhance their lifestyle is long!

© Wikimedia Commons
B3.3 Mi'kmaq birch box adorned with dyed porcupine quills

© Wikimedia Commons
B3.4 Yarrow

  Digging Deeper

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© Wikimedia Commons
B3.5 Wild rose

There has been a resurgence of interest in traditional Indigenous knowledge, such as identifying plant species that are native to Alberta that had significance to traditional Indigenous life. You can start investigating this fascinating topic on this website. https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/our-garden/our-plants

Learn More


The following website provides a listing of traditional natural quill dyes and mordants. http://www.nativetech.org/quill/dyes.html ;

Learn More

  Read This

  Practice Questions

1. Identify the importance of food preservation and list two historical methods of preserving food.
   
   
   Check your work.
   

   Fresh food is not available to everyone all year long, so preserving food as it is harvested is vital. Historical methods include drying, cooking, salting, fermenting, and smoking.
2. What is annealing, and why was the discovery of this process important?
   
   
   Check your work.
   

   Annealing is the process of heating a metal, which causes the properties of that metal to change. It is important because it allowed Indigenous people to create stronger tools.

  Chemistry-Based Careers

© Wikimedia Commons
B3.6 Cross-country skier

Will this athlete end up on the podium at the Olympics? What factors affect the speed at which this athlete hurtles down the slopes? Did the trainer pick the correct ratio of hydrocarbon wax to fluorocarbon wax for the snow conditions? Is the snow natural or man-made? Are the skis strong enough yet flexible enough? Is there a different composite material that they should have been made from? Will the shin and arm guards offer enough protection? What did this athlete eat to properly fuel his body? Did he consume enough electrolytes? If he makes it to the podium, will he test clean or be caught up in a doping scandal?

It is easy to see that a knowledge of chemistry is useful in a variety of fields, from nutrition to material production. But careers in chemistry are not just in distant locations; there are many careers in your community that rely on the knowledge and application of chemistry. Whether it is a hairdresser bleaching a client’s hair, a technician servicing your natural gas line, a pharmacist mixing a prescription, or a lifeguard testing the quality of a leisure pool.

  Watch This

  Read This

  Problem-Solving Activity

1. I work for a company in the R & D (research and development) sector to try to improve the formulation of household cleaning products. Who am I?
   
   
   Check your work.
   

   Answers may vary; one possible scientist is household goods senior scientist Phillip Eastwood.
2. I work for the RCMP analyzing crime scene evidence. Who am I?
   
   
   Check your work.
   

   Answers may vary; one possible scientist is forensic scientist Joni Walker.

  Conclusion

© NASA
B3.7 Chris Hadfield on the space station

In this lesson, you started to investigate what chemistry-based careers there are not only in your current community but also where chemistry-based careers are headed to in the future. You also looked at historical examples of how humans used chemical substances to meet their basic needs.

  Concluding Activity

In this activity, you will create a chemistry-based career advertisement.

1. the name of the organization placing the ad (Make this a real place that would really need this kind of employee; e.g., Kraft foods, RCMP, etc.)
2. job title and description (Explain the duties the employee would be expected to carry out.)
3. education requirements (Does this career require a college or technical degree? How many years of school?)
4. working conditions
5. personal characteristics or abilities (e.g., needs to work independently, are innovative, are methodical, etc.) that would be an asset
6. approximate starting salary (either hourly or annually) and expected advancements
7. how to contact the employer (Use an actual Internet site where possible, otherwise find the address of the organization.)
8. an aesthetically pleasing advertisement.

2.2 Assignment

Assignment B1