quotes

toc Read here quotes about how understanding scale is important to people's lives and work.

=Overview= This page contains quotes that we have found highly relevant to scale studies.

Many other quotes are found in this website, but not hosted on this page. See below.

=Jones' Survey 2009= M. Gail Jones and Amy R. Taylor did a survey and reported their results in Journal Of Research In Science Teaching 2009. Below is their summary:

Physical sciences

 * **Profession** || **Importance of scale** || **Applications and types of scale** || **Tools** ||
 * Chemist || Integral || Mass, volumes, solution prep and precision || Glassware, pipettes ||
 * Chemist || It’s key. I mean in chemistry it is key. Again because we are living in a microscopic world and all the things that are composed are microscopic || Chemistry is nano || Volumetric flasks, graduated cylinders, balances, pipettes ||
 * Biochemist || A lot of this you take for granted after a while in your work. You just are so comfortable with it that you don’t pay too much attention to it. But it is obviously in the background of everything you do || Microscale and biochemical reactions. || Spectrometer -microlevel, flourescent microscope/ flourometer, chromatography system ||
 * Pharmaceutical chemist || Tremendously. Because there are certain rules that you have to apply when you’re doing – when you’re going through the developing manufacturing processes and from a quality standpoint || Laboratory scale to production scale || Mass and volume measures ||
 * Nobel chemist || I think it’s very important for the understanding || Studying proteins and cells || Chemicals, filters ||
 * Nanoscale physicist || Vital || Properties that change from macroscopic to microscopic || Atomic force microscope, tunneling microscopes ||
 * Nobel physicist || n/a || Atomic scale vs. macro scale; Solar mass, light years || n/a ||

Biological sciences

 * **Profession** || **Importance of scale** || **Applications and types of scale** || **Tools** ||
 * Cell biologist || Everything. Absolutely everything. But it’s really exciting to work with all those different scales. There’s actually a name for it. They don’t usually let me call myself this but they call those who work at different scales but they’re bigger scales, they call themselves integrated biologists || Microscopic || Microscopes, electrode tomography ||
 * Ecologist || Very important || Meshing the microscopic scale with macro scale. || Powers of 10, lab equipment ||
 * Animal behavior || It’s essential || Macro to molecular scale || Maps ||
 * Entomologist || I think it’s (scale) tremendously important || Surface area to volume applications with wing span || Microscopes, stage micrometer ||
 * Forester || On a scale from 1 to 10 . . . I would say a 9 || Calculating board feet || Photogrammetry maps, Biltmore sticks, diameter tape, electronic mapping programs ||
 * Toxicologist || Extremely!! It’s a pretty big part of it. It has now become second nature. I do it so often that I don’t even think of it any longer. I don’t even say, ‘‘oh I’m working with scale now’’. I just do it || Baseline scales of what is normal or abnormal in histopathology || Microscopes, analytical balances, graphs ||
 * Ornithologist || Like I said primary is fundamental in ecology. It’s all about scale || Estimating populations. Macroscopic landscapes. Spatial scales || Populations counts, decoys ||
 * Aquatic biologist || Oh it’s integral || Microscopy, scale of contamination || Maps, Scrubbers and wet scrubbers/filters ||
 * Zoologist || Yes.When trying to quantify microscopic structures like surface area and length of intestines || Grams, milligrams, microns || Micrographs, microscopes, image analysis software, electron microscopes ||
 * Neurologist || I think it would be impossible for me to practice without that concept || Comparing microscopic to macroscopic views (of a tumor) || MRI and CAT scans ||
 * Epidemiologist || I mean obviously it is very important. It comes in at so many different levels, each one of them have scales within it, scales not just the fact that I am looking at something small, its all the measurements have scales in them and at every turn you are making a judgment of if this is the best scale || Microscale to macroscale || Microscopes, computers ||

Earth/environmental sciences

 * **Profession** || **Importance of scale** || **Applications and types of scale** || **Tools** ||
 * Archaeologist || It’s absolutely critical because of the very fact that we shift scale so often that you have to clearly be able to understand and define the scale relationships between the different levels in your data set || Mapping, eight inch scale, grain size, time scales || Microscopes, tape measures, optical surveyor’s transit, GPS, maps, carbon dating ||
 * Geologist || Yes, it’s important Linear scale/units of measurement || Gerber scale ||
 * Meteorologist || Very important || Synoptic scale || Computer software to determine different scales ||
 * Astronomer || Oh well, everything has to do with scale. It’s a little challenging as an astronomer because you can’t really visualize these huge scales. You have all sorts of tricks for kind of dealing with it || Giga, parsec scales/distances, wavelengths, magnetic scales || Telescopes ||
 * Astronomer || It is probably the most important thing I think we need to understand || Brightness scale, logarithmic scale; power scales, decibel scale, logarithmic scale || Telescopes ||
 * Paleontologist || Scale is everything Mass, linear scale SA to volume, animal body mass, fractals || X-ray technology ||

Engineering

 * **Profession** || **Importance of scale** || **Applications and types of scale** || **Tools** ||
 * Engineer || It’s fundamental in that if I didn’t understand scale I would have a lot of problems figuring out would a heating/ air system fit in a space or could the lighting work in that space or would the plumbing lines even go in || Standard heating/air scale, lighting scale, metric and English scales, engineer scales, architect scales || Tape measure, folding scale, scale drawings ||
 * Materials science || I think anytime you are dealing with numbers you are dealing with scale || Spatial scale, mass, nanoscale || Microscopy, lithography ||
 * Electrical engineer || I probably wouldn’t be able to do it if I didn’t understand scale. Because things happen on a small scale like time wise and then there’s some things that happen on a large scale time wise || A million times a second or nanometers in width, very, very small scale || Reference points (150 MHz, 100 kHz) ||
 * Computer scientist || Very important || Time scale, linear scale, voltage scale || Proportions in reference to scale ||

=Stephen Kass Introduction To Magnitude=

Many research studies conclude that proportions are the most difficult problem-solving mathematical tools to master of any introductory science course. Indeed, many physical science, biology, physics, and chemistry concepts, in effect, are names given to proportional relationships. More specifically, proportional math problems can compose as much as 95% of an introductory chemistry course. Students’ ability to comprehend and effectively use proportions, therefore is a major concern of the science and math educator. Yet, little is done within the classroom to increase this proficiency.

Not only is student understanding of proportionality a concern of the science and math educator, it is a major concern of the developmental psychologist. For example, Inhelder and Piaget have studied intellectual development in relationship to students’ ability to deal with science concepts. They regard proportionality as a primary acquisition at the stage of formal operations which include subjects from 11Ð15 or 16 years. Unfortunately, there is much evidence that suggests that as much as 50% of some samples of secondary school and college-age students have failed to acquire a working understanding of proportionality.

The concept of proportions is seen as fundamental to understanding many scientific applications as well as consumer problems, advanced science and math courses, and intellectual development in general. Rates can be found in most aspects of life including cooking, navigation, physics, earth science, economics, electronics, business, and industry. Since a large percentage of adolescents are lacking this critical skill, the determination of possible ways of successfully teaching the concept is an important issue.

=Links And Citations=

[1] Jones 2009: "Developing a Sense of Scale: Looking Backward" by M. Gail Jones, Amy R. Taylor, in Journal Of Research In Science Teaching Vol. 46, No. 4, (2009) pp. 460–475.

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