Jerold Touger
Curry College, Milton MA 02186
Science 101: Approaches to the Natural World is an interarea (biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy) introduction to science that examines how scientists formulate and address questions about life, matter, and the nature of the universe. The course, first developed under an NSF LOCI grant, seeks to involve students in actively considering: (1) elements of critical thinking; (2) the nature of scientific thinking and "doing"; (3) the interrelatedness of the sciences; (4) the utility of science; and (5) sociopolitical implications of science and technology. Emphasis is placed on the methods by which scientists achieve understanding and on the perspectives on the contemporary world that such understanding provides.
The course seeks to move students outward through three levels of awareness, each of which serves as a core for the next:
1 ) Cognitive: becoming acquainted with and trying to understand the phenomena of the natural world (observing the great game of nature and discovering the rules by which it is played).
2) Metacognitive: looking at how scientists in general (and we as individuals) develop that "understanding" of the natural world,
3) Science and Society: what we do with what we know in a broader arena; the importance of transfer.
RECURRENT THEMES(*)
- STUDENTS' OWN THINKING: ORGANIZING AND CONNECTING IDEAS, NOT JUST REMEMBERING FACTS.
- THE NATURE OF EVIDENCE AND THE NATURE OF EXPLANATION -- HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?
- OBJECTIVITY VS. SUBJECTIVITY AND THE ROLE OF "POINT OF VIEW"
- INTERPRETING DATA (GRAPHING, LOGIC, ETC.)
- SCIENCE, ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
( INCLUDING IDEA OF RISKS VS. BENEFITS)
COURSE CONTENT
The numbered items that follow could probably be best described as content blocks. They represent on average a bit less than a week of material (the rest of the time going to in-class exams, and "reprises," that is opportunities to re-examine basic science that has already being treated by looking at its relevance to a particular issue-oriented context.
PROLOGUE: The Problems - A First Look
1. Perception vs. "objective" reality: What do we see and hear? What is "really" out there? How much of it is "all in our heads"?
2. The human enterprise of science: Finding the rules by which the events of the natural world get played out; verifiability, repeatability, the quest for objectivity vs. the inevitability of subjectivity.
3. Some big questions: What is the nature of the universe? What is the nature of matter? What is life?
4. How one of the big questions got approached: Some aspects of the history of astronomy from ancient times through Newton, with emphasis on methods that were used or introduced (observation, description, classification, measurement and the role of mathematics, looking for patterns and forming models or theories to explain them, universality and consistency).
REPRISE 1: Our place in the universe and our capacity to learn
5. Different question, same approach: Exploring changes in matter; regularities in composition and how they led to the development of Dalton's atomic theory.
6. New technologies make possible new observations, new observations necessitate changes in old theories: the progression from Dalton's structureless atoms to the Bohr model.
7. Chemical reactions and physical events involving heat, light, mechanical work, and a conceptual scheme to account for it all: an introduction to the concept of energy and the Law of Conservation of Energy.
REPRISE 2: Chemical Reactions and the Environment I
8. Conservation laws, continued: nature's bookkeeping system, energy transfers and energy transformation (or conversion), the notion of a "system", energy flow through systems.
9. Applying the "rules of the game" to more complex molecules, more complex chemical reactions, and more complex systems - a return to the question "What is life" metabolism, photosynthesis and respiration, chemical information and the genetic code.
REPRISE 3: Feeding Billions of Humans / Why do Rain Forests Matter?
10. A further exploration of energy inputs into and outputs from systems: radiant energy and the photon; emission and absorption spectra; pigments, chlorophyll, and the capture of energy to sustain life; decoding photons from space to gain further understanding of the nature of the universe - what stars are made of, the red shift, the big bang.
REPRISE 4: Changing the Atmospheric Envelope
11. From understanding to application: The relationship between science and technology, the predictive property of science.
REPRISE 5: Greater Production, Greater Waste (Entropy)
12. The human species in a global environment: Still larger systems (ecosystems, the biosphere); exponential growth in a limited environment; conservation laws and resource availability; the depletion of rain forests as an example of a global dilemma.
13. What good is what we know? Science, ethics, and politics; risk-benefit analysis and decision-making in the face of uncertainty. Other specific issues involving science, ethics, and society will be treated to whatever extent the inevitable end-of-semester time crunch permits.
REPRISE 6: Alternate Energy Technologies - Upping the Ante on Both Benefits and Risks.
EPILOGUE: Back to the Future: Can We Deal with the Problems? Can We Achieve Conceptual Change?
Evaluation: Evaluation is based on a major paper (for which students turn in a preliminary proposal and a first draft on which they receive feedback before the final version is submitted), two exams and a comprehensive final examination, homework assignments, and "recitation" activities and labs.
Audience: All students except science and nursing majors
Enrollment: 15 to 25 per recitation section; 50 to over 100 overall each semester
Prerequisites: None
Year Instituted: 1979
Requirements satisfied: This course satisfies the science component of central liberal arts requirement.
(*)These themes will turn up again and again in the context of different specific topics. Students should be conscious of when they occur.