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| SCIENCE FOUND | |||
| CLASS CODE: | FDSCI 101 | CREDITS: 2 | |
| COLLEGE: | CURRICULUM | ||
| DEPARTMENT: | FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE | ||
| GENERAL EDUCATION: | This course fulfills a General Education - no GECode requirement. | ||
| DESCRIPTION: | An introduction to the nature, practice, power, and limitations of science, as well as relationships between science and religion, and science and society. These topics are explored through the study of selected episodes of scientific discovery that demonstrate methodical and creative aspects of scientific inquiry, and the self-correcting nature of science. | ||
| TAUGHT: | Fall, Winter, Spring | ||
| CONTENT AND TOPICS: | The main goal of this course is to help you become a scientist with a lower case “s”. That is, to provide you with a set of experiences and tools that will enable you to pursue scientific interests you develop and think and act intelligently on science-related concerns you will certainly face during your life. If you do your part, by the end of the semester should be able to: 1. Explain what science is. 2. Demonstrate how we know what we know via science, and explain why we accept what we accept and why we reject what we reject as a result of scientific investigation. 3) Understand the difference between observation and interpretation, and demonstrate how observation leads to inference. 3. Describe methods scientists use to make purposeful observations. 4. Understand that knowledge is based on facts or on faith, and that we must determine if there are enough meaningful observations to justify accepting an idea based on facts, or if we accept an idea based on faith. 5. Explain why words are symbols for ideas, and that words are not the ideas themselves. 6. Explain how and why theories are updated to agree with facts, and how that process moves us closer to a complete understanding of how things are. 7. Understand that there is a significant difference between scientific theories, scientific hypotheses, and unsubstantiated notions. 8. Explain ways in which science impacts society, how scientific ideas have broad application, show up in many places, and affect how society views itself and the world in which it exists. 9. Discover how increasing your understanding of what science is, how it works, and what can learn through it can strengthen your testimony. |
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| GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: | -Help students become scientists with a small “S” by increasing student scientific interest, scientific literacy, and scientific awareness -Prepare students for success in “Issues in Science” courses -Prepare students to understand scientific issues as parents, citizens, and as members of the Church -Strengthen testimonies |
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| REQUIREMENTS: | -Complete assigned readings and pre-class work before attending class during which those topics are discussed -Attend all class meetings -Regularly participate in class discussions -Attend and actively participate in all required peer group meetings |
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| PREREQUISITES: | |||
| OTHER: | -In addition to scheduled weekly class meetings, all students are required to meet a minimum of once per week in their assigned peer groups. | ||
| EFFECTIVE DATE: | August 2008 | ||