|
Home|The Course|What is Science|Quantitative Description|Motion| |
The course:
Back to the home page
Instructors: The course
will be jointly taught by E. Faszewski from the Biology Department and W. Seeley
from the Physics Department
Textbook: The text for the course is
yet to be determined - It may be that selected readings will take the place of a
single textbook.
Click on the calendar for important
dates:
This is a one semester course designed to give students entering their first year of college an appreciation (and so, by implication an understanding) of science. That objective in itself poses a formidable task: To truly understand science one needs to have a firm grasp of mathematics - the language of science is mathematics. This puts many entering college students at a double disadvantage: Often their scientific and their mathematical skills have been woefully neglected. So how do we proceed? First, it is not at all necessary that students know everything about any science, or even know anything about every science. What is necessary is that students know enough science (notice I didn't say know about science), to a level that is more than superficial, so that they can appreciate how, and practice the way, scientists approach and solve the problems Nature poses for them. This is important because we are all constantly confronted with the necessity of solving problems of one kind or another. Scientists, for all the other human failings they may have, have developed a unique set of tools and techniques for solving problems in a logical, systematic and effective way. We will then, as a primary goal, try to learn how to solve problems - not just scientific ones, but just generally, problems.
We will look at a number of topics from two of the most general branches of science: Biology and Physics. Biology is one of the "life sciences" and physics is one of the "physical sciences." As we do, it will become clear that the two are inexorably connected, and that to understand that connection requires an appreciation (and so, as above, an understanding) of chemistry. There are other connections: From science comes technology, and technology returns the favor by providing the scientist with better tools with which to do better science. A singular tool in this regard is the computer. It's not far from the truth when physicists say that if a computer is not needed in the solution of a problem the problem is most likely trivial. How does a computer solve problems? By doing mathematics! So it seems we can't get away from it - we're going to understand (and appreciate) mathematics. What about the other sciences? Astronomy, geology, meteorology, etc - the list could be a long one. We'll draw from the list as is appropriate.
Here's how we'll try to get the job done:
There will be lectures by a physicist and a biologist, with guest appearances by others. The lectures we present will be from notes available on these pages, so you won't have to take notes in class - you can listen, participate and think. The topics are listed below. There aren't many topics - it's better to really understand a few things than to "be exposed" to many things. Some of the topics might seem mundane - what's so scientific about making a measurement, or telling the temperature? Others are more esoteric - how do you make a black hole? Hopefully this will become clear as we proceed. One of the first things we are going to ask of you is to read an article from Scientific American. At the end of the course we'll ask you to read it again. Then you can decide if you learned any science along the way.