Academic Year | Course Theme |
---|---|
2007 / 2008 | Origins |
2008 / 2009 | Global Changes |
Course Syllabus for PHYS-2018-001, Great Ideas in Science. You can also download a PDF version of this syllabus by clicking on the appropriate link.
Lecturer | Topic |
---|---|
Dr. David Harker | The Real Scientific Method Science & Pseudoscience How to Think about Science |
Drs. Harker & Luttermoser | How Do Scientists Study/Explain Change? Examples of Change: Global Warming |
Drs. Luttermoser, Harker, Gardner, & Shanks |
Thermodynamics: Equilibrium vs. Nonequilibrium Entropy and the Arrow of Time Special Lecture: Two Centuries of Darwin Conservation Laws and Change The Mathematics of Non-Euclidean Geometry Global Topology of the Universe The Expansion of the Universe Stellar Evolution |
Project 2: Global Warming Debate. Students will research both the arguments for and against the tenet that humans are responsible for global warming of the Earth. The research done for this project will serve as a preamble for a public address that the will give during the Spring 2009 semester.
Project 3: Topics from Physics and Astronomy. Students will break into groups and write a paper and make an oral presentation on one of the topics covered in the first module of this course, such as the COBE and WMAP missions, the Hubble Space Telescope Key Projects, dark matter and dark energy, the Inflationary Model of the Universe, and the Standard Model of Particle Physics.
The web links posted above.