Bachelor of Behavioural Science - Postsecondary Education Quality ...

Upper
or
Lower
Lower
Upper
Course Title
Science Matters:
Introduction to the
Sciences
Scientific
Achievements
(Advanced Level)
SCIE 403
Calendar Course Description
and Tarot cards to ESP and UFOs, we distinguish between
science and pseudoscience and gain a better understanding of
the scientific method that has been at the heart of many of
science‘s truly great discoveries and innovations. This method
allows us to test paradigms, challenge hoaxes and myths, and
discover if there really is anything to all those claims about
paranormal phenomena, telekinesis, numerology, aliens, and
other topics on the fringes of science. Without a doubt, weird
things are out there. This course helps us to find out which ones
are real.
Science and Pseudoscience is designed for students without
any mathematics or science background.
The effect of Science in our society is profound, subtle and
sometimes shocking. Its rich history has given us insights into
our place in the universe, revealed our relationship with other
species on this planet, and has yielded technologies that
permeate our lives.
Science is a way of understanding natural phenomena, a way of
seeking patterns in the smallest components of the atom to the
grand expansion of the cosmos. We will cover topics such as
Evolution, Astronomy, Modern Genetics, Ecosystems, Mass
Extinctions, Extraterrestrial Life, the Atom, the Environment,
Relativity, Plagues, and the bizarre world of the Quantum. Our
studies will touch upon the lives of famous scientists such as
Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Mendel, and Einstein, and
we will find that at the heart of their great insights lay a simple,
understandable idea.
The twentieth century was a period of outstanding scientific
achievements. Breakthroughs answered ancient questions: the
source of heredity in the DNA molecule and the explanation of
earthquakes, volcanoes, and other geological mysteries through
plate tectonics. There was an expansion of our universe from
thousands to billions of light years and at the same time an
implosion into the weird quantum features of the subatomic
world, the mastery of which would lead to nanotechnologies that
make GigaByte storage devices and GigaHz processors
everyday terms by the end of the century. A shift occurred in
our fundamental understanding of nature from the familiar,
deterministic world of Newtonian Mechanics and Maxwell‘s
Electromagnetism to the counterintuitive domains of Einstein‘s
Relativity and Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle. The productive
reductionism of previous centuries was supplemented by the
integrative approaches of ecology, systems and complexity
theory. These themes and the breakthroughs that resulted are
explored in a manner accessible and interesting to all students,
even those with minimal scientific backgrounds. Advanced
Bachelor of Behavioural Science Section D, Page 90