General Catalog - John F. Kennedy University

School of Education and Liberal ArtsScience, Health, and Living Systems [SCI] and [SCJ] CoursesCourses with a SCJ prefix are offered on the Campbell campus; all others are offered on the Pleasant Hill campus.School of Educationand Liberal ArtsSCI _____________________________________________________________________1310 Mathematics: A Human Endeavor 3Mathematics is a universal language, and this course is designedto equip students for the dialogue. As an introductory course,students are invited to increase their quantitative reasoning skillsand apply them to everyday problems. By understanding thefundamentals of number sequences, graphical methods,logarithms, and statistics, students will be better able to engagethe sciences and humanities. These tools are relevant in the marketplace, and students can approachtheir chosen professions withgreater confidence. May be applied toward the lower-divisiongeneral-education mathematics breadth requirement.SCI _____________________________________________________________________3050 Method, Myth, and Metaphor 3As the required foundation for entry into the specializationof science, health, and living systems, the aim of the course is tofamiliarize the student with the history of science and to explorethe various paradigms. Topics include pre-Socratic cosmologies,Greek philosophy and science, the Copernican revolution,Cartesian and Newtonian models, 18th-century chemistry, and19th-century views on systems, women scientists, and scientificinvention in the 20th century. The course also includes modernbiology (especially genetics and ethics) as well as developmentin physics and information science. The practice of science asa legitimizing process is evaluated. This course may be appliedtoward either the upper-division general-education requirementfor interdisciplinary studies or a lower-division general-educationscience breadth requirement. The course is the foundation coursefor the science, health, and living systems specialization.SCI _____________________________________________________________________3100 Introduction to Living Systems 3The basic concepts of systems theory as they relate to lifeprocesses are explored including both the dynamics and the levelsof complexity in natural and artificial systems and the interdependenceof microscopic and macroscopic orders. Special emphasisis given to the nature and quality of information, fractals, gametheory, artificial intelligence, consciousness, self-replication,genetic algorithms, and self-regulation via feedback that introducesconcepts such as autopoiesis and bifurcation points. Maybe applied toward the lower-division general-education sciencebreadth requirement.SCI _____________________________________________________________________3105 Psychobiology 3Explores recent advances in understanding the anatomy,physiology, and role of the nervous system. Emphasizes perception,male-female differences, brain laterality, cognition, dyslexia,trends in parapsychology, and developmental influences onemotions and may be applied toward the lower-division generaleducationscience breadth requirement.SCI/SCJ 3110 Anatomy and Physiology:Dynamic _____________________________________________________________________Living Systems Perspective 4This course explores the structure and function of the humanbody from a dynamic systems perspective. A traditional overviewof all body systems and anatomical features will be presented.Additionally, the course will explore the intersection of anatomyand physiology systems with the wellness and psycho-emotionaldimensions of embodiment. Various visual, auditory, andkinesthetic learning methods will be utilized to facilitateoptimum retention and practical application of primary termsand concepts.SCI _____________________________________________________________________3300 Mind, Brain, and Body Interaction 3We are privileged to live in an era of profound awakenings to theage-old mystery of Self—the mind/brain, the dimensions of thebody, and the meaning of the soul, spirit, and the multidimensionalityof self. We are able to ask scientifically deeper questions thatunabashedly look to human spiritual and psychic experiences fordeeper scientific understandings of this mystery. To explore thisrealm is to take on legitimate questions that never would havedared to have been asked twenty—or even ten—years ago. We willattempt to do just that in this course using the science of wholismas our guide to newer understandings and questions about ourmind/brain and mind/body and about the dimensions of realityin which they exist. Equally important in exploring these vistasis remaining grounded and attentive to the reductionistic sciencethat we have all grown up with. It offers valuable answers to questionsthat are looking at the specifics immediately in front of usand needs to be integrated with the gestalt patterns of wholism.[Wholism relates to the argument and philosophical discussionin science regarding reductionism and wholism retaining toexplanation of phenomena by its subunits, i.e., parts or as a whole.Wholism is a philosophical approach to understanding. Thisword wholism usually is used in the context of mind, body, andspirit. Holism, by contrast, is the integrative approach to problemsolving, emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependenceof its parts, such as in systems theory.]SCI _____________________________________________________________________3305 Biology and Consciousness 3This course provides an introduction to the nature, origins,contents, and theories of consciousness. Biological foundations ofperception, awareness, and consciousness will be emphasized. Thecourse will consider the phenomenology and causation of normaland pathologic consciousness.SCI _____________________________________________________________________3310 The Body as Patterns of Energy 1Introduces theories that view the body as a self-organizing, selfregulatorypattern entity. The course reviews electrochemicalprocesses of metabolism and explores how feedback andhomeostasis maintain an identity that constantly adapts, senses,responds, and grows.SCI _____________________________________________________________________3315 Science of Wholism: Practicalities 1We all know about IQ, and within the past 15 years have appreciatedmore and more the great importance of EQ or emotionalintelligence. Now is the time to focus on what can be called SQor spiritual intelligence. The spiritual dimension of our psycheunderlies all that transcends our limited ego—our need for mean-64 School of Education and Liberal ArtsJohn F. Kennedy University