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• This course is part of Atkinson's Natural Science General Education program—a program intended to provide each student with a precise sense of what science is: its history, its methods, and its multiple relationships with culture and society. It is also intended to contribute to the teaching of the so-called critical skills: how to read and write, how to ask questions, how to reason, how to integrate the various bits of information into knowledge, and how to cope with the overwhelming amount of information that our society is producing at a faster and faster pace.
  This particular course takes everyday life as its theme: the body, the kitchen, the street, the countryside and the city, the sky. We are surrounded by objects and phenomena which we take for granted, and we realize the extent of our ignorance only when we are asked why these objects behave as they do, why these phenomena occur. This course will look at this world with the eyes and the curiosity of a scientist, and by digging a bit deeper into our everyday experience it will build an image of science that is alive and personal, yet sufficiently general to enable us to understand the 'big' science we read about in newspapers and on television. We do need to understand science, at the very least because we need to respond intelligently to the ethical, moral, environmental, social and political dilemmas that science so often poses.
  Here is a very recent article which appeared on the BBC News website:
  

  
  Public 'needs to drive science'
  By Elli Leadbeater
  Norwich
  
  A new project funded by the UK government aims to give
  the public a chance to drive science policy. 
  
  Science Horizons is based on the premise that progress 
  has historically come from technological development rather
  than social wants and needs. 
  
  In nationwide events, people will be asked to comment on
  simulations of how technologies such gene therapy might 
  contribute to future life. 
  
  Their reactions will be fed into a government study on 
  public attitudes.
  
  "We're not saying, 'here is the future, what do you think?'"
  said project contributor Ben Johnson of Graphic Science, a 
  science communications consultancy based at the University
  of the West of England. 
  
  "We're saying, 'this is what the future could be like, what
  do you want?'" 
  
  The events will range in size from major set-pieces at 
  science centres to small group meetings in halls or even 
  living rooms. 
  
  Dialogue and debate
  
  An early version of the type of exercise that will be used
  was presented at the project's launch at the British 
  Association's Science Festival in Norwich last week.
  
  Participants viewed a computerised cartoon scene depicting 
  a possible home in 10-15 years' time.
  
  The scene reveals information about each character present.
  For example, in one of the prototypes, a 48-year-old female 
  character is planning a trip to a fertility clinic, to start
  a family using eggs frozen 10 years before. 
  
  Users are then asked to complete a questionnaire, asking for
  their feelings about each aspect of the storyline. 
  
  Contributors to the project, which forms part of the 
  government's Sciencewise consultation exercise, stress that
  the emphasis will be on the social impact of technology, 
  rather than gadgets and gizmos. 
  
  The form of the tasks will vary according to the setting, 
  and may also include paper exercises or podcasts, aiming 
  to stimulate dialogue and debate. 
  
  "The images of the future that we are shown hardly ever
  include people themselves," said Jack Stilgoe, author of
  the project's launch paper. 
  
  "We need to put the people back in the future."
  
  

  Here is an article which appeared in the New York Times:
  

  
  N Y Times
  April 27, 2004
  Committee Urges Harvard to Expand the Reach of 
  Its Undergraduate Curriculum
  By SARA RIMER
  
  For the first time in 30 years, Harvard University has
  reviewed its undergraduate curriculum, concluding that 
  students need more room for broad exploration, a greater
  familiarity with the world that can only be gained 
  from study abroad, and a deeper, hands-on understanding
  of science.
  
  After 15 months of study, a committee of administrators,
  professors and students has recommended that the university
  give students more time to choose their majors and limit
  the requirements for those majors, encourage students to 
  spend time abroad and increase the number of required 
  science courses.
  
  The committee's underlying conclusion, that students in a
  fast-changing world need a wider range of knowledge, is 
  likely to have an impact on universities across the nation,
  many of which are also trying to modernize their 
  curriculums. In making its recommendations, the committee
  was asked to address what it would "mean to be an educated
  man or woman in the first quarter of the 21st century."
  
  William C. Kirby, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences,
  said yesterday in a letter to the faculty, "As a leading 
  American institution, Harvard College has a responsibility
  to educate its students — who will live and work in all 
  corners of the globe — as citizens not only of their home 
  country, but also of the world, with the capacity not only
  to understand others, but also to see themselves, and this
  country, as others see them."
  
  Among the findings in its report, which was released 
  yesterday, the committee said it was no longer sufficient
  to satisfy the science requirement with broad-based survey
  courses. Instead, students should focus on scientific 
  principles and methods, for example, spending time in the 
  laboratory learning the chemical structure of the genome.
  
  "Graduates of Harvard College should be able to understand
  the news and expository articles in journals such as 
  Science and Nature," the committee said.
  
  [ ... ] 
  
  One of the most striking recommendations is that every 
  undergraduate at Harvard "be educated in the sciences in
  a manner that is as deep and broadly shared as has 
  traditionally been the case in the humanities and the 
  social sciences."
  
  Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers, said of the
  emphasis on science: "An educational culture where it's
  an embarrassment to not know the names of five plays by
  Shakespeare but O.K. not to know the difference between
  a gene and a chromosome isn't functional."
  
  [ ... ] 
  
  The report suggests that Harvard's core curriculum be 
  modified so that students have a broader choice of courses
  that meet its requirements. It also recommended that 
  Harvard emphasize smaller classes across the curriculum,
  beginning with a faculty-led freshman seminar. 
  The committee said it wanted professors to have more 
  contact with students, a recommendation that experts said
  might be hard to carry out at a university like Harvard
  where research often takes precedence over teaching.
  
  Dr. Summers, who recently taught a freshmen seminar on 
  globalization, said it was important "to assure that we
  expand what is most fundamental in education: direct 
  personal contact between students and faculty."
  
  Claire Hoffman contributed reporting for this article.
  Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
  
  

• And here is another very recent article which appeared in the September-October 2004 issue of American Scientist:
  

  
  Scientific Literacy
  
  The United Nations agency UNESCO has defined literacy as an 
  individual's ability to "read and write a short simple 
  statement relevant to his everyday life." Scientific 
  literacy does not imply that a person must be learned in 
  matters of science, but it does not suffice that a person be
  able to read and write.It rather means functional literacy,
  the ability to comprehend what is read or written to an 
  extent sufficient to perform adequately in society, whether
  to communicate with individuals, to further one's own 
  economic or other interests, or to participate in the 
  democratic way of life. Scientific literacy implies the 
  ability to respond in a meaningful way to the technical
  issues that pervade our daily lives and the world of
  political action.
  
  Scientific literacy does not require knowing the definition
  of angular momentum or that the expression of DNA is 
  mediated by transfer–RNA molecules. But a scientifically
  literate person would know that astrology is not science
  and that children are not born with stronger muscles just
  because their parents exercise in the gym. Scientific 
  literacy implies that whether or not a person endorses a
  program for water fluoridation or for building a nuclear
  power plant is based on some understanding of the issues
  at hand, rather than on prejudice (that all tampering with
  natural resources is harmful or unambiguously beneficial)
  or ignorance that decisions involve trade–offs, as
  might exist between a nuclear and a coal–fueled plant.
  
  Two increasing demands of modern nations establish the
  universal need for scientific literacy. First is the need
  for a technically trained labor force. Second is the 
  requirement that citizens at large pass judgment on the
  promises and actions of their governments and on the 
  claims of advertisers of consumer goods.
  
  The productive sector of the economy of any industrial
  nation demands a scientifically literate labor force. 
  Scientific and engineering breakthroughs are the basis of
  industrial productivity. But economic and industrial 
  development more immediately come from the adaptation of
  scientific ideas: new materials and manufacturing 
  processes, quality control, advances in productivity and
  the performance of workers, and consumer appeal and 
  marketing. The successful implementation of scientific and
  engineering innovations requires cadres of educated workers 
  skilled in the management of machinery, computers, control 
  centers, quantitative information and materials.
  
  The need for scientific literacy extends beyond industry 
  to other sectors such as agriculture. The recent greatly 
  increased agricultural productivity in the United States
  and other countries is largely attributable to the 
  introduction and application of modern farming practices
  and the use of machinery that requires skilled operators.
  
  Scientific literacy is also required for informed public 
  involvement in the political and public life of a nation. 
  Whether or not a highway system will be developed, and
  if so, where and how; how to protect and improve the water
  supply and air quality; the exploitation of mineral or 
  marine resources; the preservation and commercial use of
  forests, rivers and coasts—these are among the numerous
  political decisions that call for the participation of
  the body politic.
  
  A participatory democracy will not be consummated if the
  import of the technical premises of political decisions
  with great economic consequence, and which affect the 
  present and future welfare of a nation, can be understood
  only by a small fraction of the population. A public that
  has no inkling of the technical issues at stake exposes
  the democratic process to exploitation by special 
  interests and demagogues, and even to fraud of the kind
  that masks pseudoscience, such as astrology or 
  parapsychology, with the cloak of science.
  
  Francisco J Ayala
  President, Sigma Xi
  
  [ Reprinted by permission of American Scientist, magazine
  of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society ]
  
  

• This course has no prerequisites, and thus does not assume any prior knowledge other than that acquired in high school. It does require your interest, your curiosity, and your participation. It does require that you go beyond specific knowledge concerning specific phenomena, and that you develop a sense of context, of the big picture and its implications. Keep this principle in mind: in class, when you study, and when you write the required essays and the final exam.
• Each week I will post a new lecture on this website, and you are urged to read it before coming to class. The lectures, as posted on the website, are essentially sketches, outlines, and will be expanded, also with your contribution, in class. These outlines will include suggested or required readings, and occasional questions that you should think about before coming to class. Of course you are strongly encouraged to share your own questions and observations. This will greatly facilitate in-class discussion. After all, science is a communal enterprise.

 
Readings and Resources

• Given the range and variety of the material we will be studying, there is no required textbook. Throughout the course, live links to on-line readings, as well as references to off-line material (i.e. in the library), will be provided. Many are simply presented as suggestions. Some are required reading, and are specially marked with a red arrow . As a starting point, please check the Syllabus and the Selected References .
• "In the May, 1997 issue of Discover, Jared Diamond suggested five reasons why it is so important for the public (or read that non-science majors) to understand science." Read   Why Study Science.
• I have set up a discussion list, and all the students registered in the course have been subscribed to it. To send mail to the list use the following address: NATS1800-List@yorku.ca. The list is exclusively for academic matters directly related to this course.
• You are strongly encouraged to spend time in the York Libraries, or in any other good library close to you. If you live or work in downtown Toronto, you can also use the Metro Reference Library, the Ryerson Library, the University of Toronto Libraries, etc. Library holdings do not consist of books only. There are scholarly journals and good and reliable magazines. I strongly urge you to physically go to a library and explore. At least for the time being, libraries are still the essential tool for scholarship—they have not been supplanted by the internet.
• Finally, even if you are an experienced web surfer, please read    Effective Internet Search Strategies. This is a very useful summary of good search practices on the net.