Announcements and tidbits
- Here's a piece in the Times about presidential candidates' positions on science issues.
- I've found this site, factcheck.org, to be useful, not just in checking statements' validity in a presidential campaign but also in supplying facts I hadn't even thought to ask about in the first place.
Assignments
- Rubric for response papers
- Response paper #1: The purpose of science
- Response paper #2: The definition of science
- Response paper #3: The myths of science
- Response paper #4: The nature of matter
- Midterm
Readings
[Read these as they are assigned. Don't panic simply because you see something here that you don't recognize. It may simply be the case that your instructor is planning ahead.]
Specific readings:
- McComas, "The Principal Elements of the Nature of Science: Dispelling the Myths"
- Kuhn, T. S. (1962). Historical structure of scientific discovery. Science, 136(3518), 760-764. (available as an ejournal via JSTOR)
- The "Straight Dope" on hand drying
- Energy resources, DOE
- "The New Age of Ignorance", The Observer
- "Blowin' in the Wind," Stanley Fish, Times Select
- "That's Life," E. O. Wilson, Times Select
- "The Future is Drying Up," Jon Gertner, New York Times Magazine
- "How to Cool the Globe," Ken Caldeira, New York Times
Notes
- A brief history of physics
- Newton's Laws
- Conservation of energy
- Electromagnetic induction (lab)
- Heat & temperature
- The nature of light
- Relative humidity, clouds, and precipitation
- Pressure
- Molecule measurement (lab)
- Nuclear physics
Interactive demos
- from PhET