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Spring 2003
This information effective for Spring 2003. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Crown College
[CRWN-123] [CRWN-147]
123. Science and Human Values
MWF, 3:30-4:50
A Writing-Intensive Lecture Course
General Education Code: W; Prerequisite: C requirement
Instructor:
Frank Andrews, Professor of Chemistry
e-mail: andrews@chemistry.ucsc.edu,
phone: 459-2776
This is an interview only class. Students need to meet with the instructor
at 317 Thimann in order to enroll.
Course Description:
The purpose of the course: For students to come to understand how they have learned, in this scientific and technological society, the values that shape their choices, and to help them develop both a clearer image of how they want to live and the skills to live that way.
To that
end, the course entails:
- Learning
a structure for considering or analyzing human experience that respects
their beliefs and experiences, whatever they may be, and can contribute
to their experience of freedom and choice;
- Learning
the methods of the sciences, their strengths and limitations, and a
number of scientific conclusions and theories that historically have
had major impact on human values;
- Considering
the effects of living in a scientific/technological society on their
values and those of society;
- Being
able and willing to enter frames of reference of other people who differ
from them; exploring what, if anything, makes them seem threatening;
- Learning to develop positions, articulate them powerfully and peacefully, and live life with passion.
The history
of the course:
I have taught
Science and Human Values as Chemistry 80B every year since 1989. Over
the years, I improved and refined the course in many ways. The nine weekly
writing assignments build throughout the quarter and focus on both the
acquisition of important writing skills, on subject matter, and on the
students' own lives and how they want to live them.
At the end
of each of the 28 lectures, I give a daily quiz. This is always
the students' one paragraph to two-page response to the question, Based
on what happened today in lecture, what do I want to comment on? And then
comment on it. I read all the daily quizzes, for ideas rather than
writing style, and return them, often with comments, at the next lecture.
Thus I can follow the progress and reactions of each student. I have been
impressed by the overall level of thoughtfulness and honesty. Students
have rarely had an adult read their writings for content and not for
style or grammar. I find that when it happens to them 28 times in
just ten weeks, they often blossom. This is especially true of many ESL
students.
Science and Human Values is now offered through Crown College, and its T2 general education credit has been dropped. Since there is no TA support, enrollment has to be limited, and admission is only by approval of the instructor on written application from the student.
Agreements of Students Who Enroll
- To take
the course because I want to get the most value from it that
I can possibly create.
- To attend
and participate positively in all the lectures and to write the daily
quiz at the end of each lecture.
- To turn
in the assigned weekly paper at the time it is due.
- To read
the essays in the course reader by the dates assigned.
- To make
and keep at least one half-hour appointment with the course's writing
tutor, and to show up at any other appointments I make with the writing
tutor.
- To acknowledge that if I have not done enough daily quizzes, to turn in two- to four-page papers on some of the essays in the course reader. The number of such essays will be determined by the instructor at the middle and end of term.
The Instructor
I have been teaching courses on human values, psychological unblocking, and teaching and learning both for my college and department since I came to UCSC in 1967. I love science, values, and students; and I read and think about these subjects obsessively. Besides writing three books on chemistry, I have written The Art and Practice of Loving and am currently writing a book on wisdom, which is based on some of the subject matter of Science and Human Values. I have received numerous teaching awards.
Brief Outline of Topics Covered
Values: What values are, what kinds of values there are, the experience of choosing, and the bases for values. Freedom and responsibility. Hierarchy of values.
Science: What science is, its values, its strengths and limitations. How each of the bases for values operates in science. Social values that have been fostered by the success of science.
Technology: What is technology; how it has affected human life. The first and second laws of thermodynamics: entropy, energy, forms. Energy use, the greenhouse effect and global warming. The technological fix, technological imperative. "Appropriate technology."
Models of Reality and the Scientific Method: Reality, meaning, classical mechanics and determinism, action at a distance and fields, relativity theory, particles vs. waves: light, matter, quantum mechanics, indeterminacy. "Reality" in science "Is" vs. "as."
Causes
and Scientific Stories of Origins: Causes vs. purposes, fire and phlogiston,
heat flow and caloric, light and the ether. The end of vitalism. Evolution
and natural selection. Competition or cooperation, individual or group.
Origin of life. Survival of the "fittest," the naturalistic
fallacy, social Darwinism. Sociobiology and "selfish genes."
Biological determinism vs. biological constraints.
Humans and Scientific Models of the Relationship Between Mind and Body:
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning, the mind-body problem.
Death and evolution. "Who am I?" Self-image. Decision theory
vs. learning theory. "Expertise" and decisions based on computer
programs.
Ethics and Values: Social traps, e.g., scientific analyses of the
prisoner's dilemma, the tragedy of the commons. How to get out of or avoid
social traps. Society as a common value. Ethics: the concern of the individual
with others: society, nature, and the future. Incommensurate values. Right/wrong,
good/bad, should, must, and ought. Blame, shame, and guilt. Ethical relativism
vs. ethical absolutism. Bottom-line values.
Exponential Growth, World Population: Technology and world population.
What actually lowers birth rates? Compound interest, capitalism, and the
discounting of future wealth.
Challenges of Living: Loving, caring, serving. Purpose, goals, mindfulness, responsibility.
Weekly Writing Assignments
- Free-write:
Exploring Your Values and the sources from which you have derived them.
- Free-write:
Exploring Your Higher Values. What makes some of your values higher
or lower than others.
- First
compelling-convincing paper, free-write. Identify a topic about which
you feel strongly, and free-write the basis for a paper to convince
others to adopt your position.
- Write
your living will, reflecting your own views of what makes your life
worth living and what steps you want people to take to keep you alive
when you are approaching death. Write it in such a compelling way that
the people who read it will actually honor it.
- First
compelling-convincing paper, final draft. After receiving the feedback
on your draft (week 3), write a polished version of this paper.
- Experiential
exercise: Approach the "same" object from a variety of viewpoints.
Free-write your reflections on the exercises.
- Positive
reflection on your life as written by a loved one after your death.
By adopting this perspective of looking back on your life and the viewpoint
of someone who loved you, you might learn a great deal about how you
really want to live while you are alive.
- Second
compelling-convincing paper. This paper is similar to the first, on
a different topic, except we do not have a week for submission of the
rough draft to the instructor for comments.
- Statement of your primary values and a commitment to live by them. This paper sums up the quarter's self-reflections in a form you can come back to over and over in the future.
Application Procedure: Starting early in the winter quarter, copies of this syllabus will be available for students on the notice board outside my office, 317 Thimann. Interested students should read the syllabus and tear off the last page to write me a letter stating why they want to take the course, what they want to get out of it, and what they will bring to it. Ideally, they should then bring this letter and talk with me about it during my office hours, MWF from 12:30 to 3:00.
Request to Be Enrolled in Science and Human Values, Crown 123
I have read the information describing this course and have gotten all my questions answered. I want to take this course and hereby ask to be admitted. I know the class will be held MWF from 3:30 to 4:50. I have carefully read the Agreements of Students Who Enroll, and have asked enough questions so that I understand all of them. I agree to be responsible for keeping those agreements, for making my own, so that this course becomes "my course" and the agreements are "my agreements," and not those of someone else, dumped on me.
Name:____________________________________________Major:_________________
Year: Fr___, Soph___, Jr___, Sr___, Grad___, Other___.
E-mail address:
(only if you read your email regularly)
Mandatory: I will have satisfied the C requirement by the beginning of Spring term: yes___
College: ________________When do you plan to graduate?______________________
Phone:_____________________________ Address: _____________________________
Please use
the rest of this sheet and the back side if necessary (or separate page)
to apply for acceptance into this class this coming term. Thank you very
much.
147. Teaching Saturday Academy (3 units)
Spring 2003
Instructor: Beverly Bonde, Crown Lecturer
Teacher, Rolling Hills Middle School; and Crown Alumna
**Please note: You need not be a Crown student to enroll! **
Attention: Science, Math, and Tech majors, Upper Division Students, and Education Minors! Thinking about teaching? Want an opportunity to try it out? Then check out the following courses sponsored by Crown College.
|
Winter Quarter |
Crown 146. Saturday Academy Practicum (3 units) |
|
Spring Quarter |
Crown 147. Teaching Saturday Academy (3 units) |
Course Description:
These courses are part of a community service outreach program (in collaboration with the Educational Partnership Program at UCSC) that is intended to encourage local public middle school students towards higher education. The program goal is to host a series of single day sessions of Saturday School at UCSC.
Undergraduate
students enrolled in Crown 146 will develop discipline-specific activity-based
learning modules for implementation in the Saturday School. Each module
will be theme driven and consist of three lessons. Each will be presented
to the class and refined as the course progresses. Students will be evaluated
on class participation and discussion and quality of their own lesson
design and presentation. Successful modules will be considered for the
Saturday School curriculum. Students with a strong desire to teach in
a specific discipline are especially encouraged to enroll in this course.
In Crown 147 (spring quarter) students will continue to develop and then teach their modules to local public middle school students.
For additional information, please contact Allen Bushnell at 459-3780 or bushnell@ucsc.edu.