PHYSICAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
Pre-requisite
None
Course description
Physical Sciences, Technology, and History of Mathematics is a survey course that introduces students to the theories, important figures, and key advancements in physics, chemistry, technology, and mathematics. Students use an approach that integrates reading, writing, and thinking to learn key strategies needed to interpret a variety of written and graphic material. This course introduces the core skills learners need to master basic competencies in science and mathematics. The format of the course encourages both individual study as well as cooperative learning. Students are encouraged to express their knowledge orally through group discussion and teamwork.
Students understand how science is a process for generating knowledge, and how scientists evaluate and extend scientific knowledge. Students develop an understanding in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and technology from primary source documents that discuss topics such as the Pythagorean theorem, Hindu mathematicians’ concept of zero, lenses, signs and symbols and gravitation, the electromagnet, vaccinations, the Morse Code, nuclear power, quantum mechanics, the mechanics of a television, and the Bohr atom. Students understand ways that energy is conserved, stored, and transferred from one system
to another, calculate the quantitative relationships associated with the conservation of energy, as well as analyse the relationship between energy transfer
and disorder in the universe. Students understand the interaction of energy and matter and quantify the relationships among the frequency, wavelength, and the speed of light. Students explain the relationship between the wavelength of light absorbed or released by an atom or molecule and the transfer of a discrete amount of energy. During the course, students participate in discussions about readings by authors Steven Weinberg, Aristotle, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Max Planck,
and Stephen Hawking with an instructor