Earth, Body, and Mind:  Changes in Scientific Thought


Course Home Page Purposes & Overview of Course Course Schedule & Readings Course Procedures Course Related Web Links Academic Skills Center

Class Schedule and Readings: Spring 2015

Textbook: The Hunter-Gatherer Within: Health and the Natural Human Diet, Brock & Diggs, 2013.

   

Topic

Reading

    UNIT I: INTRODUCTION, PLATE TECTONICS, MASS EXTINCTION  
Feb 2 Introduction to Class; Does Science Matter? Science as a Way of Knowing; Science as a Candle in the Dark (Lecture) Purposes & Overview; Naturalism
  4 Plate Tectonics (Lecture) Alfred Wegener; Geology: Plate Tectonics; Major Tectonic Plates of the World
6 Plate Tectonics continued (Lecture & HWC video) This Dynamic Earth
   9 Plate Tectonics continued (Kiluhea Video & Discussion) Tsunami Graphics; Tsunami Information
  11 Mass Extinction; K-T Impact (Lecture)

K-T Boundary Impact Hypothesis; Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event; Article on Permian Extinction; 2nd Permian Extinction Article, 3rd Permian Extinction Article, Ancient Crash, Epic Wave

  13 Unit 1 Exam Example Exam for Unit 1
       
    UNIT II: THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION  
  16 Pre-Darwinian Paradigms & The Darwinian Revolution: Evolution of a Paradigm Shift (Lecture) Biology Before the Beagle (Gavin De Beer)---Moodle The Origin of Species (Introduction) (Charles Darwin); Principles of Geology (Charles Lyell)---Moodle
  18 The Darwinian Revolution (Continued) (Lecture & Discussion) Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution; Evidence Supporting Biological Evolution
  20 Primate and Human Evolution  
  23 Primate and Human Evolution Textbook Chapter 2
  25 Human Evolution continued (Video) Hobbit-Like Ancestor Found in Asia; The Hadza
  27 Changes in Worldview; Sociobiology (Lecture) The Boy Raised as a Girl; On Becoming Human---Moodle; The Brains of Gay Men---Moodle
Mar 2 Creationism (Lecture, Video, Discussion) Seven Short Creationism Readings---Total of 11 pages (Farewell to Newton, Einstein, and Darwin; Creationism and the Age of the Earth; Does Evolution Conflict with Religious Belief?; Challenging Evolution Does Not Make Creationism Science; Creationists versus Evolution: The Issues; Evidence for Scientific Creationism?; Putting Darwin Back in the Dock)---Moodle; The Texas-Size Debate Over Teaching Evolution; Sadly, An Honest Creationist
  4 Creationism cont. (Church video & discussion) Intelligent Design? (an 8 page article including essays by both Intelligent Design proponents and Scientists)---Moodle; Five Major Misconceptions about Evolution
  6 Evolutionary Medicine; Intelligent Design?; Benevolent Design? (Lecture) Textbook Chapters 1, 2 (you read this earlier), & 3; If Humans Were Built to Last---Moodle
  9-13 Spring Break  
  16 Molecular Evolution; The Irony of Knowledge; Evolution Summary (Lecture & Discussion)  
  18 Unit 2 Exam  
   

 

 
    UNIT III: THE ENVIRNOMENT: a) Body & b) World  
  20 Food: What's In It (Part 1) Textbook Chapter 4 & 5
  23 Food: What's In It (Part 2) Textbook Chapters 6 & 7
  25 Food and How Science Goes Wrong Textbook Chapter 8 & Appendix 1
  27 Food Toxins: Plants Fight Back Textbook Chapter 10 & Appendix 3
  30 Food: How the Body Works Textbook Appendix 2 & Chapter 9
Apr 1 Diet, Health, & the College Student Textbook Chapters 11, 13 & 14
  3 The Environment – An Overview (Lecture) Endrocrine Disrupters, Tragedy of the Commons, 1602: Tragedy of the Commons, Definition of Ecosystem Services
  6 Ozone Depletion and Global Climate Change (Lecture) Good News on the Ozone Hole, Climate Change (EPA); Global Warming Effects Around the World; 2014 Breaks Heat Record
  8 Biodiversity and the Extinction Crisis (Lecture & Discussion) A Modern Mass Extinction?; The Real Biodiversity Crisis
   10 Population-the Ultimate Environmental Problem (Lecture) World Population Clock
13 Brownlash & the Effect of Politics on Science (Spin Doctors Video, Lecture & Discussion) Biodiversity and the Brownlash; Manipulating Public Knowledge; Distain for Science (Siegfried)---Moodle
15 Unit 3 Exam  
       
    UNIT IV: COGNITIVE SCIENCE
  17 Introduction, History of the Problem of Consciousness (Lecture) Reading TBA
  20 Introduction to the Brain, and Damaged Brains Part 1(Lecture) Brain Parts handout---Moodle; Neurons, Synapses, and Neurotransmission; The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Oliver Sacks)---Moodle 
  22 Philosophical Considerations (Lecture & Discussion) Free Will (Thomas Nagel)---Moodle; Do You Have Free Will? (John Tierney)---Moodle
  24 Damaged Brains Part 2 (Lecture) From Left Brain, Right Brain (Springer and Deutsch): Introduction, Evidence from Brain Damage; Splitting the Brain; Implications of Split-Brain Research---3 documents total, on Moodle
  27 Sleep and the Brain (Lecture) Reading TBA
  29 Videos (Koko, Changing Sex, Tourette Syndrome)  
May 1 Artificial Intelligence Can a Computer Have a Mind?---Moodle
  4 Sex and the Brain (Lecture) Sex, Math, and Scientific Achievement---Moodle, Pas de Deux of Sexuality Is Written in the Genes
  6 Animal Consciousness (Lecture) Time in the Animal Mind
  8 Unit 4 Exam Some definitions and names (to help you study for your exam)---Moodle
  14 FINAL EXAM (OPTIONAL) Thursday, 9–11 am  

 



All material on this page copyright 2015, George M. Diggs, Jr. & Kerry G. Brock