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 2019

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

   

Topic

Reading

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

K-T (or K-Pg) Event; Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event; Article on Permian Extinction; 2nd Permian Extinction Article, 3rd Permian Extinction Article, Ancient Crash, Epic Wave

  15 Unit 1 Exam Example Exam for Unit 1
       
    UNIT II: THE DARWINIAN REVOLUTION  
  18 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
  20 The Darwinian Revolution (Continued) (Lecture & Discussion) Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution; Evidence Supporting Biological Evolution
  22 Primate and Human Evolution  
  25 Primate and Human Evolution Textbook Chapter 2
  27 Human Evolution continued (Video) Hobbit-Like Ancestor Found in Asia
Mar 1 Changes in Worldview; Sociobiology (Lecture) The Boy Raised as a Girl; On Becoming Human---Moodle; The Brains of Gay Men---Moodle
  4 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 Debate Over Teaching Evolution; Sadly, An Honest Creationist
  6 Food: What's In It (Part 1) Textbook Chapter 4 & 5
  8 NO CLASS  
  11-15 Spring Break  
  18 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
  20 Evolutionary Medicine; Intelligent Design?; Benevolent Design? (Lecture) Textbook Chapters 1, 2 (you read this earlier), & 3; If Humans Were Built to Last---Moodle
  22 Molecular Evolution; The Irony of Knowledge; Evolution Summary (Lecture & Discussion)  
  25 Unit 2 Exam  
  27 Food: What's In It (Part 2) Textbook Chapter 6 &7
   

 

 
    UNIT III: THE ENVIRNOMENT: a) Body & b) World  
  29 Food and How Science Goes Wrong Textbook Chapter 8 & Appendix 1
Apr 1 Food Toxins: Plants Fight Back Textbook Chapter 10 & Appendix 3
  3 Food: How the Body Works Textbook Appendix 2 & Chapter 9
  5 Diet, Health, & the College Student Textbook Chapters 11, 13 & 14
  8 The Environment – An Overview (Lecture) Endrocrine Disrupters, Tragedy of the Commons, 1602: Tragedy of the Commons, What are Ecosystem Services
  10 Ozone Depletion and Global Climate Change (Lecture) Good News on the Ozone Hole; Global Warming Effects Around the World; 2014 Breaks Heat Record; 2015 is Hottest Year; How 2016 Became Earth's Hottest Year on Record; 2017 One of the Hottest Years
  12 Biodiversity and the Extinction Crisis (Lecture & Discussion) Earth May Be in Early Days of 6th Mass Extinction
   15 Population-the Ultimate Environmental Problem (Lecture)  
17 Unit 3 Exam  
       
    UNIT IV: COGNITIVE SCIENCE All readings for this unit will be posted on Moodle
  19 Introduction, Philosophical Concerns, and Artificial Intelligence (Lecture)  
  22 Introduction to the Brain, and Damaged Brains Part 1 (Lecture)  
  24 Free Will (Lecture and Discussion)  
  26 Damaged Brains Part 2 (Lecture)  
  29 Sleep and the Brain (Lecture)  
May 1 Sex and the Brain Part 1(Lecture)  
  3 Sex and the Brain Part 2 (Lecture & Discussion)  
  6 Videos  
  8 Animal Consciousness  
  10 Unit 4 Exam  
  17 FINAL EXAM (OPTIONAL) Friday, 12–2 pm  

 



All material on this page copyright 2019, George M. Diggs, Jr. & Kerry G. Brock