Lecture Outlines
Assignments and Outline for HSCI 3333H
Introduction
Sept. 7
Welcome
Sept. 9
The 20th Century: A Century of Science and Technology?
Orientation to the Web site
Student Information Questionaire (on line); DUE as soon as possible
Sept. 9/10
Discussion: Ethics in science, technology, and culture
I. Professionals, Experts, and Public Knowledge
Sept. 14
Identifying Authority: Scientific Knowledge and the Historical Record
Karl Popper, "Science: Conjecture and Refutations" (in Science...Knowing)
Sept. 16 Science, Religion, and Ways of Knowing
Begin reading Russell's Inventing the Flat Earth
Sept. 16/17
Discussion: Writing as Scholarly Analysis
Russell's Inventing the Flat Earth (complete book)
II. Technology, Public Culture, and the Origins of Modernism
Sept. 21 World of Tomorrow (film in class)
Microtheme I DUE
Sept. 23
The Relationship between Science and Technology in the Early 20th Century
Sept. 23/24
Discussion: Modernism in science, technology and art
Cecelia Techi, Shifting Gears: Technology, Literature, Culture in Modernist America
(handout of selected pages; also on reserve)
Computer Assignment I DUE; Microtheme I handed back
Sept. 28
Technology Reconfigures Work and Life
Assignment: Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "The 'Industrial Revolution' in the Home" in Technology
and Culture, 17 (1976): 1-23. (handout; also on reserve)
Sept. 30
Technology and Science in Images and Icons
Modern Times (film selections)
S30/Oct. 1
Discussion: Ambiguous perceptions of science and technology in the 1910s and 1920s
Rewrite of Microtheme I DUE
III. Eugenics and Genetics
Oct. 5
Eugenics and Genetics: An Overview
Assignment: Paul, chapter 1
Oct. 7
Tomorrow's Children (film)
Oct. 7/8
Discussion: "Fitter Families"
Computer Assignment II DUE
Oct. 12
Eugenics as a Science
Assignment: Paul, chapter 2
Oct. 14
Legacies of the scientific movement and social perceptions of genetics
Assignment: Paul, chapter 5 and 7
Gould, "Evolution as Fact and Theory" (Science...Knowing)
Oct. 14/15
Discussion: Midterm review sessions - writing to persuade
Oct. 19
MIDTERM
IV. Technocratic Visions in International Contexts
Oct. 21
Ethics: Organization of small groups for the group ethics projects
Oct. 21/2
Discussion: Science and Politics
Graham, chapter 1
Oct. 26
Engineers: Training as Economic Assets or Political Leaders?
Valley of the Tennessee (film)
Computer Assignment III DUE
Oct. 28
International and National Dynamics of the New Technology
Assignment: Graham, chapters 3 and 4
Oct. 28/9
Discussion: Compare Soviet and American projects in the interwar years
Nov. 2
Ethics, Engineers, and Palchinsky
Assignment: Graham, chapter 5
Microtheme III DUE
V. ETHICS, SCIENCE, and TECHNOLOGY IN THE LATE 20th Century
{This section may be modified.}
Nov. 4
Codes of Ethics and Ethical Behavior in Science and Engineering
Nov. 4/5
Discussion: Group meetings on ethics projects
Instruction on producing collaborative reports
Nov. 9
Ethic Project Reports - reports from presenters DUE
Nov. 11
Ethic Project Reports - reports from presenters DUE
Nov. 12
Ethic Project Reports - reports from presenters DUE
VI. Science, Technology and Post-World War II America
Nov. 16
Corporate Science and Technology
Group ethics reports returned for rewrite
Nov. 18
The Decision to Drop the Bomb (film)
Nov. 18/19
Discussion: Creating Collective and Individual Ethical Behavior
Nov. 23
Science in the Military-Industrial Complex
Assignment: Begin McCurdy, Inside NASA (chapters 1-3)
Rewrite of ethics reports DUE
Nov. 30
NASA and the Space Race
Compete McCurdy for class discussion (chapters 4-5)
Dec. 2
Big Science after the Cold War
Computer Assignment IV: Due before class
Dec. 2/3
Discussion: Rethinking science in the Post-Modern Era
Stephen Hawking, "My Position"
Evelyn Fox Keller, "A Feeling for the Organism"
Dec. 7
Scientists Reflect on Science (selections from the following)
Henry H. Bauer, "The So-called Scientific Method" (3, 4, 5)
Mahlon Hoagland, "Preface from The Habit of Truth" (3, 4, 5)
Louis Alvarez, "Fission" (1, 2, 3)
Hans Christian Von Baeyer, "The Aesthetic Equation" (1, 3, 5)
Max Wertheimer, "Einstein: The Thinking that Led to the Theory of Relativity"
Dec. 9
Public Concerns about Science
Microtheme III: Turn in short report with attached newspaper or magazine clipping (not
on-line)
Dec. 9/10
Discussion: Attitudes toward science as reflected in the media
Dec. 14
EXAM REVIEW DAY
Dec. 23
Final Exam at 8-10 am |