INQ-177 | If You Never Take Another Science Class

Topic Description:

If you never take another science class, how will you continue to learn science? Surely you must continue to learn since science knowledge expands at a dizzying pace. In the future, you will learn science informally. Science news is reported on TV and radio. We can read newspapers, magazines, and books. We can go to museums. Science topics are imbedded in feature films and documentaries. Podcasts, listservs, and blogs deliver science content in 21st century formats. In this class, we will encounter science topics in nearly all of these formats, which are normally intended for audiences outside the classroom. We will learn some science and learn how people learn science. We will sort out science from nonsense in news reports. We will dig in at the library and learn details about some of the science that appears in the morning newspaper. Day trips to the Science Museum of Virginia and its planetarium in Richmond, the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville, and the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro are planned.

Course Types Offered: On-Campus

Topic Approved: March 2009