Science and Writing

Honors College, Honors 298: Special Topics, 3 credits
Dr. John C. Charpie (Physics)
Dr. Michael Shea (English)
Southern Connecticut State University
Honors Chair: Dr. Terese Gemme
Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences: Dr. DonnaJean Fredeen

Course Description: Students explore the logic of science by examining the language and writing about science – using various thinking-writing exercises to stimulate their research. While hearing lectures about fundamental scientific principles and analyzing knowledge structures of scientific discourse, students write cause-and-effect explanations of a variety of phenomena by building them up from first principles; science essays are developed using standard rhetorical devices of scientific discourse. Small-group exercises include “workshopping” each student’s writing regarding tone, clarity, fluidity, and accuracy. Twenty-three students enroll in this course.

Texts:
Six Easy Pieces, by Richard Feynman
The Nature of Science, by James Trefil
The Science Book, by Peter Tallack
On Writing Well, by William Zinsser

Syllabus

Date Topic
24 Jan
Writing and Language
- How to actively observe a diagram and write a 500-word guided tour
- How to interrogate a quotation, and integrate it into a text

Assign 25 one-pg Tallack essays per week as a gentle & pleasant introduction to science
26 Jan

Kinetic Theory: inter-atomic collisions
- Feynman: Chapter 1: “Atoms in Motion”
- Trefil: “Kinetic theory” + links
- Cause-and-effect relationships linking gas laws and random atomic motion
31 Jan

Atomic Theory
- Feynman Chapter 2, “Basic physics”
- Trefil: “Bohr Model” + links
- The Bohr model of the atom; electrons and nucleons; electron orbitals
- Spectroscopy as the experimental basis of atomic theory
2 Feb

Writing and Language
- Textual macrostructures and macropropositions
7 Feb

Heat
- Feynman: Chapter 1: “Atoms in Motion” (review)
- Trefil: “Heat “ and “Changes of State” + links
- Phase transitions; the domino effect, thermal transfer and mammalian thermoregulation: conduction, convection, radiation, and evaporation

Hand in: First 500-word guided tour of a diagram for the first term paper
9 Feb
Sound
- Trefil: “Doppler Effect” + links
- Tuning fork experiment introducing resonant energy transfer; the nature of sound, and the domino effect; waves, wavelengths, frequencies, and amplitudes; The Doppler Effect and
- Doppler medical imaging

Hand in: Five extended definitions + examples for the first term paper (500 words total)
14 Feb

Hearing*
- The domino effect in the ear; the lever system of ossicles in the middle ear; the inner ear and resonant energy transfer; cochlear implants

16 Feb

Writing and Language
- Local cohesion and global coherence of texts
- How to write extended definitions using examples, analogies, graphics, applications,
  and generalizations

Hand in: 500-word essay describing two scientific principles fundamental to the first term paper
21 Feb
Electricity and Magnetism
- Trefil: “Coulomb’s Law,” “Magnetism,” “Electrical Properties” + links
- Coulomb's Law; the electron, magnetism, magnetic and electric fields
- Faraday’s Principle applied to alternative energy production

Hand in: Second 500-word guided tour of the first term-paper diagram
23 Feb

Feynman Chapter 3: “The relation of physics to other sciences”
- Trefil: “Chemical Bonds” + links
- Chemical bonding and the Periodic Table; covalent / ionic bonds
28 Feb
Writing and Language
- Identifying fundamentals principles of scientific topics (axiomatics)

Hand in: Three rewrites of previous assignments – of (1) a guided tour, (2) the definitions, and (3) the fundamental principles
2 Mar
Chemical Bonding
- Polar molecules, van der Waals bonds, detergents, and dietary physics

Hand in: macrostructures of the first term paper + transitional sentences
7 Mar

In-class midterm; the take-home writing component due today
9 Mar Writing and Language
- Rhetorical structures in scientific writing, e.g., analogy, logical deduction, semantic parallelism, experimental testing, generalizations and induction
- The nature of science in the nature of scientific rhetoric
14 Mar

Science analogies
- Exercises on analogies and how to develop them for term papers: the Bohr Model and the planetary system; the Domino effect, sound, and heat transfer; tuning forks and the vibrating inner-ear membrane; ATP as the currency of living things
16 Mar
Neurons and Nerve Impulses
- Trefil: “Nerve Signals” + links
- Bio-electricity, neurons, action potentials, nerve impulses

Hand in: First term paper
21 Mar Spring Break
23 Mar Spring Break
28 Mar

Writing and Language
- Interactive and interactional metadiscourse and its function in scientific writing; How to anticipate and accommodate readers’ needs
30 Mar
Weather
- Trefil: “Archimedes’ Principle” and “Water Cycle” + links
- Archimedes’ Principle and global weather patterns; rain formation;

Hand in: 500-word guided tour of a diagram for the second term-paper
4 Apr Grand Processes and Principles of Science
- Feynman Chapter 4: “Conservation of Energy”
- Trefil: “Molecular Biology, central dogma,“ “Evolution,” “Greenhouse Effect,”
- “Thermodynamics,” “Photosynthesis,” and Conservation laws [index] + links
6 Apr DNA and large molecules
- Trefil: “Molecules of life,” “Proteins,” “Mendel’s Laws” + links
11 Apr
Writing and Language
- Varieties and uses of quantitative graphics
- Small-group decision making / critical reasoning using quantitative graphs

Hand in: Five extended definitions + illustrative examples (500 words total) for the second term paper
13 Apr Writing and Language
- How to get the reader’s attention – examples from popular science writing
- Small-group exercises to explore methods of humanizing science essays
18 Apr

Light
- Trefil: “Electromag. spectrum,” “Spectroscopy,” “Snell’s Law” + links
- The visible spectrum; refraction; prisms, and rainbows

Hand in: 500-word guided tour of a quantitative figure for the second term paper
20 Apr Vision – Corrective lenses, color vision, laser eye correction, retinal implants**
25 Apr

Nuclear Structure and Radiation
- Trefil: “Nuclear fusion and fission” and “Radioactive decay” + links
- Rutherford’s experiment; nuclear structure and stability; E=mc2; small-group exercises to analyze (quantitative) graphs of atomic properties

Hand in: macrostructures of the second term paper + transitional sentences
27 Apr

Students discuss science articles that they found in the popular press

Hand in: 500-word essay of analogies relevant to the second term paper
2 May Astronomy and Cosmology
- Feynman Chapter 5: “Theory of Gravitation”
- Trefil: “Big Bang,” and both “Newton” entries + links
- Gravity, the solar system, stellar evolution, and nucleosynthesis
4 May Nuclear theory
- Trefil: “Correspondence Principle,” “Vital Force” “Determinism” + links
- Philosophy of indeterminism, Born's statistical interpretation in quantum physics; wave-particle duality; Laplacian determinism
9 May

The Limits and Value of Science
- Trefil: Selections from the Introduction, + links
- Discussion about big issues raised by the Big Bang, origins, and endings; compare and contrast religious faith, scientific faith, and scientific method

Hand in: Second term paper

* Scientific American Frontiers: http://www.pbs.org/saf/1509/resources/resources-1.htm + links. 
** Scientific American Frontiers: http://www.pbs.org/saf/1509/resources/resources-1.htm + links. 
** http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medline+/ency/article/001023.htm#visualContent + links.


Grading Policy
Your grade will be based on two tests (20% each) and two term papers (20 % each), + homework assignments / class participation (20%).

Contact person: John C. Charpie, charpiej1@southernct.edu.