Goals and Objectives:

 

To provide students with an opportunity to experience mathematics and science as a process and to achieve an understanding of that process by participating in activities which meet the following guiding principles. While not limited to this list, the activities will include many, but not necessarily all, of the following properties. They will:

  1. focus on science and mathematics as ways of knowing, rather than on the specific knowledge or theories produced by science and mathematics.
  2. adopt a "minds-on" or "hands-on" approach to investigating science and mathematics as ways of knowing.
  3. involve "doing" science or mathematics through observation and/or experimentation.
  4. use problem-solving logic and techniques.
  5. focus on the processes involved in scientific endeavor.
  6. promote extensive student participation.
  7. emphasize the formulation of scientific questions and hypotheses.
  8. include the collection of data through measurements and quantification.
  9. encourage the use of library and computer based sources of information.
  10. illustrate the differences and benefits of deductive and inductive reasoning.
  11. encourage the communication of results and conclusions through reports, models and/or discussion.
  12. illustrate differences between basic and applied science or mathematics and provide an understanding of how the products of science and mathematics relate to society and technological advances.
  13. be conducted in a small classes to facilitate non-lecture formats and greater interaction among students and between student and teacher.
  14. build on the basic principles illustrated in GSCI 101-103 and general education mathematics.

This is a participatory course. Your grade is based on both out-of-class assignments and in-class participation. You are expected to attend and participate, so attendance will be counted. The GRADE column on the website will provide a running score on points given for each assignment and for attendance. Letter grades will be based on criteria listed in the JMU Undergraduate Catalog.

 

 

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