Science
Senior Course (14 yrs and up), $285, 14 week course/class twice weekly - Prerequisite: Foundational Great Books
In this course, students will become acquainted with the basic phenomena of the sun, moon, planets, and stars. Students will see how Ptolemy (2nd cent. A.D.) took naked eye observations and came up with an earth-centered model that explained the motions of the heavenly bodies and allowed predictions of their future locations. After immersing themselves in this geocentric system, students will see why Copernicus's heliocentric model of the cosmos came to replace Ptolemy's, and how the heliocentric system was bolstered by the observations and theories of Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. This investigation of cosmic models will allow students to see the interplay of observation and mathematical theory that is found in many of the scientific disciplines.
Students will make observations of the sun, moon, planets, and stars, especially in the first portion of the semester. The main readings consist of excerpts from Ptolemy's Almagest, Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Galileo's Starry Messenger, and Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Many of the readings are technical and will be accompanied by reading notes. In preparation for each class, students should expect to spend up to 60-90 minutes on reading and other assignments.
Senior Course (14 yrs and up), $195, 14 week course – Prerequisite: Foundational Great Books
*This course is currently under revision and will be offered at a future date.*
In this course, students will learn and appreciate the ancient approach of the study of the natural world in the context of living things. This course will discuss the methods and fundamental questions of classic natural science. How do we come to know about the natural world? What are the principles of nature? What kind of knowing is instinct? What does it mean to be “alive”?