Welcome to the Syllabuses of

History of Science and Technology To Newton (Hist4010)
History of Science and Technology From Newton (Hist4020)

History of scientific thought and technology from primitive times to the Scientific Revolution (4010) and from the Scientific Revolution to the landing on the Moon (4020) with emphasis on the development of the underlying philosophical presuppositions of scientific inquiry and relationship between science, technology and society.

A two web based courses sequence offered by Dr. Roy J. deCarvalho of the History Department at the University of North Texas.
Hist4010 is not a pre-requisite for Hist4020 or vice-versa. Each course is an independent unit. For more information e-mail the instructor.  

Hist4010/20 Homepage
(userid/password required)

 

History of scientific thought and technology from primitive times to the Scientific Revolution (4010) and from the Scientific Revolution to the landing on the Moon (4020) with emphasis on the development of the underlying philosophical presuppositions of scientific inquiry and relationship between science, technology and society. This course is a virtual adaptation of its traditional classroom counterpart. Its completion requires the same amount of work and effort as the classroom delivery of the course.

Instructor ....................... Roy J. deCarvalho, Ph.D.
Home page .................... http://courses.unt.edu/rdecarvalho
E-mail ............................ http://courses.unt.edu/rdecarvalho/HST2/index.htm#

The goal of the course is to foster historical and philosophical awareness of science and technology, acquaintance with the variety of cultural and ethnic contributions to the development of science and technology, and understanding of the relationship between science, technology and society. The objective is to show that changes in the underlying  philosophical  presuppositions of  scientific thought explain revolution and thus also scientific progress. It is expected  to foster a critical examination of the thought and method  implicit in the student's scientific activity and world view and a deeper understanding of  the social implications of science and technology. The achievement of  the course's objectives will be evaluated through exams, written assignments, participation at the class conference  board, and e-mail interaction with the instructor.

This course has three modes of evaluation: quantitative, qualitative and participative. The quantitative mode evaluates the student knowledge of basic facts, events, and names a college graduate should be acquainted with. This mode requires the ability to know and memorize information. The qualitative mode in the form of written reports focuses on analytical skills and the ability to understand and articulate a point of view. The participative mode evaluates the student ability to communicate ideas, present what has been learned and conduct a rational and well informed discussion. The quantitative mode (examinations) is 50%, the qualitative mode (reports) is 20%, and the participative (participation at the Discussion Board) is 20% of the final grade (the remaining 10% is a Contact requirement).

As a web based course students meet and do all course work in virtual space. Anyone anywhere in the world with a reliable internet connection and minimal internet knowledge can enroll in this course. There are no meetings in the traditional physical classroom. The course utilizes the new technology of the information age in order to deliver and improve upon traditional undergraduate education in history. It also seeks to familiarize students with on-line communications and  introduce students to the internet as a working environment and research tool. 

The course home page is the main entrance to the course facilities. Only registered students with a valid userid/password can access the course home page at http://webctvista.unt.edu/ .

The most important facilities of the course home page are: Conference Board and Modules 01-10. The other facilities allow students to e-mail the instructor and Blackboard technical support, change password, and link with the virtual UNT Librarian, instructor home page, course syllabus and a technical guide to Blackboard. The Calendar reminds students of the various stages, tasks and deadlines of the course. Turnitin facility allows students to perform a plagiarism check up on their surf-the-net reports.

The Class Conference Board is the course's virtual classroom where students and instructor meet regularly. It resembles an internet social network. It is divided into several forums (each module has its own forum, for example). It allows students to post messages and discuss with their peers and instructor course related matters. Students are expected to read the Class Conference Board at least once every day. Internet etiquette applies. Vigorous intellectual debate about course related matters is expected.

Chat Room. Participation in the chat room is not a course requirement. It is a 24 hours  lounge where students can meet synchronously and "talk" freely.

Modules 01-10, introduce the student to the traditional wisdom or basic knowledge in the field. Those are the notes students should have written if taking the traditional classroom delivery of this course. At the end of each module a very basic "WWW Links" page lists names and topics related to the lecture notes. Students are required to write a surf-the-net report discussing the World Wide Web resources on the name or concept of their choice.

Plagiarism report check-up. A Turnitin tool that allows students and the instructor to check the surf-the-net reports for academic integrity.


All study related to each module, including the module's exam and surf-the-net report, must be completed before the module deadline. After that date the module site will be closed and the next module introduced. For more information about deadlines consult Calendar at the course home page. All exams are available between 1AM and 11PM.

Begin date of module

 Module exam date

Module 01

Jan 18

 Feb 08 (T)

Module 02
Feb 18
 March 01 (T)

Module 03

March 01

 March 29 (T)

Module 04

March 29

 April 18 (M)

Module 05*

April 18

 May 07 (Sat)

* Participation at the Discussion Board ends at 11:59PM of the last day of classes, May 05 (R).

Other important dates

First day of classes ............................................................................ January 18
Spring Break.......................................................................................March 14-20
Last day of classes...............................................................................May 05
Finals...................................................................................................May 7-13


Students are required:

Activity Description % of grade
Exams Each of the 5 modules has an exam. Total of five exams. Each exam is 10% of the final grade. Exams have three sections of equal weight: multiple-choice, identification items and essay. Exams' essays and ids come from the modules' review section. 50%
Surf the net reports Students surf the net and write a report reviewing the WWW resources on each of the topics covered by the modules. One report for each of the five modules. (Total of five reports; each report is 4% of the final grade) 20%
Participation Students engage in meaningful discussions about the web reports or any course related topic at the class conference board. 20%
Contact Students must initiate at least one e-mail exchange per module with the instructor. Students are strongly encouraged to contact the instructor at any time. This requirement should be understood as the taking of attendance. The contact requirement is cancelled whenever course enrollment is more than 30 students. Students will then be automatically awarded 10 points. 10%

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL ON-LINE EXAMS

All exams are on-line.   For the specific dates and times of the exams see Deadlines box above or click the link Calendar at the course home page. The grade of incomplete and make-up exams will be granted only in exceptional cases (see regulations at the Undergraduate Catalog, specifically the sections on the Grading System and the Incomplete). 

One exam per module. Exams have three parts: multiple-choice, identifications (you will be asked to answer three out of four ids) and essay (one essay out of two). Exams are available only during the dates stated at the Calendar (click Calendar link at the Homepage) and Exams links (click Exam link at the course homepage).  Once ready to take an exam students should click during the prescribed time the "hot" exam link at the course homepage. For information about the content of the exams read the page About The Exam of each module.

Hist4010

Hist4020

All texts are available at the UNT bookstore and any other book store.

* Spring 2011: Banesh text on Einstein is now out of print. Item is cancelled until there is a new edition or reprint. Do not buy an used copy because not all students will be able to get one.

Any  person with special circumstances covered  by  the American with Disabilities Act should register with the office of  Disability Accommodation, Suite 318A, University Union Building, and also inform the instructor of  this class. It is the responsibility of the student to obtain verifying information from the ODA and bring the form to the instructor no later than the first week of classes. Reasonable adjustment will be made to accommodate the special needs of students with disabilities where such adjustments are necessary to provide equality of educational access.

Participation at the Class Conference Board is a pre-requisite for the completion of this course and 20% of the final grade.  All five surf the net reports will be posted at the Class Conference Board. Students are expected to engage in meaningful discussions, criticism and commentaries of  their peers'  net reports and any other course related topic. Internet etiquette applies.

As soon as you finish reading the notes of the modules you should became acquainted with related material available at the internet.  You should surf  the web exploring topics of the lecture notes that interest you. First and foremost have fun surfing the web exploring any particular theme of the lectures. When you finish the other module requirements (see "module requirements" at  each module's home page) you should go back to the WWW pages that most interested you early on.  Next you should get approval from your instructor to work on a topic. Students should thus post their claim over a concept or name in the Conference Board and get a topic approval from their instructor. "First come, first serve" policy observed in order to prevent multiple reports on the same item. You should then write a report about such sites/material and post the report at the appropriate forum of the Board. Remember: you need to get approval from the instructor to work on a topic. Surf-the-net reports are 20% of the final grade. This assignment replaces the traditional library or book report. One of the pedagogical goals of this assignment is to become acquainted with the internet as an academic (research) tool. The length of the reports should be around 2000 words.

The web report  is not a mere listing of web sites. It can be topic or site centered. A topical report discusses various web sites with information about a specific topic. A site centered report rather focuses on one specific site that specializes in the topic of your choice. Both types of reports should examine the site's content, appearance, structure and any other relevant feature. Students should exercize their judgment concerning the academic integrity of internet material.

It is assumed that students give permission to archive their work and make it available to students of other sessions of this course. Students who do not wish to give this permission or who wish to keep their work anonymous should notify the instructor during the first week of classes. Students should read the reports written by students of previous sessions of this course (4010 and 4020) archived at the Surf-the-Net Reports' Hall-of-Fame (link is at the Module Requirements page).

Reports should be posted at the appropriate forum of the Board and not be posted with the Attachment tool. If a posting's attachment  is infested with a virus all students in the class may be contaminated and  it will take days, even weeks to get back to normal. Rather write the report in your favorite word processor and then copy and paste it into a compose message at the Board. The instructor will not open and give credit for reports posted as attachments or posted at the wrong forum. No private e-mails with attachments will be accepted by your instructor.

About Wikipedia. My policy concerning the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia when it appeared a few years ago was that students should refrain from quoting Wikipedia in their reports. However in the last few years Wikipedia has grown to become an internet phenomena and I have noticed that it is a favorite among my students. In order not to become an old-fashion academic living in an ivory tower out of touch with my internet generation students and due to on-going significant student pressure I am relaxing my policy on Wikipedia. Students may quote and cite Wikipedia in their surf-the-net reports as long as Wikipedia is not the only source of information. Students must back up any information gathered from Wikipedia with other sources. By mid-semester we will have a discussion at the Board concerning the academic reliability of Wikipedia and the formulation of a policy for future semesters. I suggest students become acquainted with Wikipedia in order to have an informed discussion.

A Note About Plagiarism and Citation Styles. The Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities, http://www.unt.edu/csrr/, defines plagiarism as 'the deliberate adoption or reproduction of ideas, words or statements of another person as one’s own without acknowledgement.' According to this definition, you commit plagiarism when you copy the work of another person (or internet site) and turn it in as your own, even if you have the permission of that person. For more information about plagiarism and the Code of Student Conduct and Discipline (Revised Fall 2003) go to the Policy Manual UNT, http://www.unt.edu/policy/UNT_Policy/volume3/18_1_11.html . There is zero plagiarism tolerance at UNT and in HIST4010/20.

Your browser copy/paste facility makes it easy and tempting to import entire blocks of text from an internet site into the composition of your surf-the-wet report.  In order to prevent scholarly misconduct students should become acquainted with the proper format of electronic citation and reference. Students must cite material found on the  WWW just as they would with material taken from printed sources. How  does one cite material that does not have a traditional page number nor sometimes an easily identifiable author?  The site Online: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. Is a web-version of a book on electronic source citation style. It addresses the different citation standards (MLA,  APA, Chicago, CBE and other styles) and advices on how to cite information from a variety of different electronic sources, including Web sites, email messages, Web discussion forum postings, Listserv messages, Newsgroup messages, etc.

Plagiarism check-up. Blackboard has incorporated a plagiarism check-up tool developed by Turnitin (TII). For more information go to the Turnitin webct tutorial and the Turnitin homepage. Students will find at the course homepage five originality reports check-up links, one for each module. Before posting a report at the Board students are required to submit their reports to TII and run their own originality check-up. The software searches the net for material that has been plagiarized as per the definition of plagiarism of the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities. Based on the Turnitin assessment students should exercise their own judgment if their report is original. The software allows students to overwrite their reports as many times as they wish there is, however, a 24 hours waiting period between attempts. The instructor will take into consideration only the most recently posted report. Once satisfied with the academic integrity of their work students should paste a copy of their reports at the respective forum of the Board. Reports posted at the Board that were not checked for originality at TII will be automatically assigned a 0. At the chapter due date the instructor will evaluate the TII originality reports and assign either a 0 for not passing the plagiarism check-up or a 1 for passing the check-up. Students will see the grades of 0 or 1 at their gradebook (My Grades). Copies of the reports assigned a 1 and posted at the Board will be graded according to their academic merit. Copies of the reports posted at the Board that were assigned a 0 at the originality check-up will be as well automatically assigned a 0 at the Board. The grading of the reports for content takes place only at the Board. The grades of 1 and 0 at Turnitin merely means that a report passed or did not pass the originality check-up. The instructor will not grade reports posted at the Board that did not undergo first an originality check-up at the Turnitin facility.

Writing Guidelines. Here are a few suggestions on how to write good reports. Your instructor will take all the following considerations into account when grading reports.

  1. Sources: It is preferred that you use at least three references, unless of course you are writing a site centered report. 
  2. Wikipedia: Please read one more time the course policy about Wikipedia stated above. It is acceptable to use Wikipedia as a reference but it should not be the only source of information.
  3. Length of the paper:  Around 2000 words doesn't mean 400-1500 but rather 1800-2200 words.
  4. Citations: We will make this easy. Cite everything. When you directly quote something from a source you must place quotation marks and cite the source.  Even if you do not quote word for word, meaning you reword the text in your own words, you still must give full reference to the source. We may want to know more specifically what your source has to say about the subject that is why you cite so that we can read the source ourselves.
  5. Quotes: Direct quotes should be used sparingly.  Direct quotes should be no more than 15% of your paper. If you submit a paper comprised mostly of quotes expect a grade to reflect your work. Instead of direct quotes you may rewrite the ideas in your own words. You tell us in your own words what you learned by visiting these sources thus reducing the number of direct quotes.
  6. References style: Make sure you read one more time the section above about Citation Styles and visit the site Online: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources.
  7. Plagiarism. We assume you are aware of what constitute plagiarism and what does not. Plagiarism is a very serious academic offense and will not be tolerated in this course. Again, read the section about Academic Dishonesty and the Turnitin tool.
  8. Other general rules you should have learned in high school.
    Organization-Report has an introduction (preface), body and conclusion.
    Writing Style    -difficult to have rules here but we all know the difference between a comprehensible and a non-comprehensible style. Proper use of grammar.
    Presentation    -Text is clean, neat, well presented; paragraph division is logic. The writing (or argument) is well articulated, logical and critical. Writing is coherent.
    Critical attitude    -Don’t take for granted anything just because it was published somewhere and/or the author is a doctor, a professor or has any other fancy degree and/or title. The appeal to authority should always be questioned. Information found in Wikipedia should be held questionable until validated by more reliable sources.
    Validity of the information-Make sure your facts are correct and you did not miss the point or argument of the information gathered.
    Extras-Graphics, images, charts, etc, deserve bonus points. They diversify the presentation and make the reading more interesting.
    Content    -The topic of the report must be related to the material of the chapter. Reports must remain focused on the topic and not digress into unrelated issues. Topics must be approved by the instructor. If in doubt post at the Board and ask your instructor

Students are encouraged to initiate e-mail exchanges with their teacher as often as possible. They must report to the teacher by e-mail about their progress at least once per module. This Contact with the instructor requirement should be understood as the taking of class attendance. E-mail contact with the instructor is 10% of the total grade. Only e-mails delivered from the course homepage e-mail box will be counted.  Please do not send e-mail to the instructor at his Eaglemail box or any other private mail box. Rather use only the course homepage e-mail box.  The best time to get an immediate reply from the instructor is between 1 PM and 4 PM, Monday through Friday. On weekends his working hours vary and he may not be available for an immediate reply. Moreover, students who do not reply within ten days to e-mail from the instructor  will be automatically dropped from the course with a W, WF or F grade. The Contact requirement is cancelled whenever course enrollment is above 30 students which is the case of the current semester (we are at almost double that number). Students will be automatically awarded 10 points.

HOW TO REGISTER, GET STARTED, HELP, AND SETE

Students register for this course exactly as they register for all UNT courses. For the appropriate code or information on how to register see the Schedule of Classes.  Web-based Courses are listed both under the Department of History schedule of courses and under the separate section,   Distance Education and Web-Based Courses. The official first day of classes of the Academic Calendar also applies to this course. Students should  initiate by e-mail their first contact with the instructor, introduce themselves to the Class Conferencing Board, and start reading the first module during the first week of the semester. In order to enter the course home page students need to visit the official UNT webct site at, http://webctvista.unt.edu/ , where they can get the required userid/password and enter the course home page. Next they should send the class instructor an e-mail introducing themselves (use the course e-mail box, not any other mail service such as Eaglemail, Gmail, etc). All dates and schedules of  the Academic Calendar  and all regulations of the Undergraduate Catalog apply. Students who do not follow the course, History Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and University  regulations or do not reply within two weeks to e-mail from the instructor  sent to their course mail box will be automatically dropped from the course with a W or WF grade.

What to do if help is needed. Depending on what kind of course related problem you are experiencing here is how you can get help. If you problem is of one of content, e.g., your problem is of an intellectual nature,  post an inquiry at the Board. If  you do not wish to share your inquiry with everybody else then e-mail your course instructor. Compose a message at the course e-mail box. Your instructor has the following webct e-mail  course address: RoydeCarvalho(HIST40?0). If your problem is technical, e.g., your problem is software or hardware related, then you have several avenues. First and foremost try to figure it out by yourself. Click Help at the navigation upper banner. A Help option is offered throughout most of the courses' pages.  You should also try the Student Resources link at the webct main entry page (where you enter the userid and password) e.g., http://webctvista.unt.edu/webct/entryPageIns.dowebct . This is a very inclusive manual of all webct functions. Questions related to userid and password are answered here. If you still can't figure it out and it is not urgent then post your question at the Discussion Board. Again, if you do not wish to share your question with the rest of the class then e-mail your instructor privately.  Your instructor has limited technical knowledge of webct and computer systems. If your instructor can't help you or is not available immediately then you can either e-mail webct@unt.edu or call their help desk number (940)565-2324. If you are in campus you can go to ISB Room 119 and get walk in help from a warm human being.  Webct related technical difficulties are no excuse for missing deadlines. If you feel overwhelmed by information technology you should rather consider taking the traditional classroom version of this course. Basic knowledge and willingness to learn information technology is a course prerequisite. 

The Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness. SETE is a requirement for all organized classes at UNT. This short survey will be made available to you at the end of the semester, providing you a chance to comment on how this class is taught.  I am very interested in the feedback I get from students, as I work to continually improve my teaching. I consider the SETE to be an important part of your participation in this class.

COURSE CONTENTS
HIST4010
HIST4020

MODULE  01: Ancient Science & Technology

  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • Ancient   technology
  • Mesopotamian and Egyptian technology
  • Greek, Hellenistic and Roman worlds
  • Early Greek cosmology and natural philosophy
  • Plato and the world of  forms or ideas
  • Aristotle's philosophy of nature
  • Ancient astronomy
  • Claudius Ptolemy
  • Greek, Hellenistic and Roman technology
  • Collapse of the ancient world
  • Chronology of  ancient philosophers
  • Bibliography

MODULE 02: Medieval Science & Technology

  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • Medieval technology
  • Loss and recovery of Ancient learning
  • Medieval universities
  • Christian reception of pagan learning
  • Chronology of the transmission of Greek learning
  • Medieval cosmology and astronomy 
  • Medieval science of motion
  • Bibliography 

MODULE 03: The Scientific Revolution (From Copernicus to Galileo)

  • Module Home Page
  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • The Renaissance: Artists and technology
  • The Age of Revolution (17th & 18th centuries)
  • The Copernican Revolution
  • Reception of Copernican astronomy & cosmology
  • Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
  • Kepler and the transformation of Copernican astronomy
  • Galileo and the Inquisition
  • Galileo and the new mechanics
  • Bibliography 

MODULE 04: The Scientific Revolution (From Descartes to Newton)

  • Module Home Page
  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • Magic and skepticism in the Renaissance
  • The skeptical crisis
  • Descartes and the skeptical crisis
  • Descartes and the mechanical philosophy
  • Gassendi's alternative mechanical philosophy
  • Newton, Descartes and the nature of light
  • Mid-17th Century celestial & terrestrial mechanics
  • Newton's early life and education
  • Newton's theory of gravitation
  • Newtonian philosophy of space and time
  • Scientific methodology
  • Methodology of the Newtonian synthesis
  • On science & religion: Weber, Merton & Hooykaas
  • Bibliography 

MODULE 05: Understanding Science & Technology

  • Module Home Page
  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • Understanding science
  • Logical empiricism or positivism
  • Popper's notion of falsification
  • Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolution"
  • Defining technology
  • Bibliography

MODULE 06: The Industrial Revolution 

  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • The Scientific Revolution, Newton & the problem of method in science
  • The new technology: The mechanical world view and clockwork
  • Development of the steam engine
  • The Enlightenment: The age of reason
  • The Industrial Revolution and the transformation of society
  • Jeremy Bentham: Philosopher of the Industrial Revolution
  • Bibliography 

MODULE 07: Roots of the Energy Concept

  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • Two partial laws of conservation
  • The caloric hypothesis
  • Toward the energy concept: Romanticism & Naturphilosophie
  • Electricity from Volta to Faraday
  • Count Rumford and the kinetic theory of heat
  • James Prescott Joule
  • Impact outside the physical sciences
  • The energy law and late 19th century positivism
  • Bibliography 

MODULE 08: Einstein, Relativity, and Atomic Energy

  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • The issue of the ether, 1880-1900
    System of coordinates
    The relativity of trajectories
  • Einstein's principle of relativity
    The extension of POR to light
    The paradox
    The relativity of simultaneity and synchronicity
    Consequences of the special theory
    Time dilation
    Length contraction and mass increase
  • Atomic energy and human values
  • Fission and the chain reaction
  • The Manhattan Project
  • The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
    The AEC's Legal "Safe Dose"
  • The Brookhaven Report and the Price-Anderson Act
  • Radioactive waste
  • The NRC
  • Bibliography 

MODULE 09: Charles Darwin's Evolution by Natural Selection

  • Module requirements
  • About the exam
  • Review for the exam
  • Natural History and the problem of the species
  • Linnaeus and the system of nature
  • The evolutionary theories of Lamarck and Buffon
  • Geology, paleontology and evolution (1780-1840)
  • Charles Darwin and evolution my natural selection
  • New twist on old ideas
  • Darwin's evidence
  • The reception of Darwinism
  • Biology after Darwin
  • The regulation of biotechnology
  • The controversy in Cambridge, MA
  • Bibliography

MODULE 10: Modern Technology 

  • Module Requirements
  • About the Exam
  • Review for the Exam
  • The Internal Combustion Engine
    Denis Rapin and Philippe Lebon
    The "Silent Engine" of Nicolaus August Otto
    Daimler, Maybach, and the carburetor
    On the "origins" of the automobile engine
    The automobile in America: Henry Ford and the Model-T
  • Landing on the Moon
    Liquid-fuel chemical rockets
    German ballistic technology: The V-1 and V-2
    The Sputnik and the space race
    Apollo and the landing on the moon (July 20, 1969)
  • Technology & Society
    The Industrial Revolution in the home
    Jacques Ellul's "Technological Society"
    Technocracy: Bellamy, Veblen, Burnham & Galbraith
    The quest for utopia
  • Bibliography