intro books & videos class
schedule
assignments
blog
introduction
In this class
we'll be looking at how ideas about science and ideas from
science appear in our everyday lives in ways that we take for granted:
encounters with science in popular culture. We'll study how science
and scientists have been portrayed in popular media from the scientific
revolution to our own time, and also explore how ideas about nature and
science merge at entertainment sites such as museums and zoos. We'll
compare how children encountered science in the 19th & 20th centuries (and
see how dinomania emerged), contemplate the search for ghosts and other
fantastic creatures in an age of experimental proof, probe how science
fiction relates to science fact, and analyze videos from the cold war era
that taught hundreds of thousands of schoolkids how to survive a nuclear
attack and much more! In looking closely at what happens when
science and popular culture meet, you'll even learn to see the present-day
as future history.
There are four
major components to this course: 1) What we do in class together (lecture
presentations, small group exercises, video viewings, discussions); 2) Your weekly reading, which
includes the assigned books, supplemental handouts, and weblinks; 3) Individual writing projects and essay
exams; and 4) the digital projects that make this a hybrid course. Each of these components are designed to allow you to integrate the
material in a manner that is meaningful to you.
The goals for this
course are for students to gain an awareness of how science is an aspect
of the wider culture in different eras; to analyze the historical roots of
contemporary practices; and to develop critical thinking skills that will
be useful as citizens living in a world continuing to be shaped by the
scientific enterprise.
NOTE:
Science & Popular Culture (hsci 2133) was previously numbered 1133.
As hsci 2133 it is much the same class in approach and
topics as before, but the structure will transition to a "hybrid" format:
that is, 2/3 of the course times will be in-class meetings with lecture &
discussion, and the other 1/3 of the assigned times will be "online" time,
as students access digital materials for projects on their own schedule &
share ideas in small groups on d2l.
books
Edward James and Farah Mendelsohn, eds.
The Cambridge
Companion to Science Fiction.
Deborah Blum.
Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search
for Scientific Proof of Life after Death.
Lynne Cox.
Grayson.
K.C. Cole. Something Incredibly
Wonderful Happens: Frank
Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up.
Webfolio
Supplemental Readings as noted on the syllabus
videos /
films
Disney: "Mickey
Mouse: The Mad Doctor" (1933)
"Duck and Cover" (1951)
Disney: "Our Friend the Atom" (1954)
Felix the Cat: "Baby-sitter"
(1958)
Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees (1965)
Westworld (1973)
R.E.M.: "Man on the Moon" (2003/1992)
Ghost Hunters: "Haunted Lighthouse" (2006)|
Whiz Kids (2009)
