This course integrates life, earth, and physical science, as well as the process of science, at a level that is appropriate for those planning to teach at the elementary level. Students gain the skills and content mastery necessary for engaging in inquiry- based science at the elementary level. Topics covered include the development of evidence in scientific investigations, the process of scientific analysis through framing scientific questions and conducting experiments, and solving scientific problems. These scientific processes are analyzed and discussed in terms of their limits and their relevancy to a Christian perspective of the world and science. Elementary education students pursuing a science minor should take Physics 212 instead of this course.
Attention is given throughout to the assumptions and methodologies of the physical sciences.
Theories of the fundamental character of matter, interactions, and space, including historical perspectives. Observational astronomy, Greek science, an the five essences. The Copernican revolution and the Newtonian synthesis. Gravity and force at a distance. The atomic model of matter, including the states of matter.