History of Science Online - Course Info - Time tips - Semester Schedule - Weekly Assignments - Timeline - Projects - Course Info: HSCI 3013 - section 995 - Fall 2008

Weekly Starting Assumptions

Learning Objective: The Starting Assumptions assignment gives you a chance to recall any previous acquaintance you might have with the period and culture we will explore, and to share your knowledge with other students in class. It is not really meant to introduce the science of the time and place, so much as the cultural context. Its chief purpose is to give everyone a better appreciation of the specific culture and period whose science will be studied during the given week.

Starting the week! The Starting Assumptions assignment is the first assignment you will do each week, and it is due at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday night. (Yes, remember, the week "starts" on Tuesday; see Weekly Assignments and time management tips.) Why not do it on Monday, and work at least one day ahead all week?

Optional and required questions. A list of questions will get you thinking about what you might want to post as your Starting Assumptions. At least one of those questions will be **required** while the other questions are optional. Here's how to recognize which question is required: it will be marked in bold, with red asterisks. Your Starting Assumptions post must include some answer to the required question, along with comments about any of the other questions that catch your attention. Oftentimes the required question will come in several parts, phrased something like this:

**What are some similarities between ancient (fill in the blank) cultures and culture today? How might these similarities help us to understand ancient (fill in the blank) culture? What are some differences between ancient (fill in the blank) culture and culture today? How might these differences pose an obstacle to our understanding of ancient (fill in the blank) culture? What do you think is the chief barrier or prejudice that obstructs modern appreciation of science in the (fill in the blank) era?**

This required question really consists of three parts:

1. If there are no similarities between the historical culture and culture today, we could not hope to understand them enough to learn something interesting from them. So what similarities can you think of that may help us relate to the other culture?
2. If there are no differences, they would be transparently obvious to us, and we could understand them without exercising any effort or imagination -- so why go to all the bother of visiting them? So what differences can you think of that might cause us to misunderstand what they were up to?
3. Since the differences between our culture and theirs make them difficult to understand, these differences are the emphasis of the last part, which directs our thinking to consider not just their culture in general, but their science in particular. So how might those cultural differences pose an obstacle to our understanding of their achievements in science?

Please try to reply briefly to all three parts of this required question each week.

New Topic. Just click the New Topic button in Yuku. Each week you will create three New Topics on Yuku, when you post your (1) Starting Assumptions, (2) an Interpretation, and (3) a Reflection (weekly assignments).

Starting Assumptions responses. In addition to posting your own Starting Assumptions at the Yuku discussion board, you are also required to post responses to the Starting Assumptions of two other students. Just hit the Add Reply button, or you can click on the Add Reply link that appears as part of their post (just under their name on the left hand side).

Student-to-Student Interaction: You will be doing a lot of writing for each other this semester. I strongly believe that interaction with other students in a way that is not mediated by the instructor is one of the chief advantages of an online course. When you read others' Starting Assumptions, pause and do your best to understand where they are coming from. Take advantage of this opportunity to get to know your fellow students; you will be "seeing" a lot of them online through the course of the semester. Many students find this student-to-student interaction to be one of their favorite aspects of the course!

Note: This page is a general description of the Starting Assumptions assignment. For the specific questions you are to respond to on any given week, go to the Starting Assumptions assignment page for that week.

Here are the instructions you will see each week for the Starting Assumptions assignment:

Instructions for Starting Assumptions assignment: Read through the Starting Assumptions questions for this week. If there are images, click on a couple of the images that interest you to learn more about them. PART ONE: Write a paragraph, 150 words minimum, in response to the questions that interest you. You must answer the question(s) marked **in bold with red asterisks**. Spellcheck, word count, and proofread your paragraph. Cut-and-paste your completed paragraph and post it in the Starting Assumptions forum for this week at the Yuku discussion board. PART TWO: Respond to the Starting Assumptions posts of at least two other students. (If you are the first or second person to post, you will have to check back later to complete this part of the assignment.) Note: Please respond to posts with 0 responses first; once every post has at least one response, you are free to choose any post to respond to. IMPORTANT: When you respond, please say "Hi Euclid" or "Hi Alchemist" so that you can get used to the names and Yuku nicknames of the people in class. After you have posted your paragraph AND responded to two other students, complete the Gradebook Declaration in Desire2Learn. (Your Gradebook Declaration is subject to the Honor Code.) Check all that apply: if you have completed the assignment, you will check all five statements. You may redo this Gradebook Declaration up until the due date, if you score less than 5 the first time. Here is the text of the Desire2Learn Gradebook Declaration: (1 point) I have posted my Starting Assumptions (at least 50 words) at Yuku, including a response to the required question(s). (1 point) I have posted my Starting Assumptions (at least 100 words) at Yuku, including a response to the required question(s). (1 point) I have posted my Starting Assumptions (at least 150 words) at Yuku, including a response to the required question(s). (1 point) I have replied to the post of at least one other student. (1 point) I have replied to the post of at least two other students.

	HSCI 3013. History of Science to 17th century Kerry Magruder, 2004-08 Report typos or broken links Many thanks to Mythology and Folklore and other online courses developed by Laura Gibbs.	Search course websites:
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