| CODE | IFS0007 | ||||||||
| TITLE | History of Science | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 00 - Mod Pre-Tert, Foundation, Proficiency & DegreePlus | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 3 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | International School for Foundation Studies | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | In this study-unit, the development of different branches of science from classical times to date will be discussed. This study-unit will be offered to students following both the Science and Medical commencement programmes, and will discuss the history of concepts and theories related to the areas of maths, physics, biology, biochemistry and chemistry. Study-Unit Aims: The study-unit aims to review the development of science over time. Specifically, the topics include: Physics: Archimedes' law of buoyancy, Archimedes' screw, theory of light, the heat engine, the battery, mechanical equivalent of heat and renewable energy sources, radioactivity, AC/DC; Maths: Babylonian maths, pre-Pythagoras, cuneiform numbers, classical maths; Chemistry: History of the periodic table and history of chemical food additives; Biology: Mendelian genetics, cloning, immunisation, discovery of viruses and blood typing; Biochemistry: DNA. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - describe some different scientific achievements across time; - classify some different scientific achievements in their historical context; - describe the sources from which the history of science is written; - evaluate their contribution to the current state of scientific knowledge. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - describe the contents of the primary sources used in the course; - classify the contents of the sources according to Western and non-Western paradigms of knowledge; - evaluate the extent to which various scientific achievements have shaped our contemporary understanding of science; - practise writing and discussing the history of science from primary and secondary sources. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Lecture notes and articles. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-requisite Qualifications: As per Legal Notice 115 of Education Act (2009) | ||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Independent Study | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Sandra Agius Darmanin Carl Caruana Lucienne Gatt Omar N'Shea |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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