Basic Seminar A (Watch Nature, Think Scientifically)

Lecturer	Makoto KOBASHI, Professor
Department	Institute of Liberal Arts & Sciences, 2006 Fall
Recommended for:	Humanities departments School of informatics and Sciences (Natural Science Informatics) School of Science, School of Agriculture School of Engineering (II, III, IV courses) (2・1.5 hours / session 1 session / week 15 weeks / semester)

Course Overview

Science makes remarkable progress. To take an instance of everyday tools, cell phones have some functions which were not expected to be a part of them a few years ago. Lately, a robot which can jog around was introduced. However, when we turn our eyes to nature, there are a lot of living things which have great functions and structures. Those functions and structures beat the latest technology. We do not know who created those living things, but we are going to look into the wisdom of this nature and think about science again.

In a seminar, students are divided into small groups. Each group examines and thinks about a point of tangency between science and nature. The results are put together for a presentation. Students need to make materials for a group presentation. Each group presents the results to the class. Then we discuss the contents with class members. At the end of this semester, students will write a final paper. Through this activity, students are going to earn the eye to look into things, the skill of telling others your opinion and the ability of understanding opinions of others.

Students Accomplishments

Class presentation slides (which are made by students):

Note: All files are in Japanese.

Course Aims

Science and technology which human beings made, and living things and earth which nature created. We look into these common and different features and compare the features with each other. A topic will be decided by each group of the seminar participants. Students are going to learn the sensitivity to look into things and communication skill through the activities in this class: choosing a topic in a small group, doing a research on the topic which the group decided, making a presentation of the result and having a discussion of the presentation.

Demands for members of this class

Students who attend class enthusiastically.

Textbooks

No textbooks are required.

References

References are introduced in a seminar.

Course Schedule

Session	Contents	Assignments
1	Orientation.	Fill out a self-introduction sheet and prepare for introducing yourself.
2	Think about "what is the common feature between nature and science?" Self-introduction.
3	Laboratory tour, explanation of mini-themes.	Look through the material, "Explanation of mini-themes" and choose a mini-theme which you are going to be in charge of.
4	Learn how to make a presentation. Set up the mini-themes.	Organize the points and fill out "the sheet to make the points put in order before making a presentation material".
5, 6	Make a presentation.	Make a presentation material with power point.
7	Class presentation.
8	Think about the common feature between nature and science.
9	Decide group, roles and a theme.	Narrow the target down to "bubbles" and discuss what kind of examination you are going to do about the bubbles which exist on the natural world.
10, 11	Examination and discussion.	Collect the material relating to the contents which you decided.
12, 13	Make a presentation material.	Make a presentation material with power point.
14	Class presentation.
15	Conclusion.

Lecture Handouts