BSc: History

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History

  • Course name: History
  • Code discipline: HSS601
  • Subject area:

Short Description

This course covers the following concepts: Origins of science and its connection with technology in different periods of human’s history; Science and society: how one impacts another and vice versa; Scientific revolution: its nature, causes and consequences for the history of science • The role of Russian science in the World scientific progress.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite subjects

Prerequisite topics

Course Topics

Course Sections and Topics
Section Topics within the section
Introduction to the history of science. Science and technology of ancient civilizations
  1. the concept of science and technology and their role in the history of civilization
  2. scientific knowledge of the pre-civilization period and the first *ancient Eastern civilizations
  3. features and main achievements of Greek and Roman science
  4. ancient technologies and the problem of their loss
Science and technology in Medieval Europe, Asia and America from 6th to 14th centuries
  1. Main features of the Medieval science
  2. Chinese and Arab science and their impact on European
  3. Science and technology of Medieval Europe
  4. Scientific and technological achievements of pre-Columbian American civilizations
Scientific and technological progress in the era of Renaissance (15th-16th centuries)s
  1. The Age of Discovery: the exploration of new territories.
  2. The emergence of scientific anatomy and chemistry.
  3. Revolution in astronomy: N. Copernicus, I. Kepler, G. Galileo.
  4. Technical achievements of the Renaissance
Scientific revolution of the 17th century and science in the age of Enlightenment
  1. Signs of the coming of the Modern Time. Recognition of science: the emergence of scientific societies and academies.
  2. Chemistry and Natural Science in the 17th-18th centuries.
  3. Advances in maths and physics in the 17-th-18th century.
Industrial revolution of the 19th century: the role of science and technology
  1. Development of the education system and the formation of the disciplinary structure of science
  2. Physics in the 19th century: discoveries in classical thermodynamics and electrodynamics
  3. Chemistry and biology in the 19th century. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
  4. The development of technology in the "age of the industrial revolution".
Science and technology from late 19th to the middle of 20th centuries: formation of non-classical science
  1. A revolution in physics: radioactivity and the atomic model, quantum mechanics.
  2. General theory of relativity and astrophysics.
  3. Discoveries in genetics and medicine of the first half of the 20th century.
  4. Technological progress in the late 19th - first half of the 20th centuries.
Modern science and technology: the role of IT
  1. "Post-non-classical science": new forms of organization of science and technology
  2. Modern physics: problems of substance and space research
  3. Revolution of the second half of the 20th century in genetics and microbiology
  4. Information revolution at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries: perspectives of information technologies

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

What is the main purpose of this course?

The main purpose of this course to make the student aware of basic notions of mathematical programming and of its importance in the area of engineering.

ILOs defined at three levels

Level 1: What concepts should a student know/remember/explain?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

  • Main achievements of ancient and medieval science
  • Key scientific revolutions from 17th to 20th centuries and their main directions • Technological inventions underlying modern human civilization
  • Main stages of IT development

Level 2: What basic practical skills should a student be able to perform?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

  • Features of scientific development at different stages of human history
  • Logic of the development of the scientific revolution
  • Relationship of scientific and technological progress in the history of mankind • Social factors influencing the development of science and technology
  • Role of Russian science in the history of world science and technology

Level 3: What complex comprehensive skills should a student be able to apply in real-life scenarios?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

  • Use some methods of the humanitarian studies and their professional field
  • Find and critically analyze information relevant to professional development • Evaluate the possible prospects of a particular scientific and technical product from a historical point of view
  • Argue personal position on the development of science and technology

Grading

Course grading range

Grade Range Description of performance
A. Excellent 90-100 -
B. Good 75-89 -
C. Satisfactory 60-74 -
D. Poor 0-59 -

Course activities and grading breakdown

Activity Type Percentage of the overall course grade
Labs/seminar classes 30
Interim performance assessment 30
Exams 40

Recommendations for students on how to succeed in the course

Resources, literature and reference materials

Open access resources

Closed access resources

Software and tools used within the course

Teaching Methodology: Methods, techniques, & activities

Activities and Teaching Methods

Activities within each section
Learning Activities Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 Section 7
Homework and group projects 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
Testing (written or computer based) 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Discussions 1 1 0 0 1 1 1
Reports 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
Midterm evaluation 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Essays 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Formative Assessment and Course Activities

Ongoing performance assessment

Section 1

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Question What is the science and technology? Why is it important to study their history? 1
Question What we owe to the science of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and India? 1
Question What were the main features of ancient science? What were the reasons for its decline? 1
Question What are the main technical achievements of the ancient world? 1
Question Discussion – “Paleocontact hypothesis: pro et contra”. 0
Question Inventions ahead of their time: the problem of the demand for technology in the ancient world. 0
Question Problem of the beginnings of science: existing theories. 0

Section 2

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Question How has the man's attitude to nature changed in the Middle Ages? Why does the method of experiment appear in the Middle Ages? 1
Question What are the main achievements of Arab and Chinese science? How they influenced European science? 1
Question How was medieval science related to Christian doctrine? What was the significance of the emergence of universities in Europe during the Middle Ages? 1
Question What are the main scientific and technical achievements of pre-Columbian American civilizations (Maya, Inca and Aztec)? 1
Question Middle Ages: Era of Decline or Development of Science? (discussion) 0
Question Impact of the Crusades on the development of European science (report) 0
Question Strategy and tactics of medieval armies: the evolution of military technology (report) 0

Section 3

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Question What changes have occurred in the scientific view of the Renaissance? What is humanism and on what basis does it arise? 1
Question What were the prerequisites and reasons for the great geographical discoveries? What were the most important geographical expeditions of the 15th-16th centuries and what discoveries were made as a result? 1
Question How did scientific anatomy originate in Europe? What is the significance of William Harvey's discoveries? 1
Question What was the revolutionary nature of Copernicus's discovery and why was it not recognized during his lifetime? What laws of planetary motion was able to formulate I. Kepler? How did G. Galileo manage to prove the validity of the Copernican hypothesis? Midterm test based on the questions of the first 3 sections. 1
Question Inventions in navigation that made long-distance ocean voyages possible (report) 2. Model of the Universe in the works of D. Bruno (report) 0
Question Leonardo da Vinci – a technical genius or a visionary? (report) 0

Section 4

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Question What is “Protestant Ethic” and what are its features? When and why does science become a socially recognized phenomenon? 1
Question What system of classification of all living things did Karl Linnaeus suggest? Which scientist was the first to put forward the idea of the evolution of living organisms? 1
Question What mathematical discoveries made possible the formation of a mechanistic picture of the world? What is the significance of Isaac Newton's discoveries? What experience did L. Galvani set and what was its significance? 1
Question What is the difference between J. Watt's steam engine and T. Newcomen's steam engine? How did the lathe change in the 18th century? 1
Question Essay on the personality of one of the scientists of the Early Modern period. 0
Question French Enlightement and its role in the development of science (Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, and Montesquieu) (report) 0
Question Emergence of Russian science: Saint Petersburg Academy of science and the researches of M.V. Lomonosov (report) 0

Section 5

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Question How and why did science acquire a disciplinary character? What new educational institutions appeared at this time? 1
Question What was the significance of the discoveries of J. Joule and R. Brown for classical thermodynamics? What is the significance of H. Oersted's experiment? Why did M. Faraday's discovery cast doubt on the mechanistic philosophy? 1
Question What is the significance of the periodic table of elements of D. I. Mendeleev? Who was the founder of modern microbiology and immunology? On what concepts was Charles Darwin's theory of evolution based? 1
Question What were the main stages of using the steam engine in industry and transport? When and by whom was the internal combustion engine invented? How did the communication system of the 19th century develop? 1
Question The role of science and technology in transforming Western Europe into the intellectual center of the world (discussion) 0
Question Research in 19th century medicine: germ theory of disease (report) 0
Question Polzunov or Watt: who was the creator of the steam engine? (report) 0

Section 6

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Question Why by the end of the 19th century can we talk about the crisis of "classical science" and what were its symptoms? How radioactivity discovered and what was the significance of this discovery? What models of the atom were proposed at the beginning of the 20th century? 1
Question What is the significance of A. Einstein's theory of relativity? What astronomical phenomena could it predict? How was the expansion of the universe discovered and what were its first scientific models? 1
Question Who is considered the founder of genetics and why? When and how did the first antibiotics appear? 1
Question When did the first radio broadcast take place? Who is the inventor of television? What were the first flying machines? How did the world wars affect the development of science and technology? 1
Question Weapons that changed the methods of warfare at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (report) 0
Question Struggle for the atom: the creation of atomic weapons and the use of atomic energy (discussion) 0
Question From daguerreotype to photography and from silent cinema to modern television (report) 0

Section 7

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Question What are the characteristic features of "post-non-classical science"? 1
Question What is the meaning of the quark hypothesis and how does it explain the structure of matter? What tasks are being set for the Large Hadron Collider and the International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor? 1
Question What discoveries in genetics in the 1940s produced the decoding of the DNA molecule? What discoveries paved the way for genetic engineering? 1
Question What are the major generations of computers in the 20th century? How did the creation of the Internet begin? What are the prospects for the development of information technology? Final testing based on the questions of all sections. 1
Question Science and technology as a factor in modern geopolitics (discussion) 0
Question What opportunities open up nanotechnology for humanity? (report) 0
Question Genetic editing and bioethics issues (report) 0

Final assessment

Section 1

  1. The problem of the emergence of science in the ancient world. Typical features of ancient science and technology.
  2. The development of astronomical and mathematical knowledge in the ancient world.
  3. Ancient technologies and the problem of their loss.

Section 2

  1. Education and its connection with science in the Middle Ages.
  2. Heritage of Arab and Chinese science.
  3. Medieval ideas about space and the place of man in the universe.

Section 3

  1. Preconditions and reasons for the discovery of America.
  2. The development of astronomical knowledge and its impact on the transformation of the scientific views of the inhabitants of Medieval Europe.

Section 4

  1. Scientific revolution of Early Modern Europe: formation of the mechanical philosophy.
  2. The influence of the development of science and technology on the emergence of the Enlightenment.

Section 5

  1. The development of transport in the 19th century and its role in changing the way of life in Europe.
  2. The folding of industrial society in the 19th century.

Section 6

  1. The role of the theory of relativity in shaping the modern worldview.
  2. Radioactivity and its study: implications for the world in the 20th Century.
  3. The development of astronomy in the 20th century and its influence on the formation of the modern worldview.

Section 7

  1. Study of the microcosm and its influence on the development of technology in the XX XXI centuries
  2. The development of communications and the formation of a modern lifestyle.
  3. IT technologies and their perspectives.

The retake exam

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7