Readings in the Natural Sciences

This course has been designed to give students who have already taken ESL 92 (“Foundations in Critical Reading”) the opportunity to respond to the challenges of reading advanced texts in the natural sciences. The readings give students a grasp of the major changes that have occurred in the history of science from antiquity to modern times. Students are given an overview of the progress made in each historical period. By offering students key excerpts from authentic reading materials, they study in depth the contributions of one or two scientists in each period. Students become aware of how different discoveries and scientific theories have contributed to society and human development but have also clashed with religious and spiritual views throughout history and resulted in conflicts that have often made life dangerous for the innovators because of the threats their ideas posed to the particular status quo of their time. As various topics are discussed in their specific sociocultural context, students consider the varying “tensions” that often exist between scientists and members of the public media and government policy makers and religious leaders and how the “facts” of scientific discoveries in our natural world are not always embraced by everyone despite their apparent authenticity. They also learn to appreciate how these “tensions” have often been mitigated in time and how, through the progress made through scientific inquiry, we humans have become increasingly aware of our ability to tap the resources of the natural world – in ways that have sometimes proven not only to be to our advantage but also to our disadvantage.In addition to the selected readings, students study a work of fiction or nonfiction during the semester that is related to the scientific experience. Students will have completed a review of this work at the end of the semester.Through the prism of the specific content of the course, students work on refining their reading skills. A conscious effort is made to improve students’ reading comprehension, while focusing on vocabulary development, reference building, past and present, and the critical thinking skills that are essential for success with the college reading experience.The following college-level pedagogical strategies are incorporated into the course curriculum:1. making students aware from the start that reading is a problem-solving process and key to their success in their college programs;2. exposing students to more complex prose so that they will acquire the higher-level vocabulary and advanced reading skills necessary to negotiate the more complex academic discourses they will encounter in the major content areas;3. learning skimming and scanning strategies;4. learning to anticipate outcomes and draw conclusions;5. learning to identify and build connections between central points, main ideas, and supporting details;6. learning to go from literal comprehension of texts to more interpretive, inferential reasoning;7. learning to differentiate between facts and opinions, purpose and tone; different rhetorical modes and text functions;8. learning to critically analyze maps, graphs and charts.9. learning to create outlines and summaries not only for written texts but also for maps, graphs, and charts;10. learning through the reading process how to become better writers; writing in response to reading.

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