9354742 Pifer One of the most critical shortfalls nationwide in science education today is our failure to impart scientific literacy to the non-science student. Watered-down survey courses may teach some basic scientific facts and jargon, but they rarely give students the critical skills necessary to function effectively in a technological society. We propose to develop an interdisciplinary course that studies a complex, multifaceted problem, the Greenhouse Effect, from many points of view-- scientific, economic, political--as a way of building scientific literacy in these students. The course will treat the scientific background of the Greenhouse Effect, its impact on the earth and human society, and ways to minimize the impact with an emphasis on alternative energy sources including a detailed case study of nuclear energy. Formal lectures will be avoided. Students will be given short lecture presentations, but for the most part will be engaged in discourse among themselves in which they will ask questions of the instructors and with faculty experts on the meaning and implications of the presentations and of readings. A series of laboratory exercises is designed to illustrate the physical principles involved in the Greenhouse Effect. The course will culminate with written reports and oral group presentations on case studies carried out by the groups on non-nuclear alternative fuels from a scientifically informed point of view.
