Introduction to Science Concepts and Methods

Introduction to Science Concepts and Methods (ISCM) has been designed specifically for the Science ESP.  The aim of the ISCM course is to expose you to concepts and methods commonly encountered in the Sciences. During the course you will also meet lecturers from different departments in the Science Faculty and you will get to know more about their subjects. This will help you to make more informed decisions when you have to choose your future subjects leading to a career.

Throughout the year lecturers will introduce you to fundamental concepts in the sciences and you will find out that many disciplines in the sciences use the same fundamental principles. Not only will you be exposed to new concepts, you will also learn new academic skills and be given the opportunity to practice these skills.

By the end of the ISCM course, if you have worked hard to complete all the course requirements, you should be able to:

1. Manage your time, keep track of your progress and adapt your learning strategies to the type of work you are doing.
2. Know when to use different sources of information such as books, journals and internet web pages, and be able to judge whether sources that you find on your own will be reliable.
3. Put together (synthesize) numerical data and written information in an acceptable way for essays, reports or assignments.
4. Communicate effectively. This means that you should write well and be able to give a presentation to an audience. You should also be able to set up appointments with lecturers and tutors, and be able to communicate effectively with them.
5. Solve problems and use what you have learned in new situations. Problem solving includes your interaction with other people as well as problems that you may encounter in your academic work.

These outcomes do not stress content knowledge. It is not the aim of this course to re-teach school work, but rather to equip you with skills that you will need and use throughout your degree. These skills will be put into practice by using information from different scientific disciplines. You will still write tests, but we will be interested in finding out how you do the work as well as finding out what you know. This may be a very new way of doing things, but we will work with you every step of the way to make a success of this course.