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Author Topic:   MIT Course Materials
ramoss
Member (Idle past 612 days)
Posts: 3228
Joined: 08-11-2004


(1)
Message 1 of 10 (703758)
07-29-2013 9:11 AM


In case anybody didn't know it, MIT publishes almost all it's course materials online for anybody who wants to STUDY for themselves for FREE
Here is the line.
MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials

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RAZD
Member (Idle past 1404 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


(1)
Message 2 of 10 (721038)
03-03-2014 8:33 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by ramoss
07-29-2013 9:11 AM


List of Courses
Search | MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials
Biology
Courses on Evolution
Courses on Ecology
Courses on Biogeography
So much to do so little time ...

we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.


Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)

This message is a reply to:
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Replies to this message:
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Diomedes
Member
Posts: 995
From: Central Florida, USA
Joined: 09-13-2013


(1)
Message 3 of 10 (721040)
03-03-2014 9:13 AM
Reply to: Message 2 by RAZD
03-03-2014 8:33 AM


Re: List of Courses
Biology
Courses on Evolution
Courses on Ecology
Courses on Biogeography
What, no Creationist literature??

This message is a reply to:
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AZPaul3
Member
Posts: 8513
From: Phoenix
Joined: 11-06-2006
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 4 of 10 (721118)
03-03-2014 6:59 PM
Reply to: Message 3 by Diomedes
03-03-2014 9:13 AM


Re: List of Courses
What, no Creationist literature??
Just a small oversight, I'm sure.
Here you go.

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roxrkool
Member (Idle past 988 days)
Posts: 1497
From: Nevada
Joined: 03-23-2003


Message 5 of 10 (721122)
03-03-2014 9:03 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by ramoss
07-29-2013 9:11 AM


Excellent!

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RAZD
Member (Idle past 1404 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


(1)
Message 6 of 10 (721128)
03-03-2014 10:11 PM
Reply to: Message 3 by Diomedes
03-03-2014 9:13 AM


Evolution and Society
What, no Creationist literature??
Curiously the course on Evolution and Society discusses the early, pre-Darwin, investigations that led to the understanding that deep time was involved, and reviews the various Christian integrations and reactions. They don't make more than a passing references to Creationism, such as:
Lecture #2 PDF
quote:
Criticisms of Historical Science
Historical science does not benefit from
the repeatable observations that have
served as the cauldron of truth for
scientific knowledge.
Institute for Creation Research (Historical Science Is Based on Assumptions | The Institute for Creation Research)
... where they discuss the differenced between "Historical Science" and "Experimental Science" and they do provide answers via things learned that invalidate certain concepts (such as a Young Earth). Such as their demonstration that:
quote:
Historical events may be unrecoverable
(and unrepeatable), but scientific
experiments designed to test hypotheses
about what happened during such events
are not.

So it appears that they are well aware of the Creationism talking points but choose to deal with them tangentially by showing the basis for scientific knowledge that makes such thinking obsolete and scientifically irrelevant.
Interesting factoid: Darwin had the same dorm room at Christ’s College ... as William Paley.
Material is in PDF and look like they would be used as slide shows for lectures, and thus many questions are left for the student to answer.
Quite a different format from Berkeley Evolution 101 which is more like an on-line textbook.
In Lecture 9 they make the argument that his inspiration for natural selection came from reading Malthus:
quote:
Darwin’s Malthusian Eureka! moment
In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my
systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on
Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for
existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued
observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck
me that under these circumstances favourable variations would
tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The
result of this would be the formation of new species. Here then I
had at last got a theory by which to work....
Charles Darwin, Autobiography, 1876
AND then Wallace
Lecture 10 PDF:
quote:
Wallace’s Malthusian Eureka! moment
While vaguely thinking how this would affect any species, there
suddenly flashed upon me the idea of the survival of the fittest —
that the individuals removed by these checks must be, on the
whole, inferior to those that survived. Then, considering the
variations continuing occurring in every fresh generation of
animals or plants, and the changes of climate, of food, of enemies
always in progress, the whole method of specific modification
became clear to me, and in the two hours of my fit I had thought
out the main points of the theory. That same evening I sketched
out a draft of a paper; in the two succeeding evenings I wrote it
out, and sent it by the next post.. where exactly?
He sent it to Darwin. So they were very much on the same page at the same time.
Edited by RAZD, : added lecture 9
Edited by RAZD, : added

we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.


Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)

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Pressie
Member
Posts: 2103
From: Pretoria, SA
Joined: 06-18-2010


Message 7 of 10 (721141)
03-04-2014 5:18 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by ramoss
07-29-2013 9:11 AM


Thanks for the link
Thanks Ramoss. A great link. Didn't know about it. Or forgot about it.

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NoNukes
Inactive Member


Message 8 of 10 (721157)
03-04-2014 10:46 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by ramoss
07-29-2013 9:11 AM


The calculus I video course is outstanding. I recommend it for anyone whose college education did not include Calculus. It is accessible for a student who has had trigonometry, but the trig stuff can be skipped.
Yale has online courses as does Cal Berkeley. I highly recommend the Berkeley Astronomy Course with Alex Filippenko if it is still available. Probably not YEC friendly...

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. Galileo Galilei
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. Frederick Douglass

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RAZD
Member (Idle past 1404 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


Message 9 of 10 (721189)
03-04-2014 5:44 PM
Reply to: Message 8 by NoNukes
03-04-2014 10:46 AM


... I highly recommend the Berkeley Astronomy Course with Alex Filippenko if it is still available. Probably not YEC friendly...
links?

we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.


Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 8 by NoNukes, posted 03-04-2014 10:46 AM NoNukes has replied

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NoNukes
Inactive Member


(1)
Message 10 of 10 (721207)
03-05-2014 2:21 AM
Reply to: Message 9 by RAZD
03-04-2014 5:44 PM


Alex's video course is no longer on line at Cal Berkeley. I did find a link to the audio, but the quality of the recording does not do the material justice. It does get better after lecture one.
Astro C10 LS C70U Fall 2006 UC Berkeley (Astro_C10_LS_C70U_Introduction_to_General_Astronomy) : Alex Filippenko : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. Galileo Galilei
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. Frederick Douglass

This message is a reply to:
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