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Ashoka University’s undergraduate course curriculum is taught across three semesters: Spring, Summer and Monsoon (Fall). Courses are broadly divided into three categories – Foundation Courses (core curriculum), Major & Minor Courses and Co-Curricular Courses.
You may search courses offered at Ashoka here. Please use the drop down menu to choose the specific semester and subject to see the full list of courses under each department. Foundation courses are offered in all semesters and do not have prerequisites. Offerings in other categories differ in each semester. Some higher level major/minor courses may have prerequisites.
To view Summer Semester Courses-2024: Click here
Title of the Course: Deconstructing Discoveries
Why this course? Almost all High School graduates have studied science in school. However, almost invariably the science they studied mostly were about the products of science and not the process behind the product (discoveries or inventions), disconnected with the person(s) responsible for the discovery or the invention or the role of the society and funding. The aim of this course is to make students aware about how science is done. This will include how discoveries or inventions are made, how society, including the media or the state, responds, how prizes are awarded (or not awarded) for discoveries, how the nature of science has changed from being the pursuit of isolated individuals to Big Science, where a large number of people collaborate worldwide, and how science can be used to understand global issues like epidemics, climate change or the large scale environmental pollution, all immediate concerns for humanity at large.
Summary: In this course we will be exploring scientific discoveries and inventions, stories behind the discoveries, people associated with the discoveries, response of the society, the state and the media to discoveries, including recognitions and awards. This will be accomplished through lectures, readings, discussions, student seminars on self-assigned topics and/or assigned by the instructors, interviewing scientists at Ashoka University after reading some of their select publications in primary journals, and by enacting a play (Oxygen by Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann).
