Explore the Frontiers

Frontiers of Science (FroSci, for short) is designed to introduce students to topics in four scientific disciplines and to instill the skills – scientific habits of mind – that characterize scientific inquiry. The topics provide a rich context for learning how to think scientifically. In turn, the acquired habits of mind will help students understand how we know what we know, as well as how we will go about exploring some of the important open questions that remain.

Four units

The topics covered as part of the four units of the course – mind and brain, astrophysics, biodiversity, and Earth science – have been chosen to ignite the students' interest in science. As we explore the frontiers of these four scientific fields, we consider the nature of reality through the lenses of neuroscience and physics, and the processes that underlie the development of life on our planet through the lenses of biodiversity and Earth science. All four units provide opportunities to consider the role science plays in society and to put the question of who we are as humans, individually and collectively, into a scientific context.