The Essay
The SUMMATIVE essay is 2000 words (include a word count)
on ONE of the following topics
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Is the study of historical astronomy important today? Discuss with
examples. [10 marks]
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Write an essay on the nature of science, using the development of the
Big Bang theory for the origin of our Universe to illustrate your answer.
You should include a discussion of how scientific theories develop,
using the inflationary big bang as a specific example. Outline the
evidence underpinning the big bang theory, making clear distinctions
between observations which the theory was originally designed to
explain and those gave independent predictions. Explain why the theory
was modified to include a period of very rapid inflation in the early
Universe. If theories evolve, what is the nature of scientific truth?
What distinguishes a scientific theory from a non-scientific one?
[4 marks for science content]
[4 marks for nature of science]
[2 marks for essay style, structure and bibliography]
A good places to start on nature of science (beware of nutters on the web)
http://www.astronomynotes.com/scimethd/s1.htm