I still think an instructional tour (to a school) to teach our own community about the contributions of Muslims to the Sciences they are studying is a good idea so I give myself a vote. Either that or informative posters to be posted on the walls of these schools.
Mohamad Abdelwahab
This is the 1001 inventions video Dalia posted earlier. It’s very well made and pretty entertaining. Something of this sort would be a cool project and it’s perfect for a yoing audience which corresponds to our kids book idea?
I am sure many of you know that we have trying to find guest speakers for the course, and in doing so we have been able to speak to many knowledgable scholars. Today I had the oppurtunity to speak to Dr.Alnoor Dhanani, a scholar from Harvard University. He specializes in the fields of the history of Islamic science, philosophy and relious thought. Speaking with him gave me an interesting perspective on many issues relavent to our course and he also brought up some ambiguous, but noteworthy questions that we could discuss in our “Islam and Modern Science,” section. Some of our discussions we have had in the past few weeks would have also benefitted from his insight.
Nonetheless he brought up a few key points. One of which is that in studying the hitory of science in any civilization, it must be understood in a local and temporal context. This means, how did scientisits view their work, why did they do it and how was it received by the society that existed at the time? It is very complicated to study historical sciences under Islam through the lens of modern science. This also brings up another point which is the fact that it is tough to draw similarities in abstract discoveries of the past to finding in the present. This will be very interesting to discuss in class. One last thing that stuck with me, is that many of the “great discoveries” we will see over the next few weeks in our presentations were not highlly revered in Muslim societies. An example of this is that Ibn Al-Haytham’s work on Optics was more widely read in some Latin circles than it was by some Muslims. I am sure why this is the case.
Anyways he sent me a chapter he wrote in a textbook, which would have probably been more useful earlier in the course as a reading, but it is still very well written, informative and interesting. I will attach it to the media tab.
Raheem
Hello! So there is some weird admin setting turned on which only allows the blog admin (i.e. Raheem) to see who posted what which is kind of annoying. Could you guys please start leaving your name at the end of your posts? Also if you have a second please add this to your previous posts… Some of you are already doing this Thank You!
-aalia
Hey Guys,
Since we have student presentations for the next few weeks, are going to move the discussion about term project ideas here. Please comment and post your ideas! We should decide fairly soon so everybody can start working on things and avoid having all the work pile up until the end. PS. quick note about marking: Our faculty sponsor, Dr. Dharamsi, whom most of you have met, will likely be marking this project.
IDEAS:
– term paper. possibly compiled into a published monologue. topic: pick a Muslim scientist and situate them and their contributions in their respective field.
– poster/exhibition somewhere (sub? art gallery?). problems: difficult to book. possible solution: booth during I-week? or celebrate research week?
– you tube video. possibly show somewhere on campus. (I LIKE!)
– lesson plan for elementary school students. either to be delivered by students in the class or given to teachers. at BCMS or local elementary schools or both?
– children’s book
– game? i don’t remember the details of this….
– calendar. each page could represent a particular Muslim scientist, OR a field (for example mathematics or chemistry). Give calendar (sell?) to people (like the UBC Dean’s and science professors) to put up in their offices. (I LIKE THIS IDEA. I know the point was brought up that it’s “too easy” or “lazy” BUT i think that if we put the appropriate amount of time into it, we could get it to look very professional, plus perhaps find some funding somewhere…. and its very feasible and will result in a more permanent way of getting our information out there… like how cool would it be if Mr. Toope had this in his office? The dean of science? science advising? professors who you went to see for office hours? etc. etc. etc.!!!)
– aalia