About this course: Journey of the Universe weaves together the discoveries of the evolutionary sciences together with humanities such as history, philosophy, art, and religion. This course draws on the Journey of the Universe Conversations, a series of 20 interviews with scientists and environmentalists. The first 10 interviews are with scientists and historians who deepen our understanding of the evolutionary process of universe, Earth, and humans. The second 10 interviews are with environmentalists, teachers, and artists who explore the connections between the universe story and the practices for a flourishing Earth community. Upcoming sessions May 8, 2017 - June 26, 2017 June 5, 2017 - July 24, 2017 July 3, 2017 - August 21, 2017 July 31, 2017 - September 18, 2017 August 28, 2017 - October 16, 2017 September 25, 2017 - November 13, 2017

Who is this class for: This course is introductory and aimed at an educated public, ranging from those with college education to those without. No prerequisite knowledge is needed - just an openness to learn about the complex development of the universe, Earth, and life. Within this epic story we will explore the role of humans given our present social and ecological challenges.

Created by: Yale University

Taught by: Mary Evelyn Tucker , Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Taught by: John Grim, Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

Basic Info	Course 2 of 4 in the Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times Specialization
Commitment	2 hours of viewing lectures/week and 2 hours of reading books and articles/week
Language	English
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.7 stars Average User Rating 4.7See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Welcome to Journey Conversations: Weaving Knowledge and Action!

Learn what this course is about, who's teaching it, and other ways you can explore this topic. Meet and greet your peers as well!

1 video, 4 readings

Video: Tucker and Grim, “Introduction to the Journey Conversations”
Reading: Course Description
Reading: Meet Your Instructional Team!
Discussion Prompt: Introduce yourself!
Reading: Recommended Texts
Reading: Web Resources

Introduction – Journey of the Universe Conversations

The universe’s evolutionary development forces it to leave eras and to start new eras, which is taking place in our own moment in time. We’re in one such moment. We are being pushed out of the industrial era into a new era of Earth’s history”

4 videos, 3 readings, 1 practice quiz

Video: Tucker, “Living Within a Universe Story”
Video: Tucker, “Ethics in an Age of Extinction”
Reading: "The New Story," by Thomas Berry
Practice Quiz: Living Within a Universe Story
Reading: “The Unfolding Story of the Universe”, A Conversation with Mary Evelyn Tucker and Julianne Warren
Video: Journey of the Universe (full film)
Reading: Hall of Planet Earth, American Museum of Natural History, NYC
Video: Brian Swimme - Introduction
Discussion Prompt: How can a new story, orient and ground us in a way that leads to flourishing human-Earth relations?

Graded: Introduction – Journey of the Universe Conversations

WEEK 2

Beginning of the Universe: Galaxies, Stars, and the Solar System

A star is required for the production of carbon and oxygen and a galaxy is required for the production of stars. So the Milky Way galaxy as a whole is required for our hands. Understanding our cosmological nature is the first step into a new era.

5 videos, 9 readings, 4 practice quizzes

Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 1: Beginning of the Universe
Video: Beginning of the Universe (Joel Primack)
Reading: Scientific Summary, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: Beginning of the Universe
Practice Quiz: Beginning of the Universe (Joel Primack)
Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 2: Galaxies Forming
Video: Galaxies Forming (Todd Duncan and Joel Primack)
Reading: Scientific Summary, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: The Formation of Galaxies
Practice Quiz: Galaxies Forming (Todd Duncan & Joel Primack)
Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 3: The Emanating Brilliance of Stars
Video: The Emanating Brilliance of Stars (Todd Duncan and Joel Primack)
Reading: Scientific Summaries, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: The Emanating Brilliance of Stars
Practice Quiz: The Emanating Brilliance of Stars (Todd Duncan and Joel Primack)
Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 4: Birth of the Solar System
Video: Birth of the Solar System (Craig Kochel)
Reading: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Reading: Scientific Summaries, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: Birth of the Solar System
Practice Quiz: Birth of the Solar System (Craig Kochel)
Video: Beginning, Galaxies, Stars and Solar System
Discussion Prompt: How do creativity and tension continue to shape our life here on Earth?

Graded: Beginning of the Universe: Galaxies, Stars, and the Solar System

WEEK 3

Emergence of Life, Learning, and Humans

We discuss the oxygen crisis two billion years ago and the endosymbiosis that dealt with it creatively. We too will deal with the enveloping crises of our time, first of all by tending to them, by taking responsibility for them.

5 videos, 9 readings, 4 practice quizzes

Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 5: Life’s Emergence
Video: Life's Emergence (Terry Deacon and Ursula Goodenough)
Reading: Scientific Summary, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: Life’s Emergence
Practice Quiz: Life's Emergence (Terry Deacon and Ursula Goodenough)
Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 6: Living and Dying
Video: Learning, Living, and Dying (Terry Deacon)
Reading: Scientific Summary, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: Living and Dying
Practice Quiz: Learning, Living, and Dying (Terry Deacon)
Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 7: The Passion of Animals
Video: The Passion of Animals (Scott Sampson)
Reading: Scientific Summary, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: the Passion of Animals
Practice Quiz: The Passion of Animals (Scott Sampson)
Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 8: The Origin of the Human
Video: The Origin of the Human (Melissa Nelson and John Grim)
Reading: American Museum of Natural History, Evolution Today
Reading: Scientific Summary, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: The Origin of the Human
Practice Quiz: The Origin of the Human (Melissa Nelson and John Grim)
Video: Life, Learning and Humans
Discussion Prompt: What connections do you see?

Graded: Emergence of Life, Learning, and Humans

WEEK 4

Becoming a Planetary Presence: Communities, Cities, and Economics

The story of the isolated neutron’s quick decay and the neutron+proton’s long term stability as an illustration of the synergistic effects that will take place in Eco-cities. In ways we can only guess at, these new mutually enhancing relationships will lead to a qualitatively new vitality.

6 videos, 7 readings, 5 practice quizzes

Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 9: Becoming a Planetary Presence
Video: Becoming a Planetary Presence (Cynthia Brown)
Reading: Scientific Summaries, by Riley and Swimme: Becoming a Planetary Presence
Practice Quiz: Becoming a Planetary Presence (Cynthia Brown)
Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 10: Rethinking Matter and Time
Video: Transition (Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker)
Reading: Scientific Summaries, by Riley and Swimme: Rethinking Matter and Time
Practice Quiz: Transition (Mary Evelyn Tucker)
Reading: Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 11: Emerging Earth Community
Video: Breakthrough Communities (Carl Anthony)
Reading: Mary Evelyn Tucker and Mary Gorham “Business and Sustainability”
Reading: Solutions Journal - Read one article
Practice Quiz: Breakthrough Communities (Carl Anthony)
Video: Eco-Cities (Richard Register)
Practice Quiz: Eco-Cities (Richard Register)
Video: Ecological Economics (Richard Norgaard)
Practice Quiz: Ecological Economics (Richard Norgaard)
Video: Planetary Presence, Economics, Eco-cities
Discussion Prompt: What does it mean to think globally and act locally?

Graded: Becoming a Planetary Presence: Communities, Cities, and Economics

WEEK 5

Embodied Knowing: Food, Energy, and Health

Understand the universe as self-organizing. Consider galaxies. It is the spiral structure of a galaxy that enables it to construct stars. Elliptical galaxies have lost this structure and have lost the capacity to construct stars. With planets it’s similar. The water, soil, and air enable it to bring forth life year after year. Soil in particular is a dynamic structure that required three billion years of life to construct. But it’s here now. So long as we maintain its health and integrity, it will bring forth food. But to lose that dynamic structure or to lose the dynamic structure of the oceans is to regress back billions of years.

5 videos, 3 readings, 4 practice quizzes

Video: Permaculture (Penny Livingston)
Practice Quiz: Permaculture (Penny Livingston)
Video: Indigenous Ways of Knowing (Nancy Maryboy and David Begay)
Reading: “Indigenous Knowledge, Technology, and Life Lived Responsibly”, by John Grim
Reading: Indigenous Environmental Network – Read one story
Practice Quiz: Indigenous Ways of Knowing (Nancy Maryboy and David Begay)
Video: Sustainable Energy (Paula Gonzalez)
Reading: Mary Evelyn Tucker and Jon Gorham “Sustainable Energy and Organic Food”
Practice Quiz: Sustainable Energy (Paula Gonzalez)
Video: Healing and Revisioning (Belvie Rooks)
Practice Quiz: Healing and Revisioning (Belvie Rooks)
Video: Embodied Knowing: Food, Energy, Health
Discussion Prompt: Answer one of the following questions...

Graded: Embodied Knowing: Food, Energy, and Health

WEEK 6

Emerging Earth Community: Teaching and the Creative Arts

Humans need to live for something greater than themselves if they are ever to achieve happiness and fulfillment. One way to achieve this goal is to teach children the full nature of our universe. Not just our technologies and our sciences and our arts and entertainments, but the story of the universe itself and what is taking place all around and through them.

6 videos, 7 readings, 4 practice quizzes

Video: Arts and Justice (Marya Grathwohl and Drew Dellinger)
Practice Quiz: Arts and Justice (Marya Grathwohl and Drew Dellinger)
Video: Myths, Metaphors and Identities (Sachiko Kawaura and Nancy Abrams)
Reading: Love Letter to the Milky Way: A Book of Poems, by Drew Dellinger
Practice Quiz: Myths, Metaphors and Identities (Sachiko Kawaura and Nancy Abrams)
Video: Teaching Journey of the Universe (Bindu Mohanty and Tom Collins)
Reading: “Belonging”, by Julianne Lutz Warren
Practice Quiz: Teaching Journey of the Universe (Bindu Mohanty and Tom Collins)
Video: Paul Winter in Dialogue with Mary Evelyn Tucker
Reading: Paul Winter – Earth Music
Reading: Paul Winter – Earth Mass
Reading: Paul Winter – Winter Solstice
Reading: (Music) Paul Winter - Lullaby for the Great Mother Whale (5 min)
Reading: (Music) Paul Winter – Wolf Eyes
Practice Quiz: Paul Winter in Dialogue with Mary Evelyn Tucker
Video: Emerging Earth Community: Arts, myths, teaching Journey
Video: Conclusion
Discussion Prompt: Consider one of the following questions...

Graded: Emerging Earth Community: Teaching and the Creative Arts

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Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.7 out of 5 of 36 ratings

Early weeks a little repetitive but I enjoyed the interviews

This is a very interesting and enlightening course. It has helped me see the world and the universe in an entirely different way. Thank you very much!

I enjoyed this so much I am thinking of taking it again.

A great way to learn about journey of the universe and its applications in the world e.g. ecological economics, permaculture, sustainable energy, ecocities, arts, education, and so on. Rather than passively watching videos the questions motivate a more active listening. I highly recommend doing this course!

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