Online course: Journey Conversations: Weaving Knowledge and Action (part of a long term online programme: Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times)

Dates: any time

Duration: 40 hours

Rating: 4.8 / 5.0 out of 134 ratings (see top rating courses here)

Participating countries: any country

Apply here: Application form

Organizer: Yale University at Coursera

Cost:

• FREE
• $49 with sharable certificate

Journey Conversations: Weaving Knowledge and Action

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.

Instructors

John Grim

Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

Mary Evelyn Tucker

Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

 

Programme

WEEK 1: 1 hour to complete

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!

Tucker and Grim, “Introduction to the Journey Conversations”

4 hours to complete

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”

Tucker, “Living Within a Universe Story”
Tucker, “Ethics in an Age of Extinction”
Journey of the Universe (full film)
Brian Swimme – Introduction
“The New Story,” by Thomas Berry
“The Unfolding Story of the Universe”, A Conversation with Mary Evelyn Tucker and Julianne Warren
Hall of Planet Earth, American Museum of Natural History, NYC
Living Within a Universe Story
Introduction – Journey of the Universe Conversations

WEEK 2: 7 hours to complete

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.

Beginning of the Universe (Joel Primack)
Galaxies Forming (Todd Duncan and Joel Primack)
The Emanating Brilliance of Stars (Todd Duncan and Joel Primack)
Birth of the Solar System (Craig Kochel)
Beginning, Galaxies, Stars and Solar System
Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 1: Beginning of the Universe
Scientific Summary, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: Beginning of the Universe
Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 2: Galaxies Forming
Scientific Summary, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: The Formation of Galaxies
Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 3: The Emanating Brilliance of Stars
Scientific Summaries, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: The Emanating Brilliance of Stars
Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 4: Birth of the Solar System
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Scientific Summaries, by Matthew Riley and Brian Thomas Swimme: Birth of the Solar System
Beginning of the Universe (Joel Primack)
Galaxies Forming (Todd Duncan & Joel Primack)
The Emanating Brilliance of Stars (Todd Duncan and Joel Primack)
Birth of the Solar System (Craig Kochel)
Beginning of the Universe: Galaxies, Stars, and the Solar System

WEEK 3: 8 hours to complete

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.

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

WEEK 4: 8 hours to complete

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.

Becoming a Planetary Presence (Cynthia Brown)
Transition (Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker
Breakthrough Communities (Carl Anthony)
Eco-Cities (Richard Register)
Ecological Economics (Richard Norgaard)
Planetary Presence, Economics, Eco-cities
Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 9: Becoming a Planetary Presence
Scientific Summaries, by Riley and Swimme: Becoming a Planetary Presence
Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 10: Rethinking Matter and Time
Scientific Summaries, by Riley and Swimme: Rethinking Matter and Time
Journey of the Universe Book: Chapter 11: Emerging Earth Community
Mary Evelyn Tucker and Mary Gorham “Business and Sustainability”
Solutions Journal – Read one article
Becoming a Planetary Presence (Cynthia Brown)
Transition (Mary Evelyn Tucker)
Breakthrough Communities (Carl Anthony)
Eco-Cities (Richard Register)
Ecological Economics (Richard Norgaard)
Becoming a Planetary Presence: Communities, Cities, and Economics

WEEK 5: 6 hours to complete

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.

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

WEEK 6: 6 hours to complete

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.

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

Long term online programme Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times

This online course is one of the parts of long term online programme “Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times“, provided by Yale University: