Abstract:

At technical universities of Russia the humanities students take a course "Concepts of Modern Natural Science", the aim of which is to build a modern picture of the world, beginning from ancient times and up to now. The purpose of the course is to provide the scientific ideas about the world by learning the common issues and ideas of natural sciences, their mutual penetration and the use in disciplines of the humanities.

Training is based on the known reliable facts of science and civilization. Particular importance is given to the information on ancient discoveries and their contribution to the development of devices and equipment which allowed the living standards to be improved. At the same time, students learn individually information and make presentations. The foreign students from China, Vietnam, Korea, Greece, Mongolia, Africa, etc. can also solve these tasks. A retrospective journey into the history includes not only the achievements of natural sciences, but also the philosophical views.

The research method created for learning natural sciences allows the humanities students to develop logical thinking and creates a background for successful work on course papers, presentations for conferences, publications and graduate qualification works.

The subject "Self-organization (Synergy)" in the course "Concepts of Modern Natural Science" is a particular importance to the humanities students. Self-organization in economy is manifested in the balance between supply and demand and their replacement. Also, self-organization is considered to be a basis for the evolution of economic systems.

The bifurcation theory in the given course is considered to be an element of Synergy. Synergy strictly shows that external effects can not "impose" a required behavior on a system; it is possible only to choose the most appropriate way from the ways which are potentially laid in it. If this principle is violated in real life, then it can lead to serious consequences in politics, economy, ecology, etc. or, even to disasters.

The training system provides the development of the methods and approaches: the systematic approach, the student-centered, project and searching methods. Great importance in the educational process is given to the organization of individual work of students, which includes the training system for practical lessons, the e-learning course created in Moodle, virtual laboratory classes, preparing and conducting the conference week. The aim of the conference week is to develop the competencies which are consistent with those in the basic educational training programs for the humanities students.

Learning the course "Concepts of Modern Natural Science" by the humanities students significantly broadens the area of thought, makes it possible to distinguish scientific theories from pseudoscientific ones, enhances the students' motivation to the learning and contributes to the development of skills for individual work and to the formation of professional competencies, which follows from the questioning of students. These results were achieved by demonstrating the links and the contribution of natural sciences to the development of the humanities and the organization of the educational process with the use of modern electronic resources.

Keywords:

Concepts, competences, research method, self-organization, individual work.