1. Our World: How do we know? Perception. Is everything as it seems? Can we rely on common sense? Optical illusions. Realities beyond perception. Flatland.

2. Does science tell the truth? Why we do science. What we can expect from science. What it is, what it is not. Can it tell us everything? Fair testing. Proof. Theory modification. Changing world views. Music of the spheres.

3. Are we nothing but the parts we are made of?

4. Many maps, same place: Types of explanation. Different purposes call for different maps. Physical, political, road maps etc.

5. Time, Space, Sun and Moon: Measuring time. Aztec/Mayan calendars. Significance of sun and moon in mythological, scientific and spiritual terms. Space exploration – purposes, ethics. Beyond space and time? Space/time – ‘The time and space of Uncle Albert’.

6. Microscopes and telescopes: Beauty and structure, number patterns in nature, similarities between the very large and very small, does small mean less important? Relative values of large and small.

7. Pythagoras and the world as numbers: Ancient Greeks, life of Pythagoras. His interest in the properties of numbers, the relationships between them and the patterns they form. Would numbers exist if there were no humans alive to use them? Egyptian and Babylonian calculations – simple use of numbers like recipes. Pythagoras wanted to understand them to uncover secrets of universe. Whole, rational, perfect numbers. Link between numbers and nature. Harmony of music? Number in Islam. Zero.

8. Earthworms and Darwin: Are earthworms important? Darwin thought so. Food chains, water cycle, interdependence. The fossil record. Creation, chance and design?

9. Are you an alien? Human beliefs and values. Living and non-living. Significant and insignificant life forms (experiments on plants in science lessons) building on empathy, spiritual and moral development. Buddhist, Hindu environmentalism.