Shaping National Science Polic

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Shaping National Science Policy introduces students to science policy, science advocacy, and practical politics. The course is both a reading seminar, where students discuss assigned readings, and a project course. The readings explore issues in science policy and case studies at the intersection of science and politics. The readings are varied and include a play, court decisions, Congressional hearings and other materials. For the projects, students work in groups throughout the semester. Each group works on a science-related topic of its choosing and attempts to get Congress to take action on it, by dealing directly with Congressional offices, other public officials, advocacy groups, academic experts and others, as appropriate. Counts for Biology majors as a 2000-level interdisciplinary connections course, for Biology of Global Health majors as an Interdisciplinary Perspectives course, or for Environmental Biology majors as an upper-level elective. Physics students count the class as a restricted elective towards a degree.