Scientific Thinking and Reasoning

Undergraduate

Students read, discuss and reflect on the paramount importance of science and quantitative reasoning in their lives through an exploration of the basic elements of a quantitative scientific process of inquiry. The goal of the course is to introduce students to foundational topics in science that must be, but sometimes are not, thoroughly considered early in the process of scientific inquiry. The first part focuses on reading about truth, facts and skepticism, causality, inference, deductive and inductive reasoning, research questions, and formulation of hypotheses and predictions. The second part considers aspects related to the actual development and implementation of a scientific study including considerations of types of study (e.g, observational, experimental), study feasibility, sample size, selection and validity of variables, power analysis, confounding factors. The third part considers the analyses, interpretation and presentation of results, offering introductory explanations of a priori statistical protocols; predictive and/or explanatory power and interpretation of both statistical significance and research relevance. The course is neither a lecture or seminar, but instead each meeting is a hybrid of both formats; a format where students are required to be active participants in the process of learning. Enrollment limited to first-year students. SC , SO TTh 2:35pm-3:50pm