Welcome to ILS 153

A sunset picture in the north Cascades, Washington State

ILS 153

Instructors:

Basil Tikoff (Geoscience)

Nancy Ruggeri

(Curriculum & Instruction)

IntroductionsIn groups of four, introduce yourselves and find

out the following about each of your group mates:

1) Name

2) Hometown

3) One thing you did over summer

4) Your most memorable educational experience (kindergarten to present)

Be prepared to introduce someone from your group to the rest of the class.

Views of ScienceBy yourself, come up with 5-10 words that best

describe your view of science. Then, another 5-10 words to best describe your view of scientists.

Then, in your groups, come up with 5-10 words that best describe your collective view of science. Then, another 5-10 words to best describe your collective views of scientists.

Science & Scientists

Image removed due to copyright: Cartoon of mad scientist and assistant

Image removed due to copyright: Gene Wilder as Frankenstein in “Young Frankenstein”

Image removed due to copyright: Marty Feldman as Igor in “Young Frankenstein”

Daily Show

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=90274&title=Neil-deGrasse-Tyson

Questions about the videoJon Stewart says: “Here’s my trouble with science; they

always wanted me to know the right answer.” Do you agree with Jon that science is about the right answers? Why or why not?

Then Jon asks: Isn’t the trouble with your job the not knowing? And Neil responds: “No that’s not the trouble, that’s the seduction!”  What do you think he means by that?

What questions about science come up after watching this interview?

Why teach science in a different way?

-Science classes are not typically designed for non-majors.

-Science impacts every aspect of modern life and will do so more in the future.

-A democratic society requires that citizens are able to evaluate information from all aspects of science.

-It is impossible for any person (scientist or non-scientist) to be fluent in all aspects of science content, therefore it is critical to understand the process by which science is done. These skills are transferable to other situations and technologies.

THIS CLASS REQUIRES PERSONAL ENGAGEMENT!

Rachel Carson

This notion that “science” is something that belongs in a separate compartment of its own, apart from everyday life, is one that I should like to challenge. We live in a scientific age, yet we assume that knowledge is the prerogative of only a small number of human beings…This is not true. The materials of science are the materials of life itself. Science is the reality of living, it is the what, the how, and the why in everything in our experience.

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Overarching themes - 1 The ways in which scientists use scientific data to build scientific arguments Scientific data are collected in a variety of ways, and each way produces different kinds of data (alternatively stated, there is no single “scientific method”) Uncertainty is inherent in scientific data and interpretation and this plays an important role in scientific practice There are differences between scientific ways of knowing and other ways of knowing 

Overarching themes - 2Scientists and the scientific community are both inherently skeptical and conservative (not necessarily in the political sense of the word). Science is done by human beings with individual, disciplinary, and cultural differences Science and the media interact to inform the public about scientific issues; the limitations and problems with their interaction The ways in which science interacts with economics, social norms, politics and religion

Welcome to ILS 153

Course Syllabus:Overall philosophy and grade breakdowns

Course Schedule:Dates, topics, and some reading assignments

This class is a work-in-progress, and you are contributors!

Four parts of this course

1) Scientific ways of knowing, uncertainties, statistics & probability, and quantitative thinking;

2) Continental drift and plate tectonics; 3) Evolution; and 4) Human-induced climate change

Textbooks

Bryson, Bill. 2003. A Short History of Nearly Everything .

Coyne, J. A. (2009). Why Evolution is True.

Pollack, H. N. (2003). Uncertain Science...Uncertain World.

And lots of smaller readings from other sources (course package at Bob’s copy shop)

Grades

• Weekly writing assignments (20%)

• Homework (20%)

• Group in-class assignments (15%)

• Paper (10%)

• Mid-semester exam (15%)

• Final Exam (20%)

This week: Elevating Science, Elevating Democracy  

1.  Summarize it.

2.  Discuss how this article addresses: How an individual scientists works, how a scientific community works internally, and how a scientific community interacts with society.

It is due before class on Tuesday (send it electronically to Nancy)

Scientists work in larger scientific community

Image removed due to copyright: Cartoon of mathematicians at the

chalkboard (image at: Andersontoons.com).

Scientists work in larger social context

How scientists figured it out how the natural world works?

Image source: Wikipedia.

From Bill Bryson:“My own starting point, for what it’s worth,

was an illustrated science book that I had as a classroom text when I was in fourth or fifth grade. The book was a standard-issue 1950s schoolbook - battered, unloved, grimly hefty - but near the front it had an illustration that just captivated me: a cutaway diagram showing the Earth as it would look if you cut into the planet with a large knife and carefully withdrew a wedge representing a quarter of its bulk.”

The diagram

Image source: Windows to the Universe.

Bill Bryson“Excited, I took the book home that night and

opened it before dinner - an action that prompted my mother to feel my forehead and ask if I was all right - and, starting with the first page, I read...”

Yes, yes…… Image removed due to copyright: Marty Feldman as Igor in “Young Frankenstein”

Bill Bryson“…And here’s the thing. It wasn’t exciting at all. It

wasn’t altogether comprehensible.”

“Above all, it didn’t answer any of the questions that the illustration stirred up in a normal inquiring mind: How did we end up with a Sun in the middle of planet? And if it is burning away down there, why isn’t the ground under our feet hot to the touch? … And how do you know this? How did you figure it out?”

So I grew up convinced that science was supremely dull, but suspecting it needn’t be, and not really thinking about it at all if I could help it.

Scientific Ways of KnowingInduction (or inductive logic) – Proceeding from

examples to general rules or principles

Induction leads to empirical approaches of understanding

Deduction (or deductive logic) – Using rules to understand examples

Deduction leads to theoretical approaches to understanding

Scientific Ways of Knowing

Raphael’s School of Athens Image from Wikimedia Commons

Scientific Ways of Knowing

Science’s intellectual underpinnings are philosophy, as arethe rest of the liberal arts.

Plato – Pointing upward, indicating that knowledge comes from pure thought, emphasizing theoretical models and a deductive approach.

Aristotle – Pointing down, indicating that knowledge comes from the world, emphasizing empirical data and an inductive approach

Image source: Wikipedia.

Scientific Ways of KnowingInduction -> Approach is observing (Empiricists)

1. Natural Observation – observation of natural system without manipulation

2. Experimentation – observation of natural system wit manipulation

Deduction -> Approach is modeling (Theoreticians)1. Numerical modeling –quantitative models designed to

make predictions of geometry or behavior of natural systems

Natural Observation

You can see a lot just by observing.

Yogi Berra

Aristotle

I think I’ve heardthat before

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Image source: Wikipedia.