Scientific Inquiry is part of the Common Core of studies required of all students in the College of Liberal Arts. It is a non-laboratory course providing an introduction to the human activity known as science in its broadest terms, including its general qualities as well as examples drawn from the physical, biological, and behavioral & social sciences. Topics we will address include the ways of thinking that are involved in doing science; the types of knowledge it can yield; the social, ethical, and political contexts in which it is practiced; and the ways scientists communicate with each other and with the wider population. Our goal is for the students to become scientifically literate: able to assess the validity of supposedly scientific statements. To do this, they must learn to analyze statements, assess and incorporate empirical evidence, and make sound logical deductions, i.e. judgments about the statements. The students will achieve this is by reading and discussing topics from the source materials provided, researching and writing about those and other topics, and working in groups to analyze and evaluate ‘scientific’ claims from the modern era and ages past.

Discussion: During class sessions, some of the time will be given over to lectures by the instructor about the course material. Students will also spend some time in class on individual work. However, most of the time there will be some kind of discussion taking place, either amongst the entire class, or within small groups. These groups will be formed by the instructor at the beginning of the course, but will likely change during the course of the semester. The primary role for the texts and other materials you will receive will be to stimulate your thinking, and give you something to talk about in class.

Attendance: This will be worth 10% of the total grade. For lively and intellectually stimulating discussions to occur, all students must take part, and they must come to class prepared. There are 43 class sessions in the semester; attendance at every class session is required. Each student is allowed three unexcused absences without penalty; if they do not have more than three unexcused absences during the course, they will receive the full 10% towards their final grade. However, every further unexcused absence will result in a 1% deduction from their final grade. Ten unexcused absences beyond the first three will result in the maximum penalty, and that student would receive 0 for attendance. Such a student would have missed almost one third of the course meetings...

Class participation:  In order for class and group discussions to work well, every student needs to come to class prepared and participate fully. The instructor will keep track of each student's participation, awarding marks for significant contributions during class. These will be tallied up at the end of the course and will become the basis for awarding up to 5% bonus points. Some students will receive no bonus, while others will receive 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, or 5%.

Individual work: Altogether, this will be worth 70% of the total grade.

Quizzes: Quizzes will not be announced, but will be frequent and will always be based on a reading assignment. They may each contain True/False, Multiple Choice or Short Answer questions. They will be worked individually without use of the text or notes. A typical quiz will be worth 2 or 3 points on an arbitrary scale.
Homework: On some days, students will be assigned brief individual homework assignments to be handed in at the beginning of the next class, or to be sent in by email. A typical homework will be worth 2 to 5 points.
Short Papers: On an irregular basis, depending on the nature of the topics considered, students will be asked to write a brief paper about a topic that has recently been addressed in the course. This should be at least 500 words. A typical short paper will be worth 10 points.
Altogether, quizzes, homework and short papers will be worth 50% of the individual grade. 

Essay: Each student will write one long paper during the course, which will be due near the end of the semester. It should be at least 2500 words, and must be on a topic approved by the instructor. A suitable topic is anything related to the main goals of the course, including the scientific method and its practice, the relation of science to society and the individual, and other more philosophical issues related to science. Biographies and descriptions of individual experiments will not be allowed. Each student must agree to a topic with the instructor, before undertaking serious work on the paper. After approval, they must hand in a draft by M 10/22 of at least 1000 words. (If a suitable draft is not handed in on time, there will be a 10% deduction from the paper grade.) The final version of the paper is due M 11/19. 
The essay will be worth 20% of the individual grade.

Exams: There will be two of these, one during a regular class period and the other on final exam day. The first exam will be on Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method. The final exam (M 12/3, 2-5pm) will be on The Book of the Cosmos, The Prism and the Pendulum and the Hubble case study. It will be longer and weigh twice as much as the first exam. The exams may contain True/False, Short Answer, and Short Essay parts, as well as other analytical tasks. Students may use the text and personal notes during an exam.
The exams will be worth 30% of the individual grade. 

Group work: Altogether, this will be worth 20% of the total grade.

Group classwork: In the classroom, groups will work on a variety of activities designed to make students think about the issues, work to express their ideas to each other, and attempt to form a  group consensus. Sometimes, after taking a quiz individually, students will form groups and work a similar quiz together, but now aided by use of the text. Other class group assignments will force students to be more creative. Usually the group efforts will be followed by open class discussion. 
The group classwork will be worth 60% of the group grade. 

Group presentations: Art least twice during the course, groups will be asked to research a topic and make a class presentation. These may be existing groups or groups specifically formed for this purpose. One presentation will be on the myths and cosmology of an ancient culture, and is indirectly related to our work on The Book of the Cosmos. The other presentations will be motivated directly by readings in 8 Preposterous Propositions and will take the form of debates between two groups.
The group presentations will be worth 40% of the group grade. 

Group work dynamics: At the beginning of the course the instructor will assign students to groups of four. After a few weeks, students will have the chance to form groups as they wish for each class period; These must be no more than four students each and will be subject to instructor approval. If, in the opinion of the instructor, the student-formed groups are not working well, he will once again decide how the groups will be formed. Regardless of how the groups are constituted, each individual student will receive a group grade only for those assignments that they took part in; so if a student misses class one day, they receive no points for individual or group work that day. 

Each student will be judged informally by their peers in a group, so they should always be ready to contribute to the group effort in class. When students are allowed to form their own groups, they will remember who did or did not come to class ready, and who made the greatest contributions toward completing the task at hand. If you are not helping your group, you may find that you are no longer part of the group...

Grading: All points earned in the course will not be worth the same, when final grades are calculated. Instead, for each category, points will be re-scaled so that a perfect grade counts for the maximum percentage points shown in the tables below left and center. To convert percentages to letter grades, use the table below right.

Miscellaneous policies:  
If changes to this syllabus are necessary, they will be implemented after discussion and negotiation with the students. Note that the accompanying course schedule is not a part of the syllabus: it is tentative and subject to revision, except for the final exam date.

Missed exams for which no alternate arrangements were made beforehand may be made up only if the student has an official excuse: e.g., a note from a Dean's office, or a doctor’s note. This also applies to quizzes, except that they will be pro-rated instead of made up. Short papers will not be accepted if they are late. Essays must be handed in on time: For every day (excluding weekends and holidays) that an essay is late, its grade will decrease by 5%, except in extraordinary circumstances. A late group presentation will receive no credit, except under extraordinary circumstances. 

There will be no dropped grades. All work done in the course will be counted. There will be no extra-credit work.

The College of Liberal Arts' academic misconduct policy will be followed. In addition, all students are bound by the Mercer University Honor Code.

Students are strongly encouraged to discuss with the instructors all their work during the course, regardless of their grades. Questions about point awards should be brought up as soon as possible, as all grades will be final one week after the materials are graded and returned to the students.

Students with a documented disability should inform the instructor at the close of the first class meeting or as soon as possible. If you are not registered with Disability Services, the instructor will refer you to the Student Support Services office for consultation regarding documentation of your disability and eligibility for accommodations under the ADA/504. In order to receive accommodations, eligible students must provide each instructor with a Faculty Accommodation Form from Disability Services. Students must return the completed and signed form to the Disability Services office on the 3rd floor of the Connell Student Center. Students with a documented disability who do not wish to use accommodations are strongly encouraged to register with Disability Services and complete a Faculty Accommodation Form each semester. For further information please contact Disability Services at 478-301-2778 or visit the website at http://www.mercer.edu/stu_support/swd.htm.

All requests for reasonable accommodation are welcome also in regard to absence from class for school representation (i.e., athletic or other events) or personal/family problems. Let's talk about it...

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SCI 105.001 Scientific Inquiry -- Fall 2007 -- Dr. Balduz

PROJECTED COURSE PLAN: The course meets over 15 weeks, for 43 class sessions plus the final exam day. The outline below is highly subject to revision...

PART One. Knowledge and Science (4 sessions)

Case Study: What Do We Know? (2 sessions) Individually and as groups, you will be asked to review a set of statements, and rank them according to your own certainty about the correctness of the statements. 
Case Study: Black Box (2 sessions)

PART Two. Philosophy of Science (6 sessions + Exam A)

Text: Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method, by Henry H. Bauer, University of Illinois Press, 1994, (ISBN 0-252-06436-4).
Preface
Ch. 1 Scientific Literacy
Ch. 2 The So-called Scientific Method
Ch. 3 How Science Really Works
Ch. 4 Other Fables about Science
Ch. 5 Imperfections of the Filter
Ch. 6 Consequences of Misconception
Ch. 7 In Praise of Science

Exam A: Part Two (Bauer), F 9/28

PART Two 1/2. Myths & Culture (Overlaps Part Two. 5 sessions including 3 for Group Presentations)

Video: (Time Life's Lost Civilizations) and Discussion
Group Presentations 1-6: Ancient Cultures and Their Cosmologies

PART Three. Cosmology (21 sessions + Exam B)

Text: The Book of the Cosmos, edited by D. R. Danielson, Perseus Publishing, 2000 (ISBN 0-7382-0247).
Ch. 2 Twice into the Same River? Heraclitus and Parmenides
Ch. 3 The Things of the Universe Are Not Sliced Off with a Hatchet, Empedocles and Anaxagoras
Ch. 4 Atoms and Empty Space, Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius
Ch. 6 The Potency of Place, Aristotle
Ch. 7 He Supposes the Earth to Revolve, Aristarchus and Archimedes
Ch. 8 A Geometrical Argument, Eratosthenes
Ch. 11 The Peculiar Nature of the Universe, Claudius Ptolemy
Ch. 16 If a Man Were in the Sky and Could See the Earth Clearly, Nicole Oresme
Ch. 18 Almost Contrary to Common Sense, Nicholas Copernicus
Ch. 19 The Poetic Structure of the World, Fernand Hallyn and Thomas Kuhn
Ch. 23 Innumerable Suns, and an Infinite Number of Earths, Giordano Bruno
Ch. 24 Neither Known Nor Observed by Anyone Before, Galileo Galilei
Ch. 34 Into the Celestial Spaces, Isaac Newton
Ch. 39 An Event So Glorious to the Newtonian Doctrine of Gravity, Edmund Halley and "Astrophilus"
Ch. 44. Laboratories of the Universe, William Herschel
Ch. 52 Unraveled Starlight, William Huggins
Ch. 58 The Man in the Accelerated Chest, Albert Einstein
Ch. 64 The Realm of the Nebulae, Edwin Hubble
>>> or some selection thereof, time permitting...

How Cosmology Became a Science. We will read and discuss sections from the texts and perhaps other materials. This case study considers the history of cosmology as an example of a human endeavor that, over thousands of years, evolved into a scientific discipline. It grew from roots that lie deep in the common human experience, the need to understand our surroundings, and to predict how these will change over time. It started as the telling of stories about the origin of the earth, sky, waters, and all forms of life. Although at first it was closely allied with religion and traditional culture, it became more philosophical and abstract over the centuries. The need to explain more extensive and accurate information about our world forced cosmology to become more mathematical and dispassionate. Finally, as more advanced measuring tools were developed, and the activity of cosmology became more removed from everyday experience, it was able to distance itself from spiritual and philosophical considerations altogether, becoming one of the first true sciences.

Text: The Prism and the Pendulum, by Robert P. Crease, Random House, 2004 (ISBN 0-8129-7062-4).
Introduction: The Moment of Transition
One. Measuring the World: Eratosthenes' Measurement of the Earth's Circumference
Two. Dropping the Ball: The legend of the Leaning Tower
Three. The Alpha Experiment: Galileo and the Inclined Plane
Four. Experimentum Crucis: Newton's Decomposition of Sunlight with Prisms
Five. Weighing the World: Cavendish's Austere Experiment
Six. Light a Wave: Young's Lucid Analogy
Seven. Seeing the Earth Rotate: Foucalt's Sublime Pendulum
Eight. Seeing the Electron: Millikan's Oil-drop Experiment
Nine. Dawning Beauty: Rutherford's Discovery of the Atomic Nucleus
Ten. The Only Mystery: The Quantum Interference of Single Electrons
Conclusion. Can Science Still Be Beautiful?

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science. As we explore the history of cosmology and how it became a science, we will study some of the most important experiments along the way. Although we will cover as many as possible, the ones highlighted above are the most relevant.

Why Do We Think the Universe Is Expanding? Scientists are often faced with the challenge of comparing data (collected from selected observations, or experiments) against a set of competing models. Edwin Hubble faced that challenge, and his resolution was not as cut-and-dry as we might have imagined from an overly simplistic notion of “scientific method.” This case should require students to identify the major structural points of three cosmological models, and then to reconcile themselves with Hubble’s interpretation of data based, in part, on aesthetic criteria. The following materials will be provided to students: 
Norriss S. Hetherington, “Hubble’s Cosmology,” American Scientist 1990, 78, pp. 142-151.

PART Four. Debatable Statements (6 sessions including 4 for Group Debates)

Text: 8 Preposterous Propositions, by Robert Ehrlich, Princeton University Press, 2003 (ISBN 0-691-09999-5).
Introduction
Ch. 2 Is Homosexuality Primarily Innate?
Ch. 3 Is Intelligent a Scientific Alternative to Evolution?
Ch. 4 Are people Getting Smarter or Dumber?
Ch. 5 Can We Influence Matter by Thought Alone?
Ch. 6 Should You Worry about Global Warming?
Ch. 7 Is Complex Life in the Universe Very Rare?
Ch. 8 Can a Sugar Pill Cure You?
Ch. 9 Should You Worry about Your Cholesterol?
Epilogue

Group Debates 1-4: Preposterous Proposition?

Exam B: Part Three (Cosmology), M 12/10, 2-5pm