SCIENTIFIC PROCESS Class 3: “Science vs. Pseudoscience”

Instructor’s Guide

Lesson Plan for Class-3 and Class-4:

SCIENTIFIC PROCESS

Class 3: “Science vs. Pseudoscience”  I will begin the class by discussing the New York Times article “Anyone out there?”, as an opportunity to review key concepts from previous week. I plan to start with asking students questions from the article (get them involved): Is it scarier to be alone in the Universe or not to be alone? Further questions to prompt discussion: What was the method proposed to start an active search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, rather than just pondering about the question? Is the search for extraterrestrial life science? What is science? Science is a quest for understanding the world, observations around us and an attempt to predict future observations. It’s an outcome of active and curious nature of human mind. Time allocated on discussion motivated by the article: ~ 15 minutes  I will next follow my lecture notes (please see scanned documents and videos), which complement the textbook (Ch. 1) reading. Here are some of the questions/topics that I will address: a) What is a theory, what is a scientific law? b) The difference between science, nonscience, and pseudoscience. c) Pseudoscience example: The story of “Phrenology” d) I will briefly talk about the article “Publish or Perish” in journal “Nature” from January 2010 about how scientific community strongly condemns falsification of the data. e) Scientists are healthy skeptics. The results of scientific investigation are described and presented in the form of a journal article, which undergoes a formal review by colleague-experts in the field. Fortunately, in most scientific fields generalized skepticism is sufficiently strong that surprising results are tested many times. Example: report on “Arsenic based bacteria” Time allocated: ~ 1 hour

Class 4: “Mathematical & Quantitative Skills”  I will follow my lecture notes (please see scanned documents and videos), which complement the textbook reading (Appendix A: Mathematical Review). Here are some of the questions/topics that I will address: a) Scientific notation & orders of magnitude; b) Conversion of units; c) Sense of Scale; Time allocated: ~ 35 minutes  Activity: Cookie Activity Please see the posted instructions Time allocated: ~ 20 minutes

d) Graphs (scatter plot, line graph, histogram, bar graph, log-based graph); e) Average, Error Bars (Standard Deviation, Standard Error) and confidence levels; Time allocated: ~ 25 minutes

Key Concepts: (what students need to know, as they will be tested on this material):         

Definition of Theory and Scientific Law Distinction between Science, Nonscience, and Pseudoscience Providing examples of Pseudoscience Recalling the importance of a peer-review process in science Scientific notation, orders of magnitude Conversion of units Sense of Scale Graphical representation of data Average, error bars and confidence levels

Note: please remind your students that a more elaborate knowledge on each of these concepts is required, as covered in class