trust no one image

Natural Science 4
(N SCI 4)
Science and Nonsense: Facts, Fads, and Critical Thinking

 
 

Spring 2010

Dr. David L. Zellmer
Department of Chemistry
California State University, Fresno

Office: Science Building 244
Office Hours:
MW 1000-1150

e-mail: david_zellmer@csufresno.edu
Telephone and Voicemail: (559) 278-2113

Blackboard Link: http://blackboard.csufresno.edu
Blackboard Training:
http://www.csufresno.edu/DCG/s_userguide/v6_Student_Orientation_files/frame.htm


Syllabus for Spring 2010

Other Useful Information for Sp 2010:

Note that the information given for Fall 2004 further down on this page is now nearly six years old, and many of the links no longer exist or lead to other web pages that bought the domain name. I will eventually weed out these bad links. In the meantime use those at your own risk. Immediately below find a new collection of links that will grow throughout the Spring 2010 semester.

Links put in place in 2010:


Syllabus for Fall 2004

Other useful information


Syllabus for Fall 2003

Other Materials for Fall 2003


Syllabi for Fall 2002:


Course Materials:

 


Hot Off the Web:

  • August 19, 2002: Fresno State subscribes to a job site for science careers sponsored by the AAAS. This month's offering features Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Check it out.
  • March/April 2002 issue of The Skeptical Inquirer. Clear Thinking and the Forces of Unreason. This commentary covers a lot of what our course is all about. Please read this in preparation for our first week.
  • September 2002 issue of Scientific American has an article by Michael Shermer called Smart People Believe Weird Things. Please read this for the first week also.
  • August 30, 2002: For a description of "cold" and "warm" reading, see the article Deconstructing The Dead: Cross Over One Last Time To Expose Medium John Edward at the Skeptic Magazine web site. Update 11/05/2002, see the ABC News Primetime report Talking With the Dead- The Secrets of Cold Reading from October 31. 2002. My thanks to Dr. Ray Hall for pointing this out.
  • September 6, 2002: How far back in time have we seen? Check out the Hubble Space Telescope pictures called the Deep Survey Image. The caption tells how old the galaxies are thought to be. Even further back are images of the Microwave Background from the Big Bang itself. How far out have we physically gone? Visit the 25th Anniversary Voyager website from the Planetary Society.
  • September 18, 2002: For some classic pseudoscience arguments by analogy, see Magnetic Deficiency on the Quackwatch website under Questionable Advertisements. Hey, if a magnet can attract an iron nail, then magnets on your body should attract blood and promote healing, right? Find the reductio ad absurdum refutation of this on the site.
  • October 27, 2002: For some great examples of the hypothetico-deductive method, see Michael Shermer's article Mesmerized by Magnetism in the November 2002 Scientific American.
  • December 2, 2002: Is Science only one belief system among many, which we can choose or not when testing claims about how the world works? Read the Editorial In Science We Trust in the December 2002 issue of Scientific American.
  • December 3, 2002: Remember the exercise we did on CAFE standards and vehicle safety? Check out the recent article Is Bigger Safer? It Ain't Necessarily So, cited in the December 2002 issue of Scientific American. Download the pdf file on this site for more detailed information.
  • September 26, 2004. Still confused about what an argument is? Take a look at this transcript of The Argument Sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
  • October 1, 2004. Interested in sample sizes and how public opinion polls are carried out? Check out Polling 101 from the Roper Center.

Some useful links:


For even more serious research (required for the Term Paper)

  • The Henry Madden Library -- Our library maintains a vast array of on-line databases, periodicals and search engines, many of which are only available to faculty, staff and registered students at Fresno State due to copyright restrictions. The link above also provides access to ALIS, the on-line catalog of the physical books, journals, and other media at the Library. For the personal touch, go over to the Library and talk to the librarians on duty near the main entrance. They are very good at what they do, and are eager to help you.
  • To use wireless access within the Henry Madden Library you have to fill out an online form and register the hardware address of your computer. It will take a few days for them to add your computer to their list and grant you wireless access. For instructions and the submission form, go here.
  • Remember that this special library registration is not required to use the "bulldog" or "classrooms" wireless networks elsewhere on campus. For instructions and locations, visit http://www.csufresno.edu/its/wireless/. These are available to anyone with a current valid university e-mail account. You may be asked to identify yourself when you first use your browser after connecting to the wireless network.

Who's Who?
(A guide to the authors of our recommended texts. Try mousing around to see what they are up to.)


Archives:


This page was last updated on January 26, 2010