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 10-11:50 am

 

email: david_zellmer@csufresno.edu
Telephone and Voicemail: (559) 278-2113
Course website: http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~davidz/ns4/

This is a web enhanced Blackboard Course at http://blackboard.csufresno.edu. Assignments, handouts, and student scores will be on Blackboard.

 

Required Texts: (all are paperbacks)
Brook Noel Moore and Richard Parker, Critical Thinking, 9th Ed, McGraw-Hill (2009).
T. Schick and L. Vaughn, How to Think About Weird Things, 5th Ed, McGraw-Hill (2008).

 

Other Materials

 

Word-processed assignments are due frequently. Students must meet the University requirement for computer access.

 

Course Description

 

This course fulfills the GE Foundation A3 requirement for Critical Thinking. The CSUF catalog description is:

 

Natural Science (N SCI) 4. Science and Nonsense: Facts, Fads, and Critical Thinking (3)

Use of language, thought, and logic in science, distinguishing science fact from science fiction. Inductive and deductive methods, judgment, opinion, belief, and knowledge. A critical examination of contemporary pseudoscientific issues (creation "science," UFOs, astrology, etc.) G.E. Foundation A3.

 

Goal for Area A3:Critical Thinking

 

An educated person must be able to read critically, communicate effectively, and think clearly.

 

Student Learning Outcomes for Area A3: Critical Thinking

 

Students completing courses in Area A3 will be able to:

1.   Identify the relationship of language and logic.

2.   Analyze criticize, and advocate ideas

3.   Reason inductively and deductively

4.   Reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements or knowledge or belief.

5.   Recognize the structure of informal arguments

6.   Identify and distinguish the most common formal and informal fallacies of language and thought

7.   Distinguish matters of fact from issues of judgment or opinion.

8.   Identify and provide examples of the role of critical thinking in society.

 

In this Critical Thinking offering from the College of Science and Mathematics, we provide the students with the tools required to evaluate the flood of information available to us. With the advent of widespread popular access to the Internet around 1994, anyone can publish whatever they wish and make it available to a global audience without review or restriction. Television, radio and print commercials attempt to sell us products that will relieve pain, reduce stress, eliminate belly fat and turn us into supermodels. By some estimates, fewer than 1% of our political leaders have any training in science, yet we are supposed to have informed debate over technological and scientific issues like nuclear waste storage, global warming, missile defense, therapeutic cloning and long range energy policy. People with medical problems turn to alternative medicine or to faith and psychic healing. How are we to evaluate the claims made for all of this?

 

The textbook Critical Thinking, by B. Moore and R. Parker, will be used to help the class learn how to do critical thinking by working through a series of exercises using deductive and inductive logic. Many of these exercises will be done in class by small groups of students, so attendance and participation are required. Bring your copy of Moore & Parker with you every day. Most of the examples and exercises are based on actual stories and claims from our national media, some of which are highly controversial. I do not have an instructors guide with all the “right” answers. As we will learn, the authors are not above messing with our minds.

 

The other book (Weird Things) by Schick and Vaughn deals with topics that propose to tell us how the world works, but do so by appealing to ignorance and superstition. Significant portions of our population uncritically accept many of these. Teams of three students each will prepare presentations to the class on topics like this throughout the semester, and will then conduct a discussion of the material. Class members will do written evaluations of each presentation. Grading of presentations and evaluations will be on the quality of the critical analysis, and not on reaching some "correct" answer in the mind of the instructor.

 

You will be asked to write and turn in something almost every day, so bring lots of paper and something to write with. There will also be a formal 1500 word term paper, as well as two midterms and a final examination. You must attend every class meeting if you expect to do well this course. There will be no make-ups for material missed in your absence.

 

Grading:

 

Material	Points	Percentage
Two hour exams, 100 points each	200	20
Final Exam (comprehensive)	200	20
Group Presentation	100	10
Evaluations (seven)	200	20
Term Paper	200	20
Participation and InClass work	50	5
Homework	50	5
Totals	1000	100
Grading Scale	Grade	Percentage
	A	85-100
	B	70-84
	C	60-69
	D	50-59
	F	<50

 

The instructor reserves the right to make changes in the above points and in the grading scale, either up or down, as conditions in the class warrant.

 

Final Exam, Makeup and Late or Missing Material Policy

 

The Final Exam will be given at the time stated in the Schedule of Courses. No early finals will be given, so don't make any travel plans during Finals Week. Makeup hour exams will only be given if you have a signed doctor's excuse. Failure to take any Hour Exam or the Final, or failure to turn in the Term Paper will result in the student being issued an unauthorized withdrawal (U) for the course. A grade of Incomplete (I) will be issued only if the student consults with the instructor before the end of the course and meets the University requirements for an Incomplete as stated in the Schedule of Courses.

 

Evaluations and other assignments must be turned in during the first 10 minutes of class on the due date given by your instructor, and cannot be made up if they are late or missing. Some due dates will be given in class; changes to the dates on the Tentative Lecture Schedule may be given; it is the responsibility of the student to know when all announced due dates are. Some assignments will be done in class. If you are missing from that class you will lose the points; they cannot be made up. If you fail to participate in your Group Presentation, you will lose all the points assigned to the presentation; this cannot be made up. There will be no "extra credit" available to make up for missed assignments.

 

In my experience, students have always turned their term papers in on time; don't be the first to break this fine record. Assignments leading up to the term paper, the Topic Summary and the Peer Evaluation, must be turned in on time or all points for these will be lost. Penalties for turning in the final draft of your term paper late are severe, and generally will be the points equivalent to a full letter grade reduction for each class period it is late. See the grading scale above. Remember that an "F" on your term paper means an F for the course.

 

Group Presentation

 

Students will be asked to select a ranked series of three topics from the list provided to them in class. Presentation groups of three students each will then be created by the instructor for the oral presentation of one topic based upon these selections. The groups will be responsible for preparing a 30-45 minute seminar that they will present to the class. The presentation will be divided into three parts (one for each student) lasting approximately 10-15 minutes. Part 1 will be a history or background of the subject. Part 2 will be a pro argument. Part 3 will be a con argument. Each student will be graded individually on the quality of the presentation or argument made. (A grading rubric for the presentations will be made available.) The students are expected to be familiar with the topic as discussed in the course texts (Moore & Parker, Schick & Vaughn), and must add material from other sources as well. The instructor will assign dates for the presentations, which will begin about the third week of the semester and continue once or twice each week until all the groups have presented. A good presentation will be scored 80%. Better or weaker presentations will have points added or deducted.

 

Evaluations

 

All non-presenting students will write evaluations of seven of the fourteen topics in the oral presentations (except their own group). These evaluations must be typed and will be no more than two pages (12 point font, double spaced) in length. Include a summary of the arguments made and discuss the quality of each argument. A simple summary of the presentation with no critical evaluation will receive a poor grade. A good evaluation will be scored 16 on a 20-point scale. (The 140 total possible points will be renormalized to 200 for computing your grade.) Better or weaker evaluations will have points added or deducted. Evaluations are due during the first 10 minutes of class on the period following the presentation. Late work or e-mailed evaluations will not be accepted.

 

Term Paper

 

A 1500 word (5-6 pages, 12 point font, double spaced) paper on a pseudoscience topic of the student's choice (not their presentation topic) will be due near the end of the semester. The paper will cover pro and con arguments and evidence for the topic and the position of the author. The topic must be approved by the instructor, a rough draft will be evaluated by a fellow student, then a final paper is turned in. Dates for these three stages of your paper are found on the Tentative Lecture Schedule below. A more detailed handout on the term paper will be distributed in class. A term paper is a university requirement for this G.E. course. Failure to turn in a term paper will result in failure for the course. Plagiarism of your term paper is a very serious offense, and will result in disciplinary action (usually a fail for the course) and will be reported to the Dean of Students as per University Regulations.

 

Participation and InClass Work

 

Daily participation is required for this course. You cannot pass it by just showing up for the exams and the final. Evaluations of presentations made in your absence will not be accepted. Work on material done during class time will only be accepted from students who were there. You must turn in all assignments in person; you cannot e-mail them in and then skip class. Frequent absences will result in the lowering of the Participation portion of the points for the course, in addition to loss of points for any work missed.

 

Homework

 

Homework assignments will generally be from Moore & Parker. Reading assignments will be from the course texts or other material, including Internet sources. Material to be turned in is due during the first 10 minutes of class on the due date. Late homework will not be accepted.

 

Cheating and Plagiarism

 

"Cheating is the actual or attempted practice of fraudulent or deceptive acts for the purpose of improving one's grade or obtaining course credit; such acts also include assisting another student to do so. Typically, such acts occur in relation to examinations. However, it is the intent of this definition that the term 'cheating' not be limited to examination situations only, but that it include any and all actions by a student that are intended to gain an unearned academic advantage by fraudulent or deceptive means. Plagiarism is a specific form of cheating which consists of the misuse of the published and/or unpublished works of others by misrepresenting the material (i.e., their intellectual property) so used as one's own work." Penalties for cheating and plagiarism range from a 0 or F on a particular assignment, through an F for the course, to expulsion from the university. For more information on the University’s policy regarding cheating and plagiarism, refer to the Schedule of Courses (Legal Notices on Cheating and Plagiarism) or the University Catalog (Policies and Regulations).

 

Students with Disabilities:

 

Upon identifying themselves to the instructor and the university, students with disabilities will receive reasonable accommodation for learning and evaluation. For more information, contact Services to Students with Disabilities in Madden Library 1049 (278-2811).

 

Disruptive Classroom Behavior:

 

"The classroom is a special environment in which students and faculty come together to promote learning and growth. It is essential to this learning environment that respect for the rights of others seeking to learn, respect for the professionalism of the instructor, and the general goals of academic freedom are maintained. … Differences of viewpoint or concerns should be expressed in terms which are supportive of the learning process, creating an environment in which students and faculty may learn to reason with clarity and compassion, to share of themselves without losing their identities, and to develop and understanding of the community in which they live  . . . Student conduct which disrupts the learning process shall not be tolerated and may lead to disciplinary action and/or removal from class."

 

Tentative MWF NS4 Lecture Schedule for Spring 2010

 

Texts are referred to as M&P (Moore and Parker, Critical Thinking) and S&V (Schick and Vaughn, How to Think About Weird Things). Assignments in the schedule below are mainly to M&P, which covers Critical Thinking methodology. S&V provides additional information about strange pseudoscience phenomena, hypothetical reasoning and baloney detection (SEARCH formula). S&V includes starting-point material for many of the Presentations. Presenters are expected to look up much more than what is in the text to add depth and interest to their presentations.

 

Major events, such as Exams and Term Paper due dates, will take place as scheduled below unless extraordinary events intervene. The time specified and allotted for discussion of each topic is only an estimate. Expect frequent amendments to this schedule. Discussion of current topics will continue after the Group Presentation Seminar has concluded. Written evaluations of the presentations are due the period following each presentation. Homework will be assigned as needed in class and does not appear on the schedule below. It is in the nature of this class that the topics specified might change as the discussion of critical thinking unfolds.

 

		NS 4		Spring 2010	Dr. Zellmer
Day	Week	Date		Lecture	Student Assignments and Presentations
1	0	1/21/10	Thu	Introduction to the Course; provide presentations topics list; Paranormal and Pseudoscience; Truth, Lies and Baloney	Page through both texts. M&P has many chapters on the dirty tricks people use to promote their causes featuring many real-world examples; S&V has specific examples of things that may seem scientific but are not. S&V also shows how the methods of science are used to detect baloney. Read Ch. 7 in S&V for the SEARCH method -- a Baloney Detection Kit.
2	1	1/26/10	Tue	Science World View; Informal Fallacies; we will try to front load some topics for the presenters, then study them in more detail later on.	Read M&P Chapter 1 Critical Thinking Basics--Arguments; Read M&P inside front cover for their Top Ten Fallacies, to which I would add my favorites the False Dilemma and Shifting the Burden of Proof. Read S&V, Ch. 3 for their list of informal fallacies.
3	1	1/28/10	Thu	The Structure of Arguments	Submit Presentation Topics Wish List
4	2	2/2/10	Tue	Arguments (continued)
5	2	2/4/10	Thu	Arguments (concluded); then intro to Deductive and Inductive Reasoning	Read M&P Chapter 2: Two Kinds of Reasoning (Deductive and Inductive)
6	3	2/9/10	Tue	Guidelines for making presentations and writing evaluations; the creation and detection of baloney. This will be a quick introduction; much more later on. Warning! Please use this information for Good and not for Evil.	For information on clear writing and presentation, read M&P Ch.3: Clear Thinking and Writing to avoid ambiguity. For examples of Claims that are sheer baloney, read M&P Ch. 4: Credibility; for use and detection of fallacies Read M&P Chapter 5: Persuasion Through Rhetoric: Common Devices and Techniques (AKA Dirty Tricks; Pro presenters take note!); skim ahead through chapters 6 and 7 for more rhetorical devices and flawed logic.
7	3	2/11/10	Thu	Deduction, Induction, and Inference to Best Explanation (IBE)	IBE is mentioned in M&P Ch. 11, p. 393. I just want to introduce the idea of Inference here.
8	4	2/16/10	Tue	Inductive Arguments from Analogy	Read M&P Ch. 10, pp. 353-358
9	4	2/18/10	Thu	Arguments from Analogy (following the Group 1 presentation).	Group 1 Presentation (Group 1)
10	5	2/23/10	Tue	Arguments from Analogy	Evaluation of Group 1 Presentation (Eval 1)
11	5	2/25/10	Thu	Review for Exam	Group 2
12	6	3/2/10	Tue	Hour Exam 1	Eval 2
13	6	3/4/10	Thu	Inductive Generalizations	Group 3; Read the rest of M&P Chapter 10.
14	7	3/9/10	Tue	Sampling Errors and Clusters	Eval 3; Term Paper Topic Due
15	7	3/11/10	Thu	Confirmation Bias and Cherry Picking	Group 4
16	8	3/16/10	Tue	Testimonials and Anecdotal Evidence	Eval 4; Read M&P Chapter 4: Credibility; Read S&V Chapter 5: Truth in Personal Experience
17	8	3/18/10	Thu	Superstition and Luck	Group 5
18	9	3/23/10	Tue	Hypothetical Reasoning	Eval 5; Read S&V Chapter 6: Science and Its Pretenders
19	9	3/25/10	Thu	Observations and Hypotheses	Group 6
20	spbk	3/30/10	Tue	Spring Break	Sp Break
21	spbk	4/1/10	Thu	Spring Break	Sp Break
22	10	4/6/10	Tue	Troubleshooting Trees and Strong Inference	Group 7; Eval 6
23	10	4/8/10	Thu	Testing Hypotheses; Criteria of Adequacy	Group 8; Eval 7; Term Paper Draft Due
24	11	4/13/10	Tue	Proving and Disproving Hypotheses	Group 9; Eval 8
25	11	4/15/10	Thu	Review for Exam	Group 10; Eval 9
26	12	4/20/10	Tue	Hour Exam 2
27	12	4/22/10	Thu	Causality: A Philosophical and Practical Big Deal! (e.g. What causes Global Warming?); A review of philosophies.	Group 11; Eval 10; Read M&P Chapter 11 Causal Explanation
28	13	4/27/10	Tue	Mapping Causality with P's and Q's	Group 12; Eval 11
29	13	4/29/10	Thu	Statistics, Mechanisms, and Legal Causality	Group 13; Eval 12
30	14	5/4/10	Tue	Coincidence and the Law of Large Numbers	Group 14; Eval 13; Term Paper Due
31	14	5/6/10	Thu	Causal Examples	Eval 14
32	15	5/11/10	Tue	Review for the Final
	15	5/13/10	Thu	No Classes	Faculty Consultation Day
		Final Exam NS 4 Thursday, May 20, 2010, 3:30-5:30 p.m.

 

 

 

Disclaimer

 

This syllabus and schedule are subject to change at the discretion of the instructor. It is in the nature of this course that we remain flexible on the time devoted to the various topics. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to check on announcements or assignments made while you were absent.