UNIV 104HNumbersDon'tLie(But People Do)

Catalog

NUMBERS DON'T LIE (BUT PEOPLE DO) - - - The UNIV 101 & UNIV 104 courses offer a blended course format which includes two primary components, one focusing on the academic topic, taught by a faculty member with the second component devoted to new student transition topics, taught by a professional staff partner instructor. This freshmen seminar course will explore an intriguing intellectual topic, help freshmen hone critical thinking and writing skills, and assist students in making a successful transition to university life. - - - We live in a world saturated with data, from opinion polls to click-baity headlines to studies that claim to explain how politics works and what people believe. This course introduces students to the tools and skills necessary for making sense of those political claims: where data comes from, how it can be used, and when it is used misleadingly. The course is organized around two core skills. The first skill is data literacy: what kind of data exist, how data can be visualized, how to interpret those visualizations, and understanding basic summary statistics. No prior experience with coding or statistics is required. The second skill is research design intuition: learning what it means to answer questions with data, understanding the logic of cause and effect, and identifying the hidden assumptions behind a political claim. Along the way, students will engage with real examples drawn from recent political events as well as their own experiences. By the end of the course, students will be able to critically evaluate the empirical claims they encounter in their everyday lives. NOTE: All UNIV 101 and UNIV 104 courses are restricted to students in their FIRST SEMESTER at the University. Students MAY NOT register for more than one UNIV 101 or UNIV 104 course.