Reading Science

Catalog description

The reading selections in this course will be drawn from classic through contemporary science publications ranging from professional journals to popular literature, such as science magazines and newspaper articles. Students will learn to identify the components of research-hypothesis, experimental design, data acquisition and analysis, and contextual discussion. This includes understanding how the inferences made in the discussion section of a paper relate to the methodology employed. Students will write evaluations of material studied and critique each other's work. Students will learn to critically evaluate the quality and importance of the research. They will also compare current scientific articles to reports on their content as presented in the popular press.