Movement Science and Pseudoscience

Catalog description

The domains of health and fitness seem to be filled with questionable claims for products that are supposed to make us stronger, faster, fitter, and healthier. How should we make decisions about whether to accept these claims? How can we judge (often conflicting) research reports to reach these decisions? What pitfalls are we all subject to when evaluating evidence and drawing conclusions? This course does not provide ready answers about specific treatments. Instead, the primary goal of this course is to help students develop a set of critical thinking skills that they will take with them into their chosen careers. In this way students will be prepared to make decisions not only about existing treatments, techniques, and practices, but also ones that are yet to appear. Real-world examples that draw on knowledge from multiple areas within kinesiology will be the subjects of class discussions that complement the lectures. A secondary goal of this course is to demystify science and humanize scientists in order to give students a better understanding of how science is done properly and improperly. The boundaries between science and pseudoscience are discussed so that students are better prepared to identify the latter. Making this distinction can be difficult when pseudosciences seem to have many of the hallmarks of actual science without the same rigor, openness, and possibility for progress. Kinesiology 413 relies on small group discussions with the Instructor and other students in the class. This is also a writing-intensive class, and as such there will be writing assignments focused on the development of tests for a claim, and critical evaluation of claims related to a treatment, device, etc. related to human movement and activity.