Science And Society

Prerequisites

• - {'type': 'passed', 'courses': ['CHEMISTRY']}

Course Description

• Full-Year CourseIn a world flooded with information, we continually make choices about what to believe and human limitations and biases can make it easy to fool ourselves. Many people in the scientific community have worked to understand and counter these limitations, developing tools and techniques to minimize bias and avoid cognitive traps. Tools such as probabilistic reasoning, the use of multiple lines of evidence, and differentiating correlation from causation are essential to scientists’ efforts to make sense of the world. The goal of the course is to equip students with an everyday conceptual toolkit of some of the most powerful techniques from science - asking questions, brainstorming ideas, interpreting data, managing trade-offs, and developing solutions – and apply them in real-world scenarios. You will learn strategies to evaluate information, to reflect on your thinking, and to make more informed decisions.The fall semester will focus on developing this toolkit in isolated scenarios. The spring semester will be geared towards the application of these strategies at the intersection of science and society.