The Scientific Method

Syllabus - Fall 2008

Items of interest:

• Win Ben Stein's mind - Roger Ebert reviews Ben Stein's "Expelled"
• Back to Reality by Olivia Judson
• Ky. Law Requires Homeland Security to Credit God
• Sarkozy 'voodoo doll' may be sold
• Say it ain't so, Barack! Say you ain't seriously considering Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to run the EPA! - RFK Jr is a vaccine-autism crank
  • Dangerous Kook At The EPA?
  • Say It Ain't So, President-Elect O
• A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence (Hoax)
• Seven of the greatest scientific hoaxes
• 50 Percent of Doctors Prescribe Placebos
• Vatican: Evolution is Fine - Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is compatible with the Bible, says the Vatican
  
  Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's culture minister, said today that the theory of evolution is compatible with the Bible. The Vatican discourages literal interpretations of the Bible, including the literal interpretation of creationism that is at odds with the very solid scientific theory of evolution.

  School districts in many U.S. states have wrestled with whether or not to teach intelligent design, which has no basis in science whatsoever, as an alternative to evolution in science classes. Scientists argue that you have to teach science in a science class, and keep religion (and fantasy ideas, like intelligent design) out of science class.

• NIH Cancels Study of Chelation as Autism Treatment
• Man joins Dallas County's roll call of DNA innocence - 19th in Dallas County
• U.S. paves way for genetically engineered animals for food
• 13 killed at riot in Congo stadium - Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, mostly children
• F.D.A. Allows Irradiation of Some Produce
• Measles Cases Grow in Number, and Officials Blame Parents' Fear of Autism
• I.O.C. Asks for Inquiry of Chinese Gymnasts
  • X-rays could tell Chinese Olympic gymnasts' ages, scientists say
  • Bone Age from Wikipedia
• Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes
• US 'Bigfoot' find branded a hoax
• Japanese Foot Pad Is Latest Health Fad
• NASA hacker McKinnon loses latest extradition fight - a 42-year-old UFO enthusiast lost his bid in a British court to fight extradition to the U.S.
• Phone Concerns Unproven - No link with brain tumors
• Vatican celebrates Darwin - The Vatican is holding a conference next year to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species

We'll fill these spaces with current items during the term.

Aug 25 M Lecture #1: Introduction; Start reading Shermer
    27 W Lecture #2: The Scientific Method; Continue reading Shermer
    29 F Lecture #3: Induction and Deduction; Homework #1 due by 11:00am
Sep 01 M University Holiday
    02 T Lecture #4: Pseudoscience and Evidence; Quiz on foreword and chapters 1 and 2 of Shermer (Note Tuesday!)
    03 W Lecture #5: Probability;  Quiz on chapters 3 and 4 of Shermer
    05 F Lecture #6: Probability; Homework #2 due by 11:00am
    08 M Lecture #7: Conceptions about Risk; Quiz on chapters 5 and 6 of Shermer
    10 W Lecture #8: How to Lie with Statistics;Quiz on chapters 7 and 8 of Shermer
    12 F Lecture #9: Polls; Homework #3 due by 11:00am
    15 M Lecture #10: Observation and Perception; Quiz on chapters 9 and 10 of Shermer
    17 W Lecture #11: More Observing; Quiz on chapters 11 and 12 of Shermer
    19 F Lecture #12: Eyewitness Identification; Midterm paper title, abstract and outline due by 11:00
    22 M Lecture #13: Psychics; Quiz on chapters 13 and 14 of Shermer
    24 W Lecture #14: More Psychics; Quiz on chapters 15 and 16 of Shermer
    26 F Lecture #15: Still more psychics; 3-page book review #1 due by 11:00
    29 M Lecture #16: Talking to the Dead?; Quiz on chapters 17 and 18 of Shermer
Oct 01 W Lecture #17: More Talking to the Dead; Quiz on Chapter 1 of Schick & Vaughn
    03 F Lecture #18: Yet More Psychic Stuff; Homework #4 due by 11:00am
    06 M Lecture #19: Faith Healing; Quiz on Chapter 2 of Schick & Vaughn 
    08 W Lecture #20: Hoaxes; Quiz on Chapter 3 of Schick & Vaughn
    10 F Lecture #21: More Hoaxes; Midterm paper due by 11:00am
    13 M Fall Break
    15 W Lecture #22: Experiment Design; Quiz on Chapter 4 of Schick & Vaughn
    17 F Lecture #23: Threshold Phenomena; Homework #5 due by 11:00am
    20 M Lecture #24: More Threshold Phenomena; Quiz on Chapter 5 of Schick & Vaughn
    22 W Lecture #25: Alternative Medicine; Quiz on Chapter 6 of Schick & Vaughn
    24 F Lecture #26: More Alternative Medicine; Homework #6 due by 11:00am
    27 M Lecture #27: Dr. Snow and Dr. Marshall; Quiz on Chapter 7 of Schick & Vaughn
    29 W Lecture #28: Another Failure of Thinking; Quiz on Chapter 8 of Schick & Vaughn
    31 F Lecture #29: More Thinking Failures; Homework #7 due by 11:00am
Nov 03 M Lecture #30: Peak Oil Background; Quiz on Chapters 1 & 2 of Sagan
    05 W Lecture #31: Guest Speaker: Dr. Bob Gregory, SMU Geology Dept.; Quiz on Chapters 3 & 4 of Sagan
    07 F Lecture #32: Patents; 3-page book review #2 due by 11:00
    10 M Lecture #33: UFOs, etc; Quiz on Chapters 5 & 6 of Sagan
    12 W Lecture #34: More UFOs;Quiz on Chapters 7 & 8 of Sagan
    14 F Lecture #35: Guest speaker: Dr. Fred Olness, SMU Physics Dept.; Final paper's title, abstract, and outline due by 11:00am
    17 M Lecture #36: Creationism Background; Quiz on Chapters 9 & 10 of Sagan
    19 W Lecture #37: Intelligent Design Creationism Guest Speaker: Dr. John Wise, SMU Biology Dept.; Quiz on Chapters 11 & 12 of Sagan
    21 F Lecture #38: Frank Scully and the Flying Saucers; Midterm rewrites due by 11:00am (no exceptions);
    24 M Lecture #39: Modern Scams; Quiz on Chapters 13 & 14 of Sagan
    26 W Holiday
    28 F Holiday
Dec 01 M Lecture #40: More Scams; Quiz on Chapters 15 & 16 of Sagan
    03 W Lecture #41: Searching for the Star; 15-page paper due by 11:00am; Quiz on Chapters 17 & 18 of Sagan
    05 F Lecture #42: Skeletons in the Physics Closet
    12 F 0800-1100am  Final Examination

Lecture Topics:

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