Instructor: Brian Ford
Email: bford@ccny.cuny.edu
Office hours*: Wednesdays 11:30 am – 12:30 pm (and by appointment)

ITF: Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land
Email: dobchukland@gmail.com
Office hours*: Mondays 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm (and by appointment)

*Both of our office hours are held in the Honors Center (NAC 4/150).

Course Description: Science Forward is a skills-based course that will focus on scientific thinking in the context of a variety of different fields of science. The goal of this course is to have students develop their Science Sense.
Science Sense is…

• being able to distinguish science from non-science
• the ability to recognize how people collect and process facts into knowledge
• the ability to recognize how a collection of facts becomes knowledge
• being able to question and evaluate information that is presented as scientific
• being an informed consumer, evaluator, and practitioner of science

We will focus on the specific skills that allow one to have good Science Sense. These skills fall into broad categories: Number Sense, Data Sense, and Knowledge Sense.

Student Learning Outcomes:

• Students will hone their Science Sense during this course, specifically:
• Students will acquire a proper sense of scale and be able to make order of magnitude estimates with reasonable assumptions.
• Students will understand and get experience with measurement and data collection through activities in the field and be able to create and communicate their results using graphs and basic statistics.
• Students will become familiar with proper experimental design and the practice of scientific inquiry.
• Students will understand that science makes progress and changes through time based upon newly available evidence.
• Students will practice their critical thinking skills and employ reasonable skepticism.
• Students will learn how to communicate science to different audiences through two group projects.
• Students will leave this course with an appreciation for the similar set of skills employed by scientists in seemingly disparate fields of scientific inquiry.

Assignments and Grading:

Research Project — 40%
The semester research project is the largest portion of your grade. You and your group are to come up with a research question about the BioBlitz and test it using BioBlitz data and/or additional data that you collect during the semester. The final output is a research poster to be presented at the end of semester conference. This project will be a large undertaking and so it is broken down into smaller parts that are due throughout the semester. Note that some of these dates fall within the due dates for the other unit assignments. Formal due dates are:

• Wed., Oct. 15 – Project proposal due in class. This can be handed in at any point before 10/15 if you need to begin extra data collection.
• Wed., Oct. 29 – Annotated bibliography of 8 references due in class.
• Mon., Nov. 10 – Data analysis and main findings due in class.
• Mon., Dec. 1, Wed., Dec 3, – Poster presentation (as a slideshow) in class.
• Sat.-Sun. Dec. 6, 7 – You will present your printed poster at one of the two Seminar 3 conference sessions.

Participation — 30%
You are expected to be engaged with the material in every class meeting. You should be actively involved with your group during group work time. You are expected to attend every seminar and arrive on time. Texting in class will result in a lower participation grade.

You will have three long-format posts:

• Citizen Science — 10%
  You will participate in and evaluate a Citizen Science project. See here for details.
• Alternative Science Communication review — 10%
  Compare two science-themed blogs/videos/podcasts.
• Public talk — 10%
  New York City has a large variety of venues aiming to engage the public in scientific discourse. You will attend one lecture and write a review.

Attendance: This class is based largely on class participation thus it is beneficial to attend all classes. In addition, arriving late for class is very disruptive. Students will be asked to sign in upon arriving in class each day. Late arrival (after the first 5 minutes of class) or absences will impact your participation grade.

Laptops: You will be expected to bring your laptop to school for some of the lectures in order to participate in the group work. Look carefully at the class syllabus.

Email: The subject of your email should include the course code MHC 20301. While I check my email frequently and do attempt to respond as quickly as possible you should not expect a response in less than 24 hours. Please plan accordingly as I may not be available the day before an assignment or project is due. Please interact with the course ITF in a similar fashion.

Plagiarism and Cheating: Plagiarism and cheating are serious academic infractions. CUNY has a standing zero-tolerance policy on such behavior. Any form of plagiarism or cheating will result in a failing course grade (F). There will be no exception. Such incidences will also be reported immediately to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs for disciplinary action. This may result in a notation on your permanent record or dismissal from the College. If you have any further questions, the standing CUNY policy and the Report on the Committee on Academic Integrity can be found here.