Topics and lesson plans

• Week 1: The Purpose and Limitations of Science
  • 1.1 Introduction and When Is Science Relevant
  • 1.2 Shared Reality and Modeling
  • 1.3 Plenary
• Week 2: What we can Measure
  • 2.1 Senses and Instrumentation
  • 2.2 Systematic and Statistical Uncertainty
  • 2.3 Plenary
• Week 3: Statements of Uncertainty
  • 3.1 Probabilistic Reasoning
  • 3.2 Calibration of Credence Levels
  • 3.3 Plenary
• Week 4: Dealing with Noise
  • 4.1 Signal and Noise
  • 4.2 Finding Patterns in Random Noise
  • 4.3 Plenary
• Week 5: Trade-offs and Progress
  • 5.1 False Positives and Negatives
  • 5.2 Scientific Optimism
  • 5.3 Plenary
• Week 6: Establishing Causation
  • 6.1 Correlation and Causation
  • 6.2 Hill's Criteria
  • 6.3 Plenary
• Week 7: Types and Consequences of Causation
  • 7.1 Causation, Blame, and Policy
  • 7.2 Emergent Phenomena
  • 7.3 Plenary
• Week 8: Describing and Simplifying Reality
  • 8.1 Orders of Understanding
  • 8.2 Fermi Problems
  • 8.3 Plenary
• Week 9: Heuristics and Biases
  • 9.1 Heuristics
  • 9.2 Biases
  • 9.3 Plenary
• Week 10: Catching and Countering Biases
  • 10.1 Confirmation Bias
  • 10.2 Blinding
  • 10.3 Plenary
• Week 11: Science Gone Wrong
  • 11.1 Pathological Science
  • 11.2 When Is Science Suspect
  • 11.3 Plenary
• Week 12: Group Evaluations
  • 12.1 Wisdom of Crowds and Herd Thinking
  • 12.2 Grill the Guest
  • 12.3 Plenary
• Week 13: Better Group Decision Making
  • 13.1 Denver Bullet Study
  • 13.2 Deliberative Polling
  • 13.3 Plenary
• Week 14: The Outlook and Potential of Science
  • 14.1 Wrap Up
  • 14.2 Scenario Planning
  • 14.3 Plenary