Class Highlights

overall plan
assignments

details of our activities during class (reverse orientation in time):

  • Tues Dec 5
    Careers, Where do college graduates work? A Special Focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math,
    career fair, career center at Appalachian
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlnLAOCZDWI to :53
    Scientifically Literate
    STEM stories
    Helen Moore, Helen Moore, We Use Math 2:16
    Michael Coble
    Dr. Michael Coble [2:11-7:09]
    Mathcuffed
    reflection LG3 and LG4, focused research for project 2, research project guidelines


  • Thur Nov 30 Meet in 205 for research on final project and official course evaluations

  • Tues Nov 28
    Controversies in statistics-2016 election Gallup, confidence interval, 2016 presidential election, pre- and post-election views
    Headlines for flat earth. International Space Station bacteria.
    What Unsolved Question Do You Most Want Solved? [1:56]
    final project, rubric, List of unsolved problems $1 million for Millennium Prize Problems, credible hulk
    Questions No One Knows the Answers to [1:42]
    David Stork: American physicist specializing in Computational Sensing and Imaging (virtual worlds) [1:42 best demonstrates creativity]
    Which field is best? Science Wars
    Course evaluations 1

  • Tues Nov 21
    Finish David Blackwell and controversy of Friend or Foe [2:12]
    Work in groups on Case Study
    Bottled water or tap water--which is more dangerous--what do you think?
    Evaluating Websites [0:08]
    credibility of day 1
    Review author credibility of Jack Andraka: A promising test for pancreatic cancer... from a teenager---didn't pan out.
    Fukushima Nuclear Flowers question.
    credible hulk
    fact or opinion questions 1-7 as clickers.
    The Credibility Challenge
    Study: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting percentage who only read headlines
    science denial, skeptical scientist
    How to Evaluate Sources
    Primary sources. Faulty MLKJ quote. Try to trace how information MOVES.
    Free Press
    Consumer's Handbook
  • Thur Nov 16
    Clumps: 5, 4, 10, 3, 2, 6, 7. Form groups of that number and make sure you know everyone's name. Odd people out. Gravitate to those you know well? Clumping randomly?
    ethics, scientific ethics case studies, slides.
    Academic Integrity Code, web version
    David Blackwell and controversy of Friend or Foe [2:12]

  • Tues Nov 14
    Clicker questions on modifying humans
    Scientific consensus
    CQ Researcher: Manipulating the Human Genome
    U.S. panel gives yellow light to human embryo editing
    AAAS: First U.S. team to gene-edit human embryos revealed, Nature: Doubts raised about CRISPR gene-editing study in human embryos
    TheVerge: Editing human embryos is okay - but don't turn them into people yet, geneticists say: Too many unanswered scientific and ethical questions
    CNN video: Emmanuelle Charpentier
    reflection LG3 and LG4
  • Thur Nov 9
    Clicker question on games
    quotations on games and science, info
    frenzy
    Controversy in Proofs: Equations, Computers, Visualization, & Representations, Godel's Incompleteness Theorems, History, Proofs, Implications [1:51], Down with Fractions [2:04].

  • Tues Nov 7 Form a baseball team: pitcher, catcher, hitter, sabermetric statistician, one hot dog sales person.
    Placebo
    surgery
    A Controlled Trial of Arthroscopic Surgery for Osteoarthritis of the Knee
    Neurobiology of the Placebo Effect
    Nocebo
    CQ Researcher
    Research on games
    penny experiment
    analyze studies
    Controversy in Proofs: Equations, Computers, Visualization, & Representations, Godel's Incompleteness Theorems, History, Proofs, Implications [1:51], Down with Fractions [2:04].
  • Thur Nov 2
    handshake, reflection LG3 and LG4, and Research on Games
    Homework for Tuesday on Placebos. Homework for Thursday: Research on games
    Brain games. Cross your arms. Break up by one on top. Science Style. Science Style by The George Therapy. signal processing and compression issues.

  • Tues Oct 31
    Discuss registration [early registration is November 1-14] and share any classes that you are excited about and/or dreading taking next semester.
    Discuss Christopher Hogan's stress management visit.
    Can genetically-modified mosquitoes help eradicate malaria? - TechKnow 6:50-18:07 (thought that goes into this) and 21:00-22:00 (no living material)
    Generating knowledge and evaluating it. Write down 1 truth and 1 lie.
    Generating knowledge in STEM for research: innovation, persistence in the face of failure.
    Jack Andraka: A promising test for pancreatic cancer... from a teenager 10:21. author credibility, now
    handshake
  • Thur Oct 26 Stress management with Director and Clinical Director of the Counseling Center Christopher Hogan, then time to work on project 1 revisions or reflection 2.

  • Tues Oct 24
    Break up via mathematical cartoons. Should Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Be Released into the Environment to Fight Disease? discussion. Prepare to share cartoon and discussions with the class.
    clickers
    CQ Researcher
    Scientific Consensus
    reflection LG3 and LG4
  • Thur Oct 19 Research Project 1 presentations
  • Tues Oct 17 Research Project 1 presentations
  • Tues Oct 10 Radium Girls.
    Proving infinitely many items satisfy something without checking them all--we'll continue to discuss this and other mathematical viewpoints later in the semester.
    Continue discussing the Bradford-Hill criteria
    research project 1, research on Research Project 1
  • Thur Oct 5 Meet in 205 for research on Research Project 1

  • Tues Oct 3
    Comments on the library modules. Valborg Theater. reflection, research project 1, course rubric.
    The Proof video and questions.
  • Thur Sep 28
    Sciencemag.
    Homework for next week, library modules, and research project 1. library guide for our section, course rubric. university sponsored activities
    Share with a neighbor something related to your reflection or the last class on Can Science Be Trusted Without Government Regulation?
    What is the Belmont Report and Institutional Review Board (IRB)?, ASU's Institutional Review Board.
    What Kind of Research Should Our Government Support?
    Continue discussing the Bradford-Hill criteria including the controversy of 1994.

  • Tues Sep 26 Can Science Be Trusted Without Government Regulation? Use pictures to form groups. Discussion. Share the topic of your picture with the class and summarize some of your discussions.
    Naomi Oreskes 6:13: 13:00-19:14
    Clicker questions
    Scientific consensus, debate.org, Regulation Song music-video tribute to government rules pokes bipartisan fun at our contradictory attitudes toward freedom and safety. How much regulation is enough?
    course rubric and Library Modules for next week.


  • Thur Sep 21
    course rubric and reflection 2. Homework for next week, library modules, and research project 1
    Current events. Google news Science. The $25,000,000,000 Eigenvector About once a month, Google finds an eigenvector of a matrix that represents the connectivity of the web (of size billions-by-billions) for its pagerank algorithm.
    unmasking truth and the nature of reality, chance and uncertainty
    Line up sequentially by birth month and date. probability continued, birthday comic
    Discuss the name of the person you interviewed or researched. Share something you connected to or found interesting.
    GE experiment
    correlations versus causations on why birds fly south during colder weather.
    Begin discussing the Bradford-Hill criteria and whether smoking causes cancer.

  • Tues Sep 19
    Breakthroughs continued. Faculty Interview
    library.appstate.edu Appsearch for Sarah J Greenwald
    Books and Media: Quantitative Literacy, and Futurama
    article Databases and E-Research Tools: MathSciNet
    scholar.google.com for Sarah Greenwald versus Sarah J Greenwald
    personal webpages--c.v.
    My scholarship
    Group juggle
    Imagine that a friend deposits $1,440 into your bank account each morning. You have 24 hours in which to spend the money, with no balance carried over from day to day. Any money that you fail to use will be canceled at the end of that day. What would you do? Would you carefully plan how to spend the money or spend it impulsively?
  • Thur Sep 14
    unmasking truth and the nature of reality.
    schema. venus. Write down a random number from 1 to 10.
    Psychic experiment. Expected value if equally distributed from adding the people in the class and dividing by 10. Briefly mention the chi test [(B2-C2)^2/C2, CHITEST(B2:B11,C2:C11)] and p-value (are the observations statistically significant or can the differences be ascribed to random variations of chance?) Discuss whether the human mind can provide a random number. chance and uncertainty
    Benford's Law where the first digit in many real-life sources of data is not equally distributed, and approximates a logarithmic trend (where 1 occurs about 30% of the time while 9 less than 5% of the time) in data such as street addresses, stock prices, population numbers, death rates, etc... Identity theft, fraudulent election in Iran faked economic data, cooked accounting books.
    A statistically representative debate with John Oliver. reflection
    Current events.
    Reflection 2 revisions. consensus and NASA.
    Research scholarship by a faculty member in 1) google scholar, 2) in the library databases [By Subject], and 3) their personal webpages.

  • Tues Sep 12
    Discuss revisions of Reflection 1. If not already there, write the LGs for me and your classmates. Peer review of Reflection 2.
    Current events assignment and faculty reflection
    Education continued.
    Why make humanities and arts majors take science and mathematics class in college?
    American scholar of Shakespeare and Henry James Liz Coleman (board member and visiting fellow of the Neurosciences Institute in California, Center for the Advancement of Public Action) on liberal arts/general education (2009) [14:44], Discuss the video Wordle.
  • Thur Sep 7
    CQ Researcher and Extraterrestrial
    Why the search for alien intelligence matters [to "might detect" at 4:36]
    scientific connections and consensus
    Current News on FRB
    Reflection
    Continue current events at ASU and beyond: AppSync, Mathematics and Science Activities,
    Slashdot, Science in the New York Times, Science News from American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Math in the Media, News from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
    Faculty interests
    appalachian state university biology, scholar.google.com
    Search for at least two faculty that you are interested in interviewing for the Faculty Interview

  • Tues Sep 5
    academic writing, Reflection 1 samples
    Classroom Engagement
    Taking Sides reading Will the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Ever Succeed?
    Break up into groups via the random sequence generator
    Group work
    SETI clicker questions
    The Colbert Report Seth Shostak [6:02]
  • Thur Aug 31
    Current events Taking Sides data analysis results
    Peer review of Reflection 1. Write down your name and at least two positive aspects and two suggestions for improvement.
    What the best college students do, Educational goals, success

  • Tues Aug 29
    standards based learning, advice from previous students, questions on the syllabus
    Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning Learning how to learn by Barbara Oakley.
    Reflection 1 and selecting learning goals

  • Thur Aug 24 Finish clicker questions on sixth extinction and clicker question on round earth.
    Academic reading - Frankenstein and reading research LaTeX Beamer slides.
    Common Reading Book One Amazing Thing group work. Current events at ASU and t-shirt.

  • Tues Aug 22 Discuss what is a seminar? Overview of UCO and the course.
    Discussion Question: How could we know that the earth is round without using modern technology? Interdisciplinary connections and flat earth society, communicating effectively
    LaTeX Beamer slides. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. Begin clicker questions
    ASUlearn