Science in today's world
Undergraduate course
- ECTS credits
- 10
- Teaching semesters
- Autumn
- Course code
- MNF201
- Number of semesters
- 1
- Resources
- Schedule
Course description
Learning Outcomes
By doing the course reading, participating actively in discussions, and carrying out a team term project, the student should be able to:
Knowledge
- Discuss the benefits as well as the limitations of scientific inquiry and appreciate the complexities of defining science and of separating science from ideology.
- Explicate differences and similarities between applied and basic research, and between science and technology.
- Discuss and exemplify how science interacts with commercial interests, societal interests, and government in science-related controversies such as those over global climate change.
- Explain different perceptions of risk, uncertainty, measurements and estimates, and the problems raised by differences in such perceptions in debates on science-related social controversies.
Skills
- Critically assess "knowledge" derived from science, pseudoscience, and our own senses.
- Inquire into a topical issue with a scientific dimension, and discuss it in the context of central concepts and issues related to scientific practices and interactions between science and the wider society.
Grading Scale
Pass / Fail