rather, I am asking that you learn about and reflect on the structure of scientific research and the nature of scientific inquiry.

  

rather, I am asking that you learn about and reflect on the structure of scientific research and the nature of scientific inquiry. Your assignment will be graded on completion and on the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of your work. Don’t forget to include clear connections to the videos that you watch in your reflection. You may find that some of the videos conflict with each other or that you disagree with some of the points that they make, and that’s completely okay! ————- Video Links The pursuit of ignorance (Stuart Firestein, TED talk) https://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_firestein_the_pur… Description from website: What does real scientific work look like? As neuroscientist Stuart Firestein jokes: It looks a lot less like the scientific method and a lot more like “farting around … in the dark.” In this witty talk, Firestein gets to the heart of science as it is really practiced and suggests that we should value what we don’t know — or “high-quality ignorance” — just as much as what we know. The scientific method is crap (Teman Cooke, TEDx talk) Description from website: Teman Cooke holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics but has no love for the scientific method. He explains an interesting alternative that will challenge your thinking. Why we should trust scientists (Naomi Oreskes, TED talk) https://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_oreskes_why_we_sho… Description from website: Many of the world’s biggest problems require asking questions of scientists — but why should we believe what they say? Historian of science Naomi Oreskes thinks deeply about our relationship to belief and draws out three problems with common attitudes toward scientific inquiry — and gives her own reasoning for why we ought to trust science. The Times and Troubles of the Scientific Method (Hank Green, SciShow) Description from website: Science is working tirelessly night and day to disprove its own theories about how the universe works (or at least, that’s what science thinks it’s doing). Hank tells us a quick history of how we came to create and adopt the scientific method and then gives us a vision of the future of science (hint: it involves a lot more computers and a lot less pipetting).