Lectures
This course includes eleven lectures. All lectures (1-11) are available as videos via Canvas and can be viewed at any time during the course. The placement of video lectures in the TimeEdit course schedule is a planning suggestion for when you might view them.
Each of the video lectures has an associated lecture quiz with a deadline. If you complete lecture quizzes with passing score upon the deadline, you receive course bonus points for the exam (see section on Schedule and see Canvas for quiz deadlines). For more information on bonus points, see section on Bonus point system below.
- Introduction and scientific knowledge, course week 1
- Scientific inferences (59 minutes) (flipped classroom 1), course week 1
- Observation and measurement (76 minutes) (flipped cl. 1), course week 2
- Experiments (49 minutes) (flipped classroom 2), course week 2
- Models (62 minutes) (flipped classroom 2), course week 3
- Statistics (62 minutes), course week 3
- Explanations and causes (81 minutes), course week 4
- Engineering design (76 minutes), course week 5
- Qualitative methods (93 minutes), course week 5
- Research ethics (103 minutes), course week 6
- Anticipating risk in science and engineering (85 minutes), course week 6
Flipped classrooms*(not for AK2030 online)
Flipped classroom sessions function as an opportunity for receiving clarification from the lecturer on lecture contents. The flipped classroom sessions are intended for addressing questions on course topics that students find unclear, challenging or otherwise interesting.
There are two flipped classroom sessions on campus, each based on two video lectures. Flipped classroom 1 focuses on the lectures on scientific inferences (lecture 2), and on observation and measurement (lecture 3). Flipped classroom 2 focuses on the lectures on experiments (lecture 4) and on models (lecture 5).
Each flipped classroom session has an associated discussion board. Before each flipped classroom session, you post a question for the lecturer on the board related to the relevant video lectures, and you upvote questions posted by other students that you would like the lecturer to address during the session. See section on Schedule and see Canvas for further instructions and deadlines.
The lecturer selects a set of questions from the discussion board and devotes the flipped classroom sessions to answering these questions. During the sessions, you will also be invited to participate on voluntary exercise activities.
If you complete the flipped classroom activities, you receive course bonus points for the exam. For more information on bonus points, see section on Bonus point system below.
It is possible to attend flipped classroom sessions without having posted on the discussion board and without participating on exercises in the classroom, but this will yield no bonus points.
The flipped classroom sessions are taken together with students from other, similar courses.
Bonus point system
Completing video lecture quizzes with a passing score, as well as participating on the flipped classroom activities, gives course bonus points for the exam. Bonus point activities are voluntary, optional activities intended at incentivising students to engage with the course contents continuously throughout the course.
Each video lecture has an associated video lecture quiz, comprised of 15 questions. If you complete a quiz with a 14 point score or higher, you get 0.5 course bonus points. All video lecture quizzes have deadlines (See section on Schedule and see Canvas for deadlines). There is no limit on number of attempts up until the quiz deadlines.
Course bonus points can also be awarded for the two flipped classrooms. Attending the flipped classroom session and carrying out tasks as per instructed by the lecturer results in 0.5 course bonus points per each of the two flipped classrooms.
In order to make the number of bonus points fit the exam format, course bonus points are scaled in the following way before the exam (C = course bonus points, E = exam bonus points): E = C * 5/6, rounded up to the closest .5-value. Example: 4.5 course bonus points will be scaled as 4.5 * 5/6 = 3.75, then rounded up to 4 exam points. You can maximally obtain 5 exam bonus points.
Exam bonus points are added to part 1 of the exam. For example, if part 1 has a maximum score of 15 points, then 3.5 exam bonus points plus 10 points on part 1 results in a total score of 13.5 points on part 1 of the exam. 4 exam bonus points plus 13 points on part 1 results in a total score of 15 points on part 1 of the exam.
For more information about the exam, see section on Examination and completion.
Bonus points collected during one and the same course period are valid for, and only for, the scheduled exam and the corresponding re-exam for that period.
Seminars
The course includes a mandatory seminar series comprised of four seminars. Each seminar covers selected course contents from the video lectures and course readings, and following the first seminar, each subsequent seminar connects to the previous seminars.
Seminars are intended as a collaborative learning activity where you practice critically discussing course contents and practice applying course contents to cases, with instruction and support from teaching staff. The overall topics covered during the seminar series are as follows:
- Definitions, operationalizations and hypotheses (course week 3)
- Designing a scientific study (course week 4)
- Interpretation, analysis and evidence (course week 6)
- Risk and research ethics (course week 7).
Since completion of the seminar series yields course credits, the seminars feature mandatory activities: (1) preparing and passing a seminar quiz, and (2) actively participating on the seminar. Missing activities result in seminar incompletion and thus no seminar course credits.
Before each seminar, you read the assigned readings (reading instructions available on Canvas). Before attending each seminar, you must also pass a mandatory seminar preparation quiz (See section on Schedule and see Canvas for deadlines). There is no limit on number of quiz attempts up until the quiz deadline. You must complete the quiz with a passing score of 14 points before the deadline (indicated in Canvas as “Passed”).
The preparation quizzes are intended to ensure that all participants come prepared to the seminar for a more rewarding seminar learning experience. If you attend the seminar without completing the preparation quiz beforehand, you will not be marked as attending.
On the seminar, you will be working together with other students on exercises as per instructed by the teacher. The exercises are formulated in such a way as to promote critical reflection and discussion, as well as to practice application of course concepts to case scenarios.*(not for AK2030 online - they have their own seminar-like assignments)
You are expected to engage actively with the course contents and work on the exercises during the seminar. Passive attendance on the seminar will be marked as not attending. Active participation on the seminar does not mean that you are expected to demonstrate full proficiency of course contents. Rather, it means that you are expected to have properly engaged with the relevant course material beforehand and made an honest attempt at understanding it. Arisen questions and reflections can be addressed on the seminar.
For information on what to do if you have not completed a preparation quiz or actively attended on a seminar, see the section on Examination and completion.
Note that the TimeEdit course schedule shows multiple seminar slots for every seminar week. The different slots correspond to different seminar groups. You will join one seminar group upon course start and your group takes only one seminar per seminar week. Instructions on how to join a seminar group as well as seminar group schedule will be available on Canvas after course start and before the start of the seminar series.*(not for AK2030 online)
Seminar contents and reading instructions
All course readings can be found on Canvas.
Seminar 1 – Definitions, operationalizations and hypotheses
Texts:
- Grüne-Yanoff, Till – Justified Method Choice, chapters 1, 2, 3, 13
- Optional reading: Hansson, Sven Ove – Art of Doing Science: sections 2.2-2.8, 3.1-3.2, 5.0-5.1, and 5.8
Topics relevant for the seminar:
- Stipulative and lexical definitions
- Narrowness and broadness (as applied to definitions)
- Vagueness
- Hypotheses (and their quality criteria)
- Direct, aided and indirect observation
- Operationalization
- Accuracy and precision (as qualities of observations and measurements)
- Measurement error (random and systematic error)
- Convergent validity and divergent validity
Seminar 2 – Designing a scientific study
Texts:
- Grüne-Yanoff, Till – Justified Method Choice, chapters 4, 5.
- Optional reading: Hansson, Sven Ove – Art of Doing Science: sections 3.7, 4.2-4, and 5.1-3.
Topics relevant for the seminar:
- Experiment, observational studies and model studies
- Mill’s method of difference
- Internal validity and external validity
- Experimental control
- Constancy, elimination and effect separation
- Randomization
- Control group and treatment group
- Observer influence
- Confirmation bias
- Blinding
- Epistemic virtues of models (Parameter precision, Similarity, Robustness, Simplicity, Tractability, Transparency)
- Analogies (positive, negative, neutral)
Seminar 3: Interpretation, analysis and evidence
Texts:
- Grüne-Yanoff, Till – Justified Method Choice: chapters 2, 6, 7.
- Optional reading: Hansson, Sven Ove – Art of Doing Science: sections 1.6-7, 3.7, 3.9, 5.3-5, 5.7, 7, 8 and the box on p. 24.
Topics relevant for the seminar:
- Repeatability, reproducibility and replicability
- Statistical evaluation
- Statistical significance
- Correlation and causality
- Explanatory virtues (Accuracy [of explanations], Non-sensitivity, Precision in the explanans, Precision of the explanandum, Cognitive salience)
- Duhem-Quine thesis
- Ad-hoc hypothesis
- Falsificationism (Popper)
- Inductive and deductive inferences
Seminar 4: Risk and research ethics
Texts:
- Grüne-Yanoff, Till – Justified Method Choice, chapters 11, 12.
- “On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research”, National academy of Sciences.
- Ahlin, Jesper, “Ethical Thinking”.
- Optional reading: Hansson, Sven Ove - Art of Doing Science: Section 9.
Topics relevant for the seminar:
- Gift authorship and ghost authorship
- Scientific misconduct (falsification, fabrication and plagiarism)
- Informed consent
- Deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics
- Precautionary principle
- Decision making (under certainty/risk/ignorance/deep uncertainty)
Exercise sessions*(not for AK2030 online)
The exercise sessions are extra opportunities to practice on the course content. They are held on campus and shared with other course codes. They are voluntary and have no associated submissions. The format is tested for the first time this semester. More information will follow on Canvas.
Expected workload
Expected workload is calculated based on number of course credits per period.
FAK3014= 4.5 ECTS one period: 12 h / week