Syllabuselements

TOPICS AT A GLANCE
0 (9/3) Pre-course meeting to get set up 1 (9/10) Introductions to the course, the other participants, and project-based learning (PBL) 2 (9/17) Workshop to develop initial ideas of activities to engage others in critical thinking about the life sciences in their social context 3 (9/24) Interpreting ideas about nature as ideas about society 4 (10/1) Biological origin stories and their structure 5 (10/8) Multiple layers of a scientific theory: Reconstructing Darwin's presentation of natural selection 6 (10/15) What causes a disease? -- Beriberi 7 (10/22) Metaphors of control and coordination in development 8 (10/29) What causes a disease? -- Pellagra (Styles of causal explanation & their relation to ideas about politics or social action) 9 (11/5) How changeable are IQ test scores? 10 (11/12) Social negotiations around genetic screening 11 (11/19) Intersecting processes -- Complexities of environment and development in the age of DNA 11/26--No class meeting 12 (12/3) Presentations on learning/engagement units and their development over the semester 13 (12/10) Taking Stock of Course: Where have we come and where do we go from here?

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
The mini-lecture introducing each session happens at the end of the previous class. These lectures are archived on audiovisual page: http://crcrth645.wikispaces.umb.edu/av

Preparation for each class is detailed on http://crcrth645.wikispaces.umb.edu/prepare After the first time the following check-ins and assignments are given in the schedule, they are not listed again:

> Each class from session 3-11 begins with a check-in where you say briefly how you adopted/adapted the themes or activities of the previous session to apply to the area chosen for your "learning/engaging" project. The 350-600 word installment is due on the day of the class. (Asynchronous online students send check-in to course email list the same day.) Follow-up on each sessions 2-11 includes contributions to revision of the cases introduced in the sessions or to an annotated collection of new readings and other resources related to the cases. Links to the case write-ups will go live after the class meeting.

Session 1 Introductions
//**Session**// **//(9/6)://**

a. Course description; Personal and professional development goals; Fellow students and their concerns b. Rapid Project-based learning activity //**Follow-up:**// Syllabus quiz, which includes: review the syllabus, get set-up to use the internet and computers, sign up for first conference, etc. --

Session 2 Project-based learning (PBL) about biology in society
Mini-lecture (given 9/6): Project-based learning

//**Preparation:**// Read the two PBL cases based on an embryo mix up. //**Session**// **//(9/13)://** a. [|Dialogue hour] on PBL and comparison of the two cases. b. Workshop to generate initial ideas for semester-long "learning/engaging" project //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case and PBL guidelines introduced in the session. Use comment feature to make suggestions or to provide an annotation to a new reading or other resource. Reading (optional): Greenwald, "Learning from problems" //**Work due this session:**// Syllabus quiz --

Session 3. Interpreting ideas about nature as ideas about society, which involves exposing what is only implicit, what is not literally stated
Mini-lecture (given 9/13): Interpreting images of society and nature in the West since the middle ages (slide show)

//**Preparation:**// Reading: Williams, "Ideas of nature" ( preparation ) //**Session**// **//(9/20)://** Check-in: Description of your project and how you adopted/adapted themes from last class. Review timelines of changing and contrasting ideas of nature. Multi-party conversation among contrasting views about nature. //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case. Reading (optional): Berger, "Why look at animals," Worster, chaps. 1 & 2. //**Work due this session:**// Initial description of your semester-long "learning/engaging" project, including how you would adopt or adapt PBL into your area. Comment posted on this link to make suggestions about last session's case or to provide an annotation to a new reading or other resource related to the case. --

Session 4. Biological origin stories and their structure
Mini-lecture (given 9/20): The structure of Genesis, chapter 1

//**Preparation:**// Readings: Martin, "The egg and the sperm: How science has constructed a romance," Lewin, "The storytellers," Hrdy, "An Initial Inequality." Examine biology texts for the gender bias claimed by Martin and others ( preparation ) //** Session (9/27)**//**//://** Pairwise discussion of Martin's interpretation and analysis of structure of Hrdy, followed by whole-class discussion //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case Reading (optional): Landau, "Human Evolution as Narrative," Beldecos, et al. "The importance of feminist critique," Fausto-Sterling, "Society writes biology," "Life in XY Corral" --

Session 5. How did Darwin try to convince people of Natural selection as the mechanism of evolution? (Multiple layers of a scientific theory--argument, analogy, metaphor, and defences)
Mini-lecture (given 9/27): Introduction to close reading of Darwin. Natural selection as a metaphor.

//**Preparation:**// Reading: Darwin, __On the Origin of Species__, Introduction & Chaps. 1, 3, part of 4. ( preparation ) //**Session (10/4)**// **//://** Close reading and reconstruction of Darwin's exposition of his theory of natural selection. //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case Readings (optional): Moore, "Socializing Darwin," Orel, "Scientific animal breeding," Rudge, "Does being wrong," Taylor, "Natural Selection: A heavy hand." --

Session 6. Metaphors of control and coordination in development
Mini-lecture (given 10/4): Metaphors in science and in interpretation of science & Multiple views of heredity c. 1900

//**Preparation:**// Reading: Gilbert, "Cellular Politics," "Animal development," Lakoff and Johnson, "Concepts We Live By" (on metaphors) ( preparation ) //**Session**// **//(10/11)://** Game of Life and analogies with Development Inventing alternative metaphors of control and co-ordination //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case Goodwin, __How the Leopard Changed its Spots__, Oyama, "Boundaries," Sapp, "Struggle for Authority" //**Work due this session:**// First office hours conference must be completed before class 6 to discuss the course and course project. Schedule second meeting before class 10. --

Session 7. What causes a disease?--Beriberi
Mini-lecture (given 10/11): Introduction to the case and historical case-based learning

//**Preparation:**// This session involves completion of programmed, historical case-based learning. This happens without a class meeting. It is asynchronous and you can start any time. It will work best if you all try to complete it by Friday, 10/19. ( preparation ) //**Session**// **//://no meeting on 10/18** (see above) //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case --

Session 8. What causes a disease?--the consequences of hereditarianism in the case of pellagra
Mini-lecture ( prerecorded ): Styles of causal explanation & their relation to ideas about politics/social action: Review of beriberi case & introduction to pellagra

//**Preparation:**// Reading: Chase, "False Correlations = Real Deaths" ( preparation ) //**Session**// **//(10/25)://** Take the roles of Goldberger and Davenport to convince others to act on your scientific account //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case Reading (optional): Harkness, "Vivisectors and vivishooters" (human experimentation); Marks, "Epidemiologists explain" --

Session 9. How changeable are IQ test scores?
Mini-lecture (given 10/25): Interpreting parent-offspring height patterns

//**Preparation:**// Lewontin-Jensen-Lewontin exchange on intelligence ( preparation ) //**Session**// **//(11/1)://** Map arguments, counter-arguments, and missing arguments in the exchange //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case Reading (optional): American Psychological Association, "New model of IQ development," --

Session 10. Social negotiations around genetic screening
Mini-lecture (given 11/1): PKU--Substituting a genetic condition for chronic illness and second-generation effects (& introduction to intersecting processes)

//**Preparation:**// Readings: Rapp, "Moral pioneers," Paul, "The history of newborn phenylketonuria screening" ( preparation ) //**Session**// **//(11/8)://** Design a forum to help supplement advances in genetic screening with communities developing a) greater tolerance for normal variation; b) social measures to care for people suffering from abnormal variation; and/or c) multiple voices/constituencies/ethical positions around gene-based medicine. //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the cases on PKU and on genetc screening Reading (optional): Yoxen, 157-173 //**Work due this session:**// Second office hours meeting must be completed before class 10 to discuss evolving course projects. --

Session 11. Intersecting processes -- Complexities of environment and development in the age of DNA
Mini-lecture (given 11/12): Intersecting processes in the social origins of mental illness

//**Preparation:**// Readings: Taylor, "What can we do," American Psychological Association, "New model of IQ development" ( preparation ) //**Session**// **//(11/19)://** Diagramming intersecting processes (to analyze change as something produced by intersecting economic, political, linguistic, and scientific processes operating at different scales) //**Follow-up:**// Contributions to revision of the case Reading (optional): Taylor, "Distributed agency," Underhill, "Life shaped," Freese et al., "Rebel without a cause," Pollitt, "When is a mother" --

No class, Thursday 11/26
--

Session 12. Presentations on learning/engagement units and their development over the semester
//**Preparation:**// 10-minute Presentations on learning/engagement units and their development over the semester, uploaded to http://crcrth645.wikispaces.umb.edu/-/2012/shared

//**Session**// **//(12/3)://** 10-minute Presentations on learning/engagement units and their development over the semester, with peer comments //**Follow-up:**// Commentary on another student's draft report //**Work due this session:**// Complete Draft of Project Report, uploaded to http://crcrth645.wikispaces.umb.edu/-/2012/shared as well as to assignment check-list Assignment Check-list maintained by student & ready for review by class time --

Session 13. Taking Stock of Course: Where have we come and where do we go from here?
//**Preparation:**// Reading: Taylor, "Developing Critical Thinking is Like a Journey"

//**Session**// **//(12/10)://** [|Dialogue hour] on how we might foster critical thinking about science-in-society Course evaluations, via [] //**Work due this session:**// Commentary on another student's draft report, uploaded to blog

Process Review
 * One week after session 13** //**Work due:**// Final version of Project Report