Instructor: Prof. Rebecca Hutchinson (rebecca.hutchinson@oregonstate.edu)
www.engr.oregonstate.edu/~rah.
Class Meetings: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-3:20pm in STAG 210.
Credits: 3
Office Hours: By appointment in Prof. Hutchinson's office: KEC 2051.
Textbook: None. Readings will be provided.
Prerequisites: MATH 112 recommended.
Tentative Schedule:
| Week | Tuesday | Thursday |
| 1 | 4/3: Introductions Optional readings: 1. Harry Frankfurt (1986) On Bullshit. Raritan Quarterly Review 6(2) 2. G. A. Cohen (2002) Deeper into Bullshit. Buss and Overton, eds., Contours of Agency: Themes from the Philosophy of Harry Frankfurt Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press |
4/5: Cultivating Skepticism Read before class: Carl Sagan 1996 The Fine Art of Baloney Detection. (Chapter 12 in The Demon-Haunted World) Assignment 1 DUE NY Times Confirmation bias exercise Fermi estimation questions |
| 2 | 4/10: Cancelled | 4/12: Misleading Visualizations Watch Calling BS 6.1 before class |
| 3 | 4/17: Statistical Traps: right censoring, misuse of averages Assignment 2 DUE Follow-up readings: right censoring, senesence |
4/19: Statistical Traps: averages of groups Assignment 3 DUE Simpson's Paradox |
| 4 | 4/24: Correlation and Causation Spurious Correlations website Midterm Project description (Assignment 4 in class) |
4/26: What are p-values? |
| 5 | 5/1: Refuting Faulty Arguments (Assignment 5 in class) (project check-ins) |
5/3: No class - project group meeting time |
| 6 | 5/8: Midterm Project Presentations | 5/10: How Science Works p-hacking exercise |
| 7 | 5/15: Publication Bias & Predatory Publishing Ioannidis article |
5/17: Cancelled Final Project description |
| 8 | 5/22: Fake News | 5/24: Big Data Google n-gram example Criminality example |
| 9 | 5/29: Debunking Myths and TED Assignment 6 DUE (readings below) Debunking Handbook A case against TED talks A rebuttal Oatmeal comic |
5/31: No class - project group meeting time |
| 10 | 6/5: Project Peer Review Peer Review Assignment |
6/7: Final Project Presentations |