JOSHUA SHAEVITZ: We have
these intuitions for how
things work in the real world.
They're all based on the
rules that science imposes
on matter and materials.
And so making the connections
to the underlying science,
I think is very powerful.
There isn't any
magic it turns out.
It's all based on science.
So we have our coffee molecules.
The coffee molecules are going
faster than the air molecules.
On average, they will be
imparting positive energy
to the air molecules.
And that's going to
happen over and over.
And so then on average,
you lose energy to the air
and you cool down the coffee.
The seminar sort of struck me
as a way of introducing science
to non-scientists.
And I don't mean subject
matter exactly, oh,
how does the ball
roll down hills,
or why did chemical
reactions happen, but more
how science actually
works in the real world.
Who decides what
science gets to be done?
Who funds science?
And that for
non-scientists, this
was almost maybe more
important than understanding
a few nitty-gritty facts.
ALICE XUE: I feel like classes
in high school are very focused
and don't really teach you
what science is in general.
Like, you might have a
chemistry class or a bio class,
but you might not know what
scientists nowadays are doing
or what methods they
used to figure out
those kinds of things
that you're learning.
SYLVIE THODE: And
in this course,
we have people from
sciences, politics.
I think almost every realm,
we have a very, very diverse
group.
And then Professor
Shaevitz brings it
back to what we
were talking about.
I think that's a very important
aspect to have in that course.
ALICE XUE: He sort of
wants to include everybody.
And I think it's very
interesting how it
bridges all those disciplines.
HARRISON CERUTO: I think
Professor Shaevitz does
a good job
facilitating, you know,
conversation, and
debate, and discourse.
But we're also still learning.
And it's still a lesson.
So I think it's a good kind
of back-and-forth environment.
JOSHUA SHAEVITZ:
I wanted to have
them sort of engaged in
kind of a hands-on way
with various aspects of the
way science is really done.
And one of the
major projects that
sort of has spanned
the entire semester
is a scientific proposal
to bust the myth.
They had to choose a
common myth to, motivate
why it was an
interesting question,
and discuss the
history of the myth,
and to propose a
scientific experiment that
will bust the myth, as the
MythBusters would say.
And as part of the
semester-long process,
we did a grant review panel,
which is part of the way
that we, as a society,
decide what science
gets focused on or done.
So I think that in many
ways connects really
to the way that we as scientists
do things in the real world.
SPEAKER 1: This is a good one.
SPEAKER 2: Thank you.
SPEAKER 3: Oh, it looks
cool from the bottom.
SYLVIE THODE: So my proposal
is on whether or not
the house in the Disney Pixar
movie "Up" could actually fly.
I proposed building a scale
model and then seeing
if you could lift the
house of the model
with normal-sized
party balloons.
And when I was doing
research for my proposal,
there's this whole new
theory about these giant,
giant balloons.
The theory is that you
could lift something
like a plane that's fallen.
You have real-life
applications for this idea
of lifting something heavy.
And it sounds very
simple, but it's
applicable in the real world.
And I think just
by doing research,
even though this one is a
little bit whimsical,
it just gives you more
information on that subject.
JOSHUA SHAEVITZ: My real hope
is that we can in some small way
just change the way
the public thinks
about science, scientists,
and the scientific endeavor.
The ability of the public
to critically analyze
some of this information
on their own,
where did it come from, can
they look in a little deeper,
how can they compare different
types of information that
are coming from opposite
sides of the spectrum
in the public sphere, that's
something that I really think
is important and
doesn't happen much.
SYLVIE THODE: When I see
things in the news that
has to do with science
or something like that,
now I can sort of read it and be
able to glean more out of what
they're saying, because
I've been exposed
to scientific writing and
the scientific methods that
are often used.
HARRISON CERUTO: There is
a purpose beyond science.
You know, we'll never know
when we need something.
Twenty years from now
that research could
lead to some groundbreaking
cure for a disease
or some new innovation designs.
JOSHUA SHAEVITZ:
What we're partly doing
is we're trying
to link sociology
and the way governments and
economics works with the way
science is done, the way things
have been discussed in history.
We had some nice lectures
on historical perspectives
about evidence, and science,
and mythological uses of myth.
Bringing these
connections together,
I think, takes what could be a
disparate set of broad topics
as a liberal arts education
and puts them together
into a real, synthesized
view of human knowledge
and human behavior
and existence.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
