Scientific Inquiry

Scientific Inquiry unlocks the door to discovery and explores how humans acquired our fundamental knowledge of the sciences. By engaging foundational texts and practices from across various scientific disciplines, students will understand the various processes involved in acquiring scientific knowledge and how these processes are applied to contemporary scientific questions. Students will critically analyze the claims and evidence presented in the primary literature and use a project- and inquiry-based approach to answer important scientific questions across the various disciplines of the natural sciences. The course also focuses on understanding how to make, interpret, and challenge scientific claims by conducting original research, and communicating the results in written reports and oral presentations. Creating connections across the Fulbright core curriculum, this course emphasizes how scientific inquiry informs public debates past and present, challenging students not only to understand the world from a scientific perspective, but also to understand how our scientific perspective shapes and is shaped by the world around us.