ANSC 203

ANSC 203: Critical Inquiry in Anthropological Sciences (WI) (GE)

Credit Hours: (3)

This course will develop student's skills in critical thinking by examining paranormal and pseudoscientific claims such as encounters with Slender Man, psychic powers, and ancient alien visitors. Students will engage with sources from both believers and skeptics in order to learn how to recognize, analyze, and evaluate scientific and pseudoscientific arguments. The course will challenge students to refine their information literacy skills by asking them to research a paranormal phenomenon and uncover data supporting or debunking that phenomenon. Finally, students will develop their critical thinking skills by writing a proposal to explore a paranormal phenomenon, and their oral communication skills in reporting the results of that exploration. This course has been approved for University Core A credit in Topics in Critical Inquiry.

Note(s): General Education and Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning designated course.

Detailed Description of Course

Belief: What is Paranormal and Who Believes: The first unit of this class will focus on defining paranormal beliefs and claims, and examining how these claims can be studied, ranging from whether they exist as objective phenomena to how they impact society regardless of their objective reality.
    a. Defining Paranormal Phenomena
    b. Studying the Paranormal
    c. Paranormal Believers
Experience: Engaging with Paranormal Phenomena: The second unit of this course will examine how people experience paranormal phenomena. To do this we will look at famous first encounters with UFOs, Bigfoot, and the Chupacabra. We will then turn to examining paranormal investigators, that is people who have proposed methods of documenting paranormal phenomena. Finally, students will attempt to experience paranormal phenomena for themselves after proposing their own controlled methodology.
a. Famous First Encounters
b. Paranormal Investigators
c. Experiencing the Paranorma
Skepticism: Critically Examining Paranormal Phenomena: In the last unit of this course we will discuss skeptical responsese to the paranormal, which range from simple debunkings to critiques on knowledge and reason. We will discuss the role of the scientific method and critical reasoning, as well as the ways in which knowledge is culturally produced.
a. Critical and Scientific Reasoning
b. The Skeptical Movement
c. Social Studies of Science

Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

The course will include a mixture of lecture, discussion, critical reading of original sources, and student driven research and presentation. Lectures will introduce students to core concepts in the social sciences, as well as to frame concepts of reason, argument, and epistemology. Discussions will be used to encourage students to relate class concepts to their own lived experience. Crticial readings of original sources will present a structured application of class concepts presented in lecture and discussion to original paranormal claims. Course activities will build over the semester to a conclusion where students present the results of their own research on a paranormal phenomenon.

Student Goals and Objectives of the Course

This course is designated as R (Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning) Area for the REAL Curriculum and fulfills the learning goal: To apply scientific and quantitative reasoning to questions about the natural world, mathematics, or related areas. Students will fulfill the learning outcomes in this area: apply scientific and quantitative information to test problems and draw conclusions and evaluate the quality of data, methods, or inferences used to generate scientific and quantitative knowledge.

This course may be applied to the REAL Studies Minor in Scientific/Quantitative Reasoning.

This course is designated as Writing Intensive (WI). The following conditions apply to this course:

Courses substantially integrate sole-authored student writing within the course objectives and assessments.
Courses use discipline-specific reading strategies to facilitate effective written communication.
Courses engage students in a recursive writing process that includes revision supported by consistent, detailed instruction and the incorporation of feedback.

This course fulfills the following learning goal: Through instruction and feedback, students become more adept at producing appropriate and effective written work. Students will fulfill the following learning outcomes: demonstrate proficiency in the writing conventions of a discipline and communicate through writing their understanding of disciplinary content and/or texts.

This course fulfills the writing intensive requirements for the REAL Curriculum.

After successfully completing this course students will be able to:
    Goal 1) Prepare coherent and well-written essays that effectively integrate material from a variety of sources.
    Goal 2) Deliver an effective and organized oral presentation and appropriately communicate in interpersonal and small group settings.
    Goal 3) Distinguish knowledge from opinion, challenge ideas, and develop reasonable strategies for belief formation.
    Goal 4) Locate, evaluate, and cite information

Assessment Measures

Will Comply with the assessment plan for University Core A courses.

    Goal 1) Students will write a series of research papers that asks them to critically examine the perspectives of believers and skeptics on a paranormal phenomena of their choosing.
    Goal 2) Students will present their research and the results of their attempt to experience a paranormal phenomena in group settings and then to the whole class.
    Goal 3) Through critical readings of original sources students will assess how knowledge and opinion claims are being structured in original sources on paranormal phenomena.
    Goal 4) Papers and presentations will be supported by students learning to locate, evaluate, and cite sources on paranormal phenomena.

Review and Approval

February 6, 2017

February 2023; June, 2023