About this course: This course will help you become scientifically literate so that you can make better choices for yourself and the world. Unlike other courses on statistics and scientific methods, we explore global challenges - such as poverty or climate change - and then discuss how key approaches of statistics and scientific methods can help tackle these challenges. We present these approaches in a non-mathematical and easily accessible way. You will leave the course being able to recognize which efforts to do good in this world actually work, and you will have used your science literacy to make some personal changes in your life. Many current attempts to do good in this world are based on good intentions, but don’t work well, or are even harmful. In this course we talk to leading experts from academia, business and non-profit organizations about how we can use science to distinguish bad, good and even better ways of improving this world. We also invite you to change your own behavior to do more good. You will learn how to spot BS (bad science) in the media, how to evaluate whether a social program works or not, and how your career could have a better impact on this world. Finally, you will develop your own plan on how you are going to do good better with science. Guest speakers include Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely, Philosopher Peter Singer, and Happiness researcher Elizabeth Dunn.
Created by: 鹿特丹伊拉斯姆斯大学
Taught by: Vera Schölmerich, PhD
Erasmus University College, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University
Taught by: Kellie Liket, PhD
Impact Centre Erasmus (ICE) - Erasmus School of Economics
| Level | Beginner |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Science literacy as a vaccine against the charlatans
We kick off this course by providing some ammunition for what the astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson said: ”Science literacy is a vaccine against the charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance.” Here, you will discover that you should be wary of the recommendations that you get from our governments on how to save water, from the media based on new scientific findings, and even from our doctor. At the same time, you will see that a basic understanding of statistics and scientific methods - which you will acquire throughout this course - will protect you against misinformation and bad science, and help you make better choices for yourself and for this world. At the end of this week you will create and upload a short 3-minute video pitch about global challenges and what your own role is in tackling them (if any).
Please note that Erasmus University Rotterdam pursues the science of learning. Online learners are important participants in that pursuit. The information we gather from your engagement with our instructional offerings makes it possible for faculty, researchers, and designers to continuously improve their work and, in that process, build learning science. By registering as an online learner, you are also participating in research.
6 videos, 7 readings, 1 practice quiz
- Video: Water we doing?!
- Discussion Prompt: Eating no or less animals?
- Reading: Cost-benefit analyses to answer the question: should I floss or not?
- Reading: Make your own cost-benefit analysis
- Reading: Check your cost-benefit analysis
- Video: Optional video: What Morillio and his team are doing to improve access to clean water
- Reading: Optional documentary about costs and benefits of eating meat
- Video: Dear doctor
- Discussion Prompt: Is your life based on evidence?
- Reading: Why Most Research Findings Are False
- Reading: Optional reading: Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science
- Video: Optional video: Full-length interview with John Ioannidis
- Practice Quiz: Please take 3 minutes to tell us how things are going
- Reading: Ted Talk "Photos that bear witness to modern day slavery"
- Video: Implanting a chip in your brain
WEEK 2
Stop guessing!
"Whenever you leave behind failure, that means you're doing better. If you think everything you've done has been great, you're probably dumb." – Louis CK.
Many social programs - such as efforts to reduce poverty or improve people’s health - are based on good intentions but simply don’t work, or are even harmful. This week you will discover that humans are pretty bad at guessing which programs work, and that the best way to assess whether a program works is by running randomized controlled trials. You will see that conducting multiple rigorous evaluations is how we can leave behind failure and do better in this world. And not be dumb. At the end of this week you’ll be ready to put your new skills to use by critically assessing a BS (bad science) media report.
9 videos, 10 readings, 4 practice quizzes
- Reading: Week introduction
- Discussion Prompt: What lifestyle changes would you like to make, and how?
- Video: Video testimonial: hear how your fellow learners are doing
- Video: Optional: Full-length interview with Dan Ariely
- Video: Poverty, Bills & Cash
- Reading: Giving Game
- Reading: Charity overview
- Practice Quiz: Initial Charity Choice
- Reading: PlayPumps
- Practice Quiz: Reflect on PlayPumps
- Reading: Doing good
- Video: Poverty, Bills & Cash Continued
- Reading: Charity Details
- Practice Quiz: Final Charity Choice
- Reading: About the Giving Game
- Reading: Giving well
- Discussion Prompt: Challenge your charity
- Video: Optional video: full-length interview with Paul Niehaus
- Video: 2 minute excerpt from the interview with Dan Ariely
- Practice Quiz: Dan Ariely's panda express experiment
- Video: Micro Creditis
- Reading: Ted Talk: Why medicine often has dangerous side effects for women
- Discussion Prompt: Is the medicine you drop OK for you?
- Reading: Pay it forward
- Video: Our interviewees talk about being annoyed
- Discussion Prompt: Recap Q & A
Graded: Calling Bad Science (BS)
WEEK 3
Putting it all together
15 videos, 7 readings, 2 practice quizzes
- Reading: Week Introduction
- Discussion Prompt: Giving what you can?
- Discussion Prompt: Fooled by correlation
- Discussion Prompt: Changed your mind?
- Video: Optional video: full length interview Elizabeth Dunn
- Video: Optional video: full-length interview Peter Singer
- Video: Measuring your own happiness - question 1
- Video: Measuring your own happiness - question 2 & 3
- Video: Measuring your own happiness - question 4
- Video: Measuring your own happiness - question 5 - 8
- Video: Measuring your own happiness - question 9
- Video: Measuring your own happiness - question 10
- Discussion Prompt: Main Take-aways
- Video: Some final comments on happiness
- Reading: Optional video: Want to find out more about measurement validity?
- Practice Quiz: Thought Experiment
- Reading: Thought Experiment Conclusion
- Video: In the best of wealth
- Practice Quiz: How rich are you?
- Reading: Arctic expedition
- Discussion Prompt: Thinking rationally about charity
- Reading: Doing Good Better
- Discussion Prompt: Will you make any changes to your current career?
- Video: Optional video: full-length interview Robert Wiblin
- Reading: Optional: Beth Barnes on how to save the world
- Reading: Optional: Want to find out more about how organizations can calculate cost-effectiveness
- Video: 9 to 5
- Discussion Prompt: Share your frustration with us
- Video: Imagine. You are almighty - what would you do?
- Discussion Prompt: Share your personal #deceptiondetox
- Discussion Prompt: What are your major take-aways?
- Video: Optional: full-length interview Marcel Fafchamps
Graded: Graded multiple choice quiz: measurement matters
Graded: Doing Good Done Better
WEEK 4
Yes but wait
5 videos, 10 readings, 2 practice quizzes
- Reading: Week 4 Introduction
- Practice Quiz: Existential Risk
- Reading: Existential Risk
- Reading: Optional: Ted Talk Bill Gates
- Reading: Optional: Video of the Ocean Cleanup Project
- Video: Optional: Full-length interview Karen Maas
- Practice Quiz: What's your carbon footprint?
- Reading: Other existential risks
- Reading: Expert risk assessment
- Reading: Existential Risk Conclusion
- Reading: Comparing potential for impact
- Reading: Podcast: How can we prioritize global challenges?
- Video: Fishy finance
- Discussion Prompt: We haven't got an answer for this one. You?
- Video: Optional video: Full-length interview Helen Toxopeus
- Reading: Optional videos: mini tutorials by Dirk Bezemer
- Video: Know this tune?
WEEK 5
Capstone
You have watched many videos that we made on tackling global challenges with science. Now it’s time to create your own video on how you are going to tackle a global challenge with science.
Graded: Capstone project
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鹿特丹伊拉斯姆斯大学
Erasmus University: a top-100 ranked international research university based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Our academic teaching and research focuses on four areas: health, wealth, culture and governance.
Erasmus University Rotterdam: make it happen.
Ratings and Reviews
The course could be structured a little bit better and some topics should have been discussed in greater detail. But in general, I really enjoyed the course and found the two instructors very likable.
Very interesting course and most video's are fun to watch.
Only the video's with a lot of interviews or where they switch all the time between skype conversations I sometimes find a bit boring, or I think the duration is too long.
Too many peer-viewed assignment
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What a timely and important course! In comparison to ninety percent of the other courses we all take this is so much more important over the long term for ourselves, our shared planet, and the other species we inhabit the world with. My thanks to everyone who worked and helped on making this course possible. Dr Quincy