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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Science Literacy by University of Alberta

4.4
stars
255 ratings

About the Course

Fake news or good science? In a world where we have access to unlimited information, it is hard to sift through the echo chamber of opinions fueled by emotions and personal biases, rather than scientific evidence. Science Literacy will teach you about the process of science, how to think critically, how to differentiate science from pseudoscience, how indigenous wisdom can inform science, how to understand and design a scientific study, and how to critically evaluate scientific communication in the media. Every module will build your new skill-base with real life examples, and at the end of each module you will have to apply these skills to scientific questions, talking points and controversies in the world. Warning: this course requires an open mind and the ability to self-reflect. In Science Literacy, you’ll hear from special guests: Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy and star of Netflix’s “A User's Guide to Cheating Death” on pseudoscience Dr. Torah Kachur, Scientist and CBC journalist on science communication (and miscommunication!) Christian Nelson, Citizen Scientist and creator of Edmonton Weather Nerdery, on experimental design Metis Elder Elmer Ghostkeeper and Cree Elder Kokum Rose Wabasca, on the holistic nature of Indigenous wisdom and how it can work with the scientific process Associate Professor in Psychology, Dr. David Rast on uncertainty and decision making...

Top reviews

SL

Jan 1, 2021

This course was practical, informative and presented in an engaging manner. Anyone who wants to increase their science literacy or brush up their skills will find this course valuable.

AG

Aug 26, 2021

A course that is fit for the times. Excellent resource for teachers like myself to help develop ideas to help high school students develop scientific and critical literacy.

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26 - 50 of 90 Reviews for Science Literacy

By Marcelo G

Apr 12, 2021

El Curso me resultó más que enriquecedor, ampliando conocimientos y fundamentos esenciales aplicables a diferentes campos no sólo el científico

By Flavio G

Dec 16, 2020

A lot of interesting things for a (scientifically) illitterate as I am.

Relatively easy to follow, despite of my italian mother tongue. :-)

By Methsara B

Nov 16, 2021

What an insightful and informative course. Broadened the knowledge about timely topics and how to look at problems in a scientific eye.

By Jim&Noreen

Mar 3, 2021

very useful for critically analyzing news articles, credentials and understanding personal biases. Great course!

By Jorge B R

Feb 7, 2022

It is a course, where everything is explained very simply and you learn things that will be useful for life

By Nathalie R

Nov 28, 2020

Feeling more comfortable around other people when we our discussion is about scientific studies.

By Douglas W

Mar 15, 2021

Great mix of reading, video and practice tools. It was a challenging and entertaining course.

By Wendy L C

Nov 19, 2020

Learning the ability to think critically is tough. This course is a great way to start.

By Alexandre G

Jun 11, 2024

Curso fundamental para pesquisadores aprenderem sobre o raciocínio científico!

By Martin D

Oct 3, 2022

Helped a lot in trying to think critically in this new age of misinformation.

By Rizzalie L J R

Dec 5, 2020

The best course that I have taken. Thank you! WIll always think critically.

By Jay G D

Jan 21, 2021

Thank you very much. This course is so timely. I highly recommend this.

By Steve M

Dec 1, 2020

Well put together with great examples and loved the videos!

By Ashutosh M

Oct 11, 2024

This is a new and interesting course related to science.

By Tajbibi S

May 5, 2021

An eye opener course. Except for drag and drop

By Marisol M

Oct 5, 2021

It was truly transformational! thank you

By Judith R

Jan 9, 2021

excellent instruction and presentations

By Atang M

Nov 10, 2022

The best course. What an insight!

By Daniele F

Sep 22, 2021

didático, digerível e rico.

By Namiz M

May 5, 2023

Thanks very much!

By R.E. o

Sep 10, 2020

very interesting

By AGUSTIN G C

Apr 19, 2022

excellent

By Eb S

Oct 4, 2024

Great

By Niels L

Oct 16, 2023

Good!

By Susan K

May 2, 2023

1) It's a bit of a weird mix of assuming you know science reasonably well and assuming you know nothing... I'm not sure if that's an issue with the course itself or an issue with how/if corsera maybe tries to level the type of learning it feeds you. 2) They have a thing where they ask you to match comments under headings - I found this really hard - also there is no way to go back an reorganize the info, if you want to figure out the right answer you have to re-do the whole thing. For some types of information this made sense (like ID and categorize the problem statements and the solution statements). But for others this made absolutely zero sense (like ID which statement is from a conclusion or a methods section..... note: the article we read did not have well defined conclusion and methods sections and the different statements didn't actually match to where they were in the article, nor the type of statement you would write if you were writing a conclusion or method or discussion or abstract.... I'm still not sure how they put things where, and ended up doing that part by scientific elimination logic. Test the hypothesis it goes in place A, if not place A try place B, keep notes so you can rearrange multiple spots at once. They need to fix that - because it was frustrating and no learning happened. Severe mismatch between type of testing and info type provided there. In other places the matching was kind of fun - because the logic of what you are placing where made sense. Like the name the fallacy statements... it made the fallacy section fun.3) There were a number of broken links where I had to go looking on Youtube for the video - I think I found the correct ones... but dudes - it's a university level course, they need to fix those. Plus one video that was completely missing any links at all. I'm going to chalk that up to a platform failure not a course failure.... but the people who made the course need to get that fixed.Finally - did I learn stuff - yes I did. It was also a great review of things I already knew. I wish there had been more concrete instruction around the communicating science module - it was very surface level stuff - which was a disappointment, but otherwise it was tons of fun. I'm giving this an 8/10, with an acknowledgement that it might be really frustrating for a non-science or non-academic to take... especially given the missing links and stuff.