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ETHI-F301

Science et Société : analyse de controverses scientifiques

academic year
2023-2024

Course teacher(s)

Patrick MARDULYN (Coordinator) and Grégoire Wallenborn

ECTS credits

5

Language(s) of instruction

french

Course content

Search for scientific articles to assess the state of knowledge on different subjects associated with contemporary society debates; Critical assessment of articles from the scientific literature; Developing your own opinion on a society debate; Topics that are discussed change every year, and are usually related to current events (e.g., use of GMOs in agriculture, toxicity of glyphosate, personal genomics, causes of global warming, risks related to vaccination, effects of 5G on human health and the environment ...)

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

Discover how scientific research works; discover the reality and complexity of the scientific debate; develop a critical mind; learn to assess the state of scientific knowledge on a specific subject, then develop your own opinion regarding a contemporary society debate; learn to analyze a public debate: identify and verify the facts presented, point out any contradictions, omissions, or abusive interpretations

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

no required knowledge

Teaching methods and learning activities

Analysis of television debates, documentaries and media articles; Search and critical assessment of articles from the scientific literature; Group discussions; Discussions with guest experts who present their opinion on a debate; Debates; Personal work to be handed in, the evaluation of which may contribute to the final grade of the course.

Course notes

  • Université virtuelle

Other information

Contacts

Patrick Mardulyn (patrick.mardulyn@ulb.be) and Grégoire Wallenborn (gregoire.wallenborn@ulb.be)

Campus

Plaine

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

  • Project

Project

One personal written project + one group project either to be presented orally or in written form

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

Projects evaluation

Language(s) of evaluation

  • french
  • (if applicable english )

Programmes