Overview
This course provides the skills and tools for graduate students in environmental sciences need to develop critical thinking skills, to engage in scientific research, and to design scientific research projects. Students will learn how to develop, define, and refine research questions and hypotheses that are relevant to scientific disciplines.
Various approaches to experimental design will be discussed, with an emphasis on environmental science applications. Students will learn how to disseminate scientific information in the form of scientific articles, oral presentations, and research posters in environmental science and related fields. Students in this course are expected to have basic skills in information literacy (i.e., the ability to find literature relevant to their research). This skill will be refined during the course.
This course will also address the mutual interactions between science and society. It concludes by exploring ethical considerations that should guide and, in some cases, limit scientific research design and research practice.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to
- engage in critical thinking in scientific research and beyond.
- write manuscripts that adhere to international standards in scientific publications.
- critically analyze relevant literature in environmental science or related fields.
- present research data to various audiences through oral or poster presentations.
- synthesize research questions and develop clear research hypotheses.
- develop a scientific research proposal in your particular discipline.
- practice ethical principles in scientific research.
Evaluation
To receive credit for ENSC 680, you must achieve a course composite grade of at least B− (70 percent) and a grade of at least B− (70 percent) on the research proposal.
The weighting of these grades is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Assignment 1: Analysis and critique | 15% |
| Assignment 2: Oral presentation | 20% |
| Assignment 3: Research poster | 20% |
| Assignment 4: Reflection | 10% |
| Participation | 10% |
| Research project proposal | 25% |
| Total | 100% |
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Valiela, I. (2009). Doing science: Design, analysis, and communication of scientific research (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.