Scientific and Social Inquiry
A capacity to frame and pursue questions concerning how the world works is essential to becoming responsible, engaged citizens who understand how science, society, and individual lives intersect, and who can navigate contemporary and emerging public debates over social and scientific issues.
While inquiry in the natural sciences explores the forces governing the physical universe, and inquiry in the social sciences examines the interplay of factors driving outcomes in the social world, both pursue answers by collecting and analyzing or interpreting evidence to evaluate competing claims. Through understanding and practicing the methods of scientific and social inquiry, all BU students will develop a broadly informed curiosity about the workings of the physical and social worlds, as well as the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind needed to engage with key challenges facing our species and planet today, such as sustainability, immigration, and globalization. These learning outcomes involve an introduction to major concepts in both scientific and social inquiry, and the opportunity to pursue more advanced evidence-based inquiry in the social or natural sciences or at the intersection of science and society.
Note: For many students, taking a Scientific Inquiry I course before a Scientific Inquiry II course will be a logical sequence. However, depending on the course and on a student’s background, this will not always be the case. Students are not required to take a Scientific Inquiry I course prior to taking a Scientific Inquiry II course. Additionally, a Scientific Inquiry II course may be taken to fulfill the Scientific Inquiry I requirement, allowing the student to use two Scientific Inquiry II courses to fulfill this requirement. The same is true for Social Inquiry.
Scientific Inquiry I
Scientific literacy—both a basic understanding of major concepts in the natural sciences and a grasp of how scientific knowledge is produced and validated—is essential to responsible citizenship and personal autonomy.
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Many of the most vexing problems facing the contemporary world, from the global challenge of climate change to intimate decisions about our own health, demand the capacity to evaluate scientific claims, assess the strengths and weaknesses of prevailing theories, and discriminate between conflicting data and conclusions. These outcomes foster the ability to understand scientific ideas, as well as the skills necessary to formulate working hypotheses, design experimental tests of these hypotheses, and evaluate experimental data.
Learning Outcome
- Students will identify and apply major concepts used in the natural sciences to explain and quantify the workings of the physical world. This will include an introduction to the way that scientists explain complex systems such as living organisms, the Earth, or the Universe.
Scientific Inquiry II
Courses in Scientific Inquiry II build on previous college-level experience with scientific inquiry.
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While all courses in scientific inquiry involve the application of major concepts, learning experiences in Scientific Inquiry II require more advanced application of concepts and methods, including the analysis of data, to frame and address complex problems.
Courses in this area will have at least one of the following learning outcomes.
Learning Outcomes
- Students will apply principles and methods from the natural sciences based on collecting new or analyzing existing data in order to answer questions and/or solve problems. They will understand the nature of evidence employed in the natural sciences and will demonstrate a capacity to differentiate competing claims in such fields. This includes reflecting on and critically evaluating how natural scientists formulate hypotheses, gather empirical evidence of multiple sorts, and analyze and interpret this evidence.
- Using their knowledge of the natural and social sciences, students will engage with issues of public policy, such as climate change, inequality, and health, that involve the intersection of perspectives from different disciplines. This would entail an ability to identify the evidentiary basis for scientific claims, the challenges to it, and the connections among the economic, social, and scientific factors that shape the creation and adoption of effective public policy.
Social Inquiry I
Understanding how social phenomena affect our lives informs our personal and ethical growth by illuminating the societal implications of our individual actions.
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People do not live and work in isolation. Rather, we are embedded in, and move between, multiple complex communities: families, neighborhoods, universities, cities, states, and transnational groups, for example. Our individual choices are significantly shaped by social forces and the social structures in which we act.
Learning Outcome
- Students will identify and apply major concepts used in the social sciences to explain individual and collective human behavior including, for example, the workings of social groups, institutions, networks, and the role of the individual in them.
Social Inquiry II
Courses in Social Inquiry II build on previous college-level experience with social inquiry.
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View Learning Outcomes for Social Inquiry II
While all courses in social inquiry involve the application of major concepts, learning experiences in Social Inquiry II require more advanced application of concepts and methods, such as the analysis of data, to frame and address complex problems.
Courses in this area will have at least one of the following learning outcomes.
Learning Outcomes
- Students will apply principles and methods from the social sciences based on collecting new or analyzing existing data in order to address questions, solve problems, or deepen understanding. They will understand the nature of evidence employed in the social sciences and will demonstrate a capacity to differentiate competing claims in such fields. This includes reflecting on and critically evaluating how social scientists formulate hypotheses, gather empirical evidence of multiple sorts, and analyze and interpret this evidence.
- Using their knowledge of the natural and social sciences, students will engage with issues of public policy, such as climate change, inequality, and health that involve the intersection of perspectives from different disciplines. This would entail an ability to identify the evidentiary basis for scientific claims, the challenges to it, and the connections among the economic, social, and scientific factors that shape the creation and adoption of effective public policy.
