The following is an incomplete list of topics covered in the course.

• Scientific knowledge
• Hypothesis testing
• Observations and measurements
• Experiments
• Models
• Statistical reasoning
• Causes and explanations
• Philosophy of social science
• Philosophy of technology
• Risk and risk assessment
• Research ethics

After having completed the course, the student should, with regards to the theory and methodology of science, both orally as well as in writing, be able to:

• Identify definitions and descriptions of concepts, theories and problem areas, as well as identify the correct application of these concepts and theories.
• Account for concepts, theories and general problem areas, as well as apply concepts and theories to specific cases.
• Critically discuss the definitions and applications of concepts and theories as they applies to specific cases of scientific research.

After having completed the course, the student should also, both orally as well as in writing, be able to (for all students except noted below):

• Summarise and present research reports or scientific articles in a way that makes them accessible to a non-expert audience.
• Account for standard structural and qualitative criteria for scientific writing and apply these to research reports or scientific articles.
• Identify and critically discuss specific theoretical and methodological problems in research reports or scientific articles.

For students from the master’s programme medical engineering (TMLEM):

• Account for and apply the most common theories and methods of applied ethics and account for their relevance for medical technology.
• Carry out independent moral reflections concerning practical problems in the ethics of medical technology.

11 pre-recorded video lectures. For each lecture, except lecture 1, there is a non-mandatory quiz and a text transcription. The videos are included in the schedule but can be watched at another date or time.

4 seminars.  Each seminar is about the contents of some of the video lectures and some course texts. Before each seminar there is a mandatory quiz. The seminar consists of instruction and group discussions. The seminars start course week 3, one seminar each week. There are several groups to choose from. Group choice is done in Canvas when the course starts. The seminars are done through Zoom.

4 essay submissions, 3 peer reviews. Step by step you will learn both how to popularize the content of a scientific article in your field of study, and to use the course concepts to point our methodological strengths and weaknessess. The final end product is an essay you write with people from your master programme (if possible). This part starts with a pre-recorded lecture. There are no mandatory meetings. 

This course includes the following eleven lectures. They are all available as videos on Canvas to watch whenever you want. Their place in the schedule is a suggestion of when you might view it.

1. Introduction and scientific knowledge (26 minutes)
2. Scientific inferences (59 minutes)
3. Observation and measurement (76 minutes)
4. Experiments (49 minutes)
5. Models (62 minutes)
6. Statistics (62 minutes)
7. Explanations and causes (81 minutes)
8. Engineering design (76 minutes)
9. Qualitative methods (93 minutes)
10. Research Ethics (103 minutes)
11. Anticipating risk in science and engineering (85 minutes)

From the second lecture onward, there is an associated quiz of 15 questions. If you complete the quiz with at least 14 points, you will get 0,5 bonus points for the exam. You can attempt to complete the quiz as many times as you like until it closes. This quiz closes at the end of the week where the lecture is scheduled (Sunday, 23:59, of each week). This is to incentivise studying throughout the course, rather than only at the end. Bonus points collected during this period are valid for the exam and the re-exam belonging to this period.

This course includes these four mandatory seminars.

1. Definitions, operationalizations and hypotheses (course week 3)
2. Designing a scientific study (course week 4)
3. Interpretation, analysis, and evidence (course week 6)
4. Research ethics (course week 7).

For each seminar, there are texts to read and a quiz to complete before you take the seminar. You need 14 points on the quiz before attending. If you attend without having scored 14 points on the quiz, you are not sufficiently prepared, and you will not be marked as attending. You can take the quiz as many times as you want before your seminar.

You will take one seminar each seminar week. You join a seminar group on Canvas, under the heading “People”. If you cannot see the heading, make sure you have registered. You will then take the rest of the seminars with this group, the same day of the week and the same time of day each week. You are welcome to join a seminar group that is not in your own schedule, given that the group is not named “only for:…”. There is more information about the seminars in the document “Seminar information” on Canvas.

This course inlcudes four mandatory essay submissions and three peer-reviews of other students submissions. The first two submissions are done individually, and the last two (a preliminary version of the essay, and the final version) are done together with other students from your master programme. If there are too few students, you will submit an individually written essay.

You will work with a published scientific article from your field of study (which we provide). You will first poularize one concept from the article, and peer review someone else's text. You will then point out one methodological strength and one methodological weakness of the text, and peer review another student who has written about the same article. You will then join forces and work in groups of 3-5 students and write a text where you popularize the content of the article for a general audience, as well as dicuss all strengths and weaknessess of the article. You then individually peer review another group's submission and re-work the feedback you get into a final, fourth submission. More detailed information can be found on canvas.

Schema VT-2021-PERIOD-3-2
Schema VT-2021-PERIOD-4

Literature

There are two main course texts:

• Experiments, models and methodology by Till Grüne-Yanoff. Based on the video lectures. This text will be expanded throughout the course in period 4, 2021, to cover all topics in the course.
• The Art of Doing Science by Sven Ove Hansson.

In addition, there are three supplemental texts:

• Some Issues in the Philosophy of Technology, by Sven Ove Hansson.
• On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research, which is an excerpt from a text by the National Academy of Sciences.
• Ethical Thinking by Jesper Ahlin.

All are available in the file format pdf from the Canvas pages. They cannot be bought as physical books, but you are welcome to print them. On the Canvas page “Reading instructions” you can see which sections to read for the lectures. There are also texts for the seminars, see the document “Seminar information” on Canvas.

Students at KTH with a permanent disability can get support during studies from Funka:

Funka - compensatory support for students with disabilities

A, B, C, D, E, FX, F

• PRO1 - Project, 3.0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• SEM1 - Seminars, 1.5 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• TENA - Examination, 3.0 credits, Grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

A student may request a home exam, with the maximum grade of E, if two requirements are fulfilled: (1) This is the last remaining exam left before graduation. (2) It is not possible for the student to attend the written exam because the student is, at the point of the request, residing outside of Sweden and will be residing outside of Sweden for at least twelve months following the request. The examiner approves or denies these requests.

Seminars (SEM1)

There are four seminars, all mandatory. To pass a seminar you need to:

• read the required material
• watch the required videos
• pass a seminar quiz
• actively participate in the seminar

During a seminar you should be able to explain the course concepts for that seminar and use them correctly as well as discuss their definitions and uses with peers. The seminars are  learning activities and thus is is acceptable to, for example, have misunderstood a concept when preparing for the seminar. The teachers are there to help. However, it is not acceptable to attend the seminar without proper preparation or to remain quiet during the entire seminar.

Examination (TENA)

The examination is based on the 11 lectures and the 4 seminars, as well as the course literature. It is given in Canvas on the date and time indicated in the schedule. It consist of three parts. The first part is a multiple choice part asking you to identify the definitions and applications of course concepts. The second part is an essay part where you are to submit computer written answers to two problems. In this part you are asked to account for the course concepts, apply them to examples and discuss their definitions up to the skills required for the grade C. The third part is an optional essay part where you choose one out of three problems where you are asked to account for, apply and discuss course concepts to show skills equivalent to the grade levels B and A. This part is only corrected if the student achieves the grade C on parts 1&2. 

The exam is open-book, which means that one is allowed to use the course literature when answering the questions. Plagiarism is not allowed and any citations, even from the course literature, must be marked as such. Co-operation is not allowed.

During the course there are 10 non-mandatory quizzes, one for each video lecture. These quizzes tests the students ability to identify the correct definition and application of the course concepts. Passing these quizzes awards bonus points, 0,5 point per lecture. These points are added to the part 1 exam score and capped at the maximum for that part. These points are valid for the exam and re-exam belonging to the period and year when they were collected. One may collect points valid for another exam by re-registering for that period and re-taking the quizzes.

Project ( PRO1 )

To pass the project part you need to submit Block 1-3 according to the instructions. Failing to submit or if the text cannot be approved means passing the project in its entirety. This includes the peer reviews. For the final submission, students may be asked to revise a text that almost fulfill the criteria for P. 

Fullfilled seminar requirements, project requirements and written exam.