This page provides a brief summary of the course Bob will teach in Winter Semester 2024/25 at the University of Tübingen. The course is called Being a Scientist: Making Meaning by Making Science.
Some content was previewed in the talk given at the IMPRS-IS bootcamp on 20 September 2024. (slides)
If you have a University of Tübingen log-in (i.e. you are enrolled as a student) you can access the course Moodle page.
Format
The course will be delivered through interactive lectures. Each weekly session will involve me presenting some ideas, and then having a brief interactive discussion. There will be some weekly readings provided in advance.
Official Stuff
Course number (degree level): ML-4702 (Master)
Type of course: Lecture + tutorial (4 SWS; 6 ECTS credit points)
Frequency: Initially in WS 2024/5. Depending upon reception, I may make it regular.
Language: English (exclusively)
Summary
This page sketches a course plan for a new lecture course that will be based around the book I am currently writing with Kylie Catchpole (ANU). The book (and hence the course) focuses on the subjective experience of being a scientist. It is not a mechanical how-to. We do not talk about how to do statistics, or conduct experiments or write papers or grant proposals. Rather we discuss, and provide insights and tools to help scientists live a more meaningful life in doing science from their own subjective experience. To that end, we have organised the book (and thus the course) around three broad headings (corresponding to chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the book):
- Ways of looking at science What are the different ways of looking at science, and how does that affect how one feels about it and approaches it? As well as the traditional ways (science as knowledge or science as institution); a particular focus will be on science as personal – the view of science from the subjective experience of the working scientist.
- Ways of doing science We examine a range of questions such as: How do you choose a good question? What happens when you get stuck? What are the cognitive tools that help you do better science? How does your attitude to science affect what you do? How do you cope with failure and getting stuck? How do you navigate and thrive in the social side of science?
- Ways of making meaning This directly addresses the personal and emotional challenges of being a scientist, and what one can do about them. How to deal with the inevitable crap? How to raise yourself above the menial side of things to attain some transcendence and create meaning for yourself by doing science?
The Tutorials will be organised around a series of questions which will be posed in advance. Students should come prepared to discuss the questions.
Objectives / Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course, it is expected / desired that students will:
- Be able to better articulate their own motivations for doing science.
- Describe the many different ways of looking at science, and explain how that shapes the way science is done.
- Describe different approaches to doing science, and have mastered some generic cognitive tools and stances to help do science better.
- Have had practice in shaping and refining their scientific quest, and be able to articulate what makes a good quest.
- Be able to enumerate many of the headaches (“apparent necessities”) of being a scientist and have learned some strategies for dealing with them.
- Be able to create a sense of personal meaning in their approach to doing science.
Audience (who is the course for?)
We have explicitly imagined an ideal reader of our book as a young scientist, perhaps at the beginning of their PhD, or postdoc. But we think the material would actually be helpful for budding scientists even earlier, so I am offering this as a master’s course, but expecting, and encouraging, interested PhD students to attend. A small warm up was done at the IMPRS-IS bootcamp in 2023, in the form of a 2-hour tutorial which was over-subscribed and for which I got very positive feedback. The book also forms the basis of a special lecture at the forthcoming IMPRS-IS bootcamp (September 2024).
I envisage many students in computer science being interested, but there is nothing tied to computer science in the content of the course so would be happy to have any students (Masters/PhD) studying science in Tübingen to participate. The course has been approved as an elective for the ML masters. Students should be about to, or have just started on a research project. One of the assessment items will involve exploring each student’s ‘scientist’s quest’
Prerequisites
This is course for advanced master students who are already doing science, that is, they are about to, or have just started on a concrete research project. Enrollment will be via the Moodle page.
Assessment (tentative)
Below is my current thinking about the assessment. This will be finalised at the beginning of the course.
Project 50%
This would be wholly focussed on questions; so no solutions or results, which is what the thesis would be graded on. Essentially a research proposal; perhaps with an appendix reflecting on what lessons were leaned upon from the course material.
Essay 30%
A traditional academic essay on particular aspects of the course. Say 10 pages.
Reflection 20%
What have you learned from the course. Needs to be personal and directly engage with the subjective side of things.