The Future of Handwriting
In Fall of 2021, the 100 or so students in Greg Niemeyer’s “L&S 25: Creativity in Practice” course responded to a simple prompt with urgent creativity. The prompt: Write a note from the future to the present, by hand. …
Curious About Big Ideas?
One of my favorite parts about attending UC Berkeley is being challenged to learn and think in fun and unexpected ways. There are so many opportunities for this, including one I particularly enjoyed: Big Ideas Courses from the College of Letters & Science (L&S). …
Misinformation in and about science
Public engagement and understanding of science should be a priority for all scientists. This is not a matter of just teaching more astronomy or biology. Rather, it involves nurturing innate curiosity and teaching people to understand how science works, how to consider evidence when making conclusions, and how popular media distorts these conclusions. In our […]
What Makes Science Science?
In an undergraduate course that I’m teaching this semester, we introduce students to an unconventional definition of science. The course, Letters & Sciences 22: Sense and Sensibility and Science, comes from an interdisciplinary collaboration between a philosopher (John Campbell), a social psychologist (Robert MacCoun), a Nobel-prize-winning physicist (Saul Perlmutter), and a cognitive scientist (me). …
‘Blind analysis’ could reduce bias in social science research
A course on critical thinking at UC Berkeley, co-taught for the past three years by a public policy expert and a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, has generated a new proposal to remove sources of bias in research and improve confidence in published studies. Social science research got a black eye recently when the authors of several […]
Scholars discuss value of liberal arts at inaugural symposium
Just hours before the Friday inaugural ceremony of a chancellor who has championed the value of a liberal arts degree, a number of visiting scholars and campus professors came together in a panel discussion about the importance and challenges of creating a well-rounded undergraduate education. …
L&S ‘Big Ideas Courses’ aim to inspire faculty, students alike
What happens when you bring together some of the campus’s best professors — from completely different disciplines — one “big idea” and a room full of bright Berkeley undergraduates? That’s just what the College of Letters and Science plans to find out this spring, when it will launch five innovative new “Big Ideas Courses” on […]
College of Letters and Sciences has ‘Big Ideas’ for undergraduate education
UC Berkeley students interested in exploring the world of educational possibilities will have another door open to them — the Big Ideas course program. …