Course Description
Course develops students’ quantitative reasoning skills to interpret and analyze socio-scientific issues, enabling them to critically evaluate information in novel and evolving contexts. Combining data analysis and investigative and interrogative inquiry, students will explore how data are produced, refined, and applied in the public sphere.
Athena Title
Data Literacy for Citizenship
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students will develop curiosity as a disposition as they evaluate conclusions drawn from quantitative data and consider multiple perspectives.
- Students will apply mathematical and quantitative reasoning to socio-scientific issues across disciplines and contexts.
- Students will interpret, analyze, and critically evaluate representations of quantitative data.
- Students will evaluate and communicate quantitative arguments effectively.
- Students will review, evaluate, and critique media and public narratives including the use of quantitative data in those narratives.
- Students will explore the use of technologies to understand their benefits and constraints in evaluating arguments including their use of quantitative data.
Topical Outline
- Each socio-scientific issue will be considered from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Sample relevant topics include but not limited to: probability and risk in insurance, health, and finance metrics; wealth concentration and monetary policy; big data, surveillance, and algorithms; population and migration trends; disease spread and epidemics/pandemics; consumer decisions; and energy use.
- I. Introduction to Quantitative Reasoning, Logic, and Critical Thinking
- II. Understanding and Interpreting Quantitative Data Representations Across Disciplines
- III. Evaluating Scientific, Social, and Economic Claims using Quantitative Reasoning.
- IV. Exploring Narratives and Numbers within News, Social Media, and Government Sources by pairing Quantitative Data with Qualitative Interpretation
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
