Chapter 1: The Scientific Method
Who are you?
Tell us a little bit about yourself. (Name, Rank, Serial Number, Why are you taking this class, etc.).
As a geographer - Describe to what extent you believe your approach to the discipline is scientific and to what extent is your approach is not scientific? Also, do you consider yourself to be a scientist or not and why?
Instructor Post:
Thanks for the intro. It really does help to have a little bit of an idea about you as I teach this class. However, since I don't have faces tied to these little bios my memory will scramble you folks up a bit. Cathy will become a weather forecaster from LA and Pete will be a process engineer in the semi-conductor industry. Anyway - A little bit about me:
I meant to ask you to tell me a little bit about yourselves in this first thread. That part of my post must have been lost in the vortex… anyway here is a little bit about me
I got a B.S. in chemistry from Union College in upstate NY. I'm a southern cal boy who grew up starting in Laurel Canyon (hollywood hills) and later in Santa Barbara. I taught high school for a while in SB but the vow of poverty was too much and I opted for the fat paychecks in the semi-conductor industry at Santa Barbara Research Center, then Hughes Aircraft then Raytheon. Big paychecks but only two weeks of vacation a year and working in rooms with no windows, generating toxic waste to make weapons. Working as a process engineer in the aerospace industry was not really what I wanted to be when I grew up. Had a spiritual/career awakening and went to grad school at UCSB in Geography. First job here at DU. Love being a geographer. Love the cool questions I can explore with GIS and Remote Sensing. I consider myself a scientist yet maintain that the most important questions in life are outside of the domain of science. Sadly, I think humanity as a whole answers both science questions and non-science questions rather poorly. That is why the world is overpopulated, polluted, and violent. I hope to make my small contributions to the improvement of the human condition by using science to demonstrate that the world is polluted, overpopulated, and consequently violent. Wish me luck. I think it is very interesting how many strange similarities there are between me and each of you in some respect. Chemistry degrees, working as an engineer in industry, etc. I hope this class serves your needs.
Cheers,
Paul
Natural Science, Social Science, and the Humanities
Classify the following questions as to being in the domain of Natural Science, Social Science, or the Humanities (combination answers are ok). Also characterize these questions as normative or objective.
1) What is the best form of government for human society?
2) Does smoking reduce life expectancy?
3) What is love?
4) Does God exist?
5) How much CO2 can the world's oceans absorb?
6) What is the human carrying capacity of the planet earth?
7) What elements and minerals exist at the very center of earth?
8) How do real estate prices vary as a function of distance from the downtown?
9) How can pine beetle damage be prevented in Colorado?
10) How has the adoption of catalytic converters changed the spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric carbon monoxide concentration in Los Angeles?
Instructor Post:
The answers to these questions are not always hard and fast.
Most of you came up with pretty much the same answers which seemed
reasonable to me. I found it interesting that very few of you answered the
carrying capacity of the earth question as Natural Science / Objective.
I think it is a Natural Science / Objective question. Clearly there can be some
Debates about some of these.
Are we all brains in jars?
Suppose someone claimed that the true nature of reality is that our experience of being conscious, mobile human bodies on the surface of the earth is WRONG and that really we are merely brains in jars on a giant shelf somewhere (perhaps in a manner similar to the movie The Matrix). And,. our sense that we actually control our physical bodies is only an illusion. Comment on the 'Scientific' nature of such a proposition. Is this kind of hypothesis a scientific one? Why or Why not? (every student in the class should post a one paragraph response to each thread of each discussion board).
Instructor Post: I liked your postings on our first discussion board. One comment I wanted to make is about the 'Could we all be brains in jars' question as a scientific proposition. I will riff on this a tad. Basically I would argue that this is not a very scientific proposition because it fails the 'Realist Philosophy' metaphysical belief of most scientists. Most of us believe that we are sentient biped animals on the surface of a planet we call earth. Of course - it is not completely impossible that we are 'brains in jars' or some other 'Matrix-like' entities. However, the burden of proof is on those who make such a wild claim and noone has really succeeded in doing so. Most of us still believe we are pretty smart apes on planet earth. We have to go with that until convinced otherwise. This is really the point that Garrett Hardin was making in his paramount principles paper. Make some important claims and challenge the rest of the world to prove you wrong. Thou shall not exceed the carrying capacity ideas. Physics has succeeded in this. The 2nd law of thermodynamics is pretty much accepted as true. Nobody has proven it wrong by developing a perpetual motion machine or some other means of 'falsifying' the 2nd law. This is how 'theories' work. Note also that stating that there is an unknowable God who designed the universe is just as unscientific as stating that we are all brains in jars. There may be a God but those ideas and arguments are outside the domain of ‘science’ as it is typically practiced.
Chapter 2: Fundamental Research Concepts Research Methods Discussion board
What is a paradox anyway?
Define the word 'Paradox' and provide an example. Also, explore the various combinations of the ideas of discrete and continuous space and time as they pertain to Zeno's four paradoxes. Are any of them TRUE paradoxes? Explain.
Correlation is not causality
A social scientist finds that there is a correlation between the percentage of students at a given elementary school recieving the 'Free Lunch Program' and the percentage of students that 'Do not meet standards' on the CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) standardized test. The Governor sees these results and concludes he has a 'Win-Win' opportunity here: CUT the Free Lunch program. This will 1) Lower Taxes AND 2) Lower the fraction of children who fail the CSAP test. Comment on this little vignette in the context of the statement: "Correlation is not Causality".
Instructor Post: The social scientist has done nothing wrong. Noting the correlation is interesting and potentially informative to policy etc. The conclusion of the governor is erroneous. The free lunch progam is most likely a proxy measure of other 'confounding variables' that are difficult to measure. These 'confounding variables' (poverty, single parent homes, time spent with children reading, etc.) may be more directly 'causal'. It is very unlikely that the free lunch program is causal in this situation.
Is Evolution Falsifiable?
Most of you are probably familiar with the on-going and perhaps eternal debates about Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster (http://www.venganza.org/). It is an interesting debate with some interesting twists. The scientific method IS the scientific method BECAUSE it allows itself to EVOLVE. So there are some strange self-referential kinds of curves here. Creationism is basically a NON-EVOLVING statement of truth by fiat. Nonetheless - the THEORY of EVOLUTION (as posited by Charles Darwin back in his 1859 classic: The Origin of Species) is an interesting one to consider from a scientific perspective. In traditional 'philosophy of science' parlance a 'THEORY' should be Falsifiable. It is an interesting question to ask whether or not Evolution (the set of ideas that there is natural variation, some varieties are more suited to survive than others, these varieties tend to reproduce, etc.) is a falsifiable theory. Comment on whether or not you think the theory of evolution is falsifiable - If you think it is provide examples of what would constitute a 'disproof' of the theory of evolution. Also, comment on this question as it pertains to the ongoing debate about evolution and creationism.
Instructor Post:
Janine’s Answer was good: Homo Sapiens skeleton next to stegosaurus bones would be problematic. I’ve heard evolutionary biologists say: “housecats in the Pleistocene” and other such empirical observations would be very problematic for the theory of evolution.
Evolution is a funny one:
Interesting Article in the Scientist
http://www.the-scientist.com/newsletter/etoc/20100101.html
Chatpers 3 & 4 Research Methods Discussion Board
Geodesy – What is it anyway?
What is Geodesy, and what are some basic geodetic properties that are measured? How important are geodetic measurements to your particular inquiry? Explain.
Instructor Post: Geodesy is some of the technical substrate of Geography. Your answers are all pretty right on. there are interesting military and historical stories about geodesy. A cool book that is an easy read is Taylor MOrrison's: The Coast Mappers - a story about the early days of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A lot of geodesists were hired by Ohio State University in the post world war two era - paving the foundation of a very positivist and technical department for many years.
What about YOUR research question?
Prepare a short draft of one of your research questions and explain what methods (qualitative or quantitative) and data (primary or secondary) you anticipate you will use to answer your question.
Various Instructor Posts
Parrying Post-Modernists and Postivists Oh My!
What role have ideas about quantitative and qualitative methods played in the 20th century history of geography as an academic discipline? How do geographers who prefer to call themselves scientists tend to feel about ideas of 'meaning' and 'experience' as they pertain to their approach to geographic inquiry?
Instructor Post: I asked this question primarily to make you aware of the broader nature of geography in general. As GIS people we tend to land more in the positivist / scientist domain. Geography departments across the U.S. have different flavors across this spectrum. departments that lean in the positivist direction include places like UCSB, ASU, Univ of Maryland, DU. Post Modernist / Social theory oriented departments would include U of AZ, Kentucky, Minnesota. Different flavors.For more information on this see the Schaeffer - Hartshorne debates.
Chapters 5 & 6 Research Methods Discussion Board
Is census data primary or secondary and is it an explicit report?
Describe the spatial hierarchy of census data. Explain how census data is or is not based on explicit reports and how this related to issues of privacy and confidentiality. Extra Credit: What kind of privacy violations was the census bureau accused of committing in the late 1930's and early 1940's? Were they justified?
Instructor Post (provided by former student Michelle Guzdek):
Census data is a secondary source explicit report data, because it is not collected for a specific research project. To protect privacy, the actual completed forms are not made available for 72 years and the data is aggregated to spatial units designed to keep individual responses private.
Below is an example of the spatial hierarchy for major census units:
Entire United States
Census Regions (four)
Census Divisions (nine)
States (50 plus U.S. Territories)
Counties
County subdivisions
Census Places
Census Tracts
Census Block Groups
Census Blocks
The U.S. Census was accused of being involved with the Japanese internment program by highlighting areas of Japanese concentration as small as city blocks at the onset of the U.S.’s involvement in WWII. It is also recorded that before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR ordered the Census Bureau to collect information on “American-born and foreign-born Japanese”. As to whether they were justified in doing so... If I was in charge after such an attack I may have bent the rules a little also. I would not have used internment camps, but I may collect data and monitor persons of interest. We still do it today! – Opinions on this issue vary dramatically
What is intelligence anyway?
Suppose you are assigned the task of measuring the intelligence of the incoming freshman students at the University of Denver. Explain how you might use existing data(e.g. High School GPA, SAT scores, ACT scores, etc.) OR develop your own test to measure intelligence. Define the 'construct' we call intelligence. Explain how you might plan to measure and code your measuremtns and discuss the reliability and validity of these measures. Finally comment on an experimental design that addresses gender and spatial cognition. Do guys never ask for directions because they have better spatial cognition abilities? How might you design an experiment to answer that question and why might it be a controversial study?
Instructor Post (pretty good answer provided by former student Justin Stein): In the interest of saving money and time it would be essential to use the available data such as High School GPA, SAT or ACT scores and Class Rank.
Intelligence is the measure of cognitive abilities using various tests of reasoning, problem solving, analysis, language and learning. In other words, it encompasses probably too much to effectively measure.
My test would use available data of past performance to assess the overall intellectual quality of the incoming class. In the case of GPA I would attempt to normalize the GPA of students from different schools by establishing a class rank and a mean for each source high school to reduce the effects of grade inflation. In addition to this, it would probably be necessary to also assess each high school's overall quality so as to not punish (or at least misrepresent) those students who worked hard in a difficult program. This would have to be incorporated in the GPA data. The SAT and ACT scores would be easier as they are already designed to be ranked and assessed (hooray for them completing the hard part!) and this data at least can be somewhat reasonably applied as a measure for the students. Using these variables we can then decide on a weight and determine the 'score' each student and establish a curve to represent the students. Of course, an experiment to measure such a nebulous idea is going to be filled with bias (in testing, gpa, high school assessment and weighting) from nearly all aspects of the study. If you wanted to get serious, you could start normalizing the data in other ways to make up for this bias and testing the predictive abilities of your data but that is going to require quite a grant!
In the design of gender and spatial cognition, there have been some prior studies on the way in which individuals of different genders organize directions and space. In the experiment it would be best to incorporate multiple ways of assessing space (ie distance, landmarks, and other forms of mental mapping) and weight the techniques to create an equal measure of spatial cognition across gender boundaries. Easier said than done and ultimately there will be controversy regarding the selection of 'ways' that men and women perceive space, the weighting of spatial measurement and other factors. In the ideal experiment, we would have a system where women and men will rate equally in their spatial cognition and then we can begin to sample spatial cognition of other variables of interest. Another grant will be required.