UCM Offers Free 'Experiencing Science in the Pandemic' Course in Collaboration with Iranian University

The University of Central Missouri (UCM), in collaboration with Shahid Rajaee University in Iran, will offer a free four-week continuing education course, Experiencing Science in the Pandemic. The online course includes 14 contact hours starting with a six-hour workshop from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 11. Online weekly classes will start on July 14, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. (Tehran, local time) Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Since the reading assignments are offered in English, participants must be competent in reading English. The classroom discussion and writing assignments are offered in Farsi. Pre-registration is required.

Dr. Mo Basir, UCM associate professor and science education program coordinator, will be the course’s instructor. Dr. Basir and UCM also offered this course last spring with close to 60 people participating.

“In a world full of misinformation and pseudoscience, specifically during this coronavirus pandemic, it is crucial to trust in science,” Dr. Basir said. “Science as a way of knowing enables us to handle unknown situations, such as the current pandemic, more effectively in comparison with other forms of knowing.”

The course will provide an environment in which students experience science as they are making sense of 20 novel phenomena related to coronavirus and its pandemic effects. Students will pose hypotheses to answer each question and consequently conduct research to decide whether to accept or reject their hypotheses. Each question will be discussed in detail in the following session.

Skills included are scientific reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving, developing and testing hypotheses and developing arguments from evidence. The online class is open to anyone throughout the world.

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