Why aren't non STEM degrees not obligated to have one class teaching about the scientific method? Fuck it, even STEM degrees should.
There are people in my country that aren't exposed to science (only math) since they were 15yo (9th grade). The amount of stupid shit people believe is retarded, and I'm pretty sure every stupid belief they have is because they don't understand the scientific method.
Even a girl in my biology degree, believes in stupid shit. Like chemtrails for example, she spams facebook with that shit. How are these people allowed in a STEM field in the first place? I've linked her a video, where a guy has a book ON FUCKING CLOUDS explaining and debunking chemtrails. She said it was a good opinion.
TL;DR - Give me a good reason why people in non STEM fields shouldn't have a class explaining the scientific method in depth.
>>7958552
Because college doesn't make you smarter. It just gives you more information.
>>7958552
read any philosophy of science work and you'll find out that the scientific method is fundamentally flawed
>>7958555
A big part of college is learning to evaluate and learn things yourself. What OP is suggesting would be useful in that context.
I'll give you guys another example.
The other day I saw the mother of a friend of mine post on facebook a supposedly new study providing evidence that GMO's case cancer. I open the link and I'm sent to a brazilian (I live in Portugal fyi) website with a 90's design, and very poorly written without even sourcing the actual paper.
Well, the website was talking about a paper written at least 3 years ago. It was that very controversial paper entitled "Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant GM maize" that basically had a low sample size and reached a erroneous conclusion, where male rats drinking herbicide lived longer than rats that didn't drink it (again, a conclusion reached because of the low sample size).
This woman isn't educated in science, I'm almost sure she's into economics or something related. How could explain to her this in a way she would comprehend and not dismissing me completely?
If people don't understand how science is made and how conclusions are reached, then they won't trust it.
>>7958600
Magical thinking vs rational thinking.
Image from irrational thinking.
>>7958600
I think I recognize this situation from you posting about it like a year or half a year ago.
If she still acts the same after all that time, then I think you should just ditch your friend and find smarter friends.
My father is a civil engineer. I'm sure he's taken a lot of classes about the scientific method and I know he's very smart. He's won a few awards for his achievements throughout his life and now has a leadership position where he works. However, over the years he's become more socially isolated and I've seen him slowly lose his grasp on reality. He now believes in secret Jewish cabals, that radio waves cause cancer, and many other ridiculous theories. I think humans are fundamentally ineffective at thinking logically, and we only retain a logical mindset if we interact with others who share that mode of thinking.
>>7958552
Lots of unis have mandatory science courses for non-STEM majors and the scientific method isn't worth having an entire course on it because you should already know that shit from middle school.
>>7958552
We're forced to take their useless bullshit humanities courses, we should force them to learn the scientific method and at least calc II so that all the "im not a math person XD!!" faggots dont graduate until they stop being retarded.
>>7958600
The problem is not the uneducated public but that scientists can't agree on anything. Who is saying GMOs cause cancer? Scientists that's who. How are plebs supposed to differentiate between the good scientists and the tinfoil ones?
>>7958640
I haven't posted anything about this here in /sci/ or anywhere else. Must have been another anon.
I say friends as in "I know that guy". I don't speak to any of the people I've talked about here.
>>7958651
>He now believes in secret Jewish cabals
He needs to stop going to /pol/
Now seriously, that's kinda sad to read.
My dad for example, gives some credibility to the ancient aliens show. He isn't an engineer but he should be smarter than someone who believes in that crap. I feel you man.
>>7958652
The course could be more diverse and explain other related stuff.
People in middle school are so young to even think critically about science, specially the ones that aren't thinking of following STEM fields.
>>7958666
checked satan
But isn't that a very important part of science? Being able to challenge ideas set in stone? Challenge your own ideas, and be skeptical about what you really believe?
I understand the point you are making, there's a lot of people with that reasoning, but that's something that should be talked more with non STEM degrees.
