Science Forward 2025
Science Forward 2025
Macaulay Honors College Seminar 3
Meeting Time & Location: HNR3 Monday & Wednesday 9:30 – 10:45 am NAC 4/210
Instructor: Hildegaard Link P.E PhD
(hildegaardl@earthlink.net) (cell – 646 896 4053)
Office Hours: via email, zoom or by appointment in person
Instructional Technology Fellow: Jean H. Park, PhD jean.park@mhc.cuny.edu
Open Lab site: https://openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu/groups/science-forward-2025-link/
*** THE SYLLABUS AND SCHEDULE ARE WORKING DOCUMENTS THAT CHANGE BASED ON STUDENT INTERESTS, CURRENT EVENTS, AND HOW FAST WE WORK THROUGH TOPICS.
PLEASE REFER TO THE WEB SITE FOR THE MOST UPDATED VERSION OF THE SYLLABUS & SCHEDULE –PRINTED VERSIONS MAY BE OUT OF DATE!
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MOST CURRENT SCHEDULE ***
Course Description:
Science Forward will explore the elements of Science Sense in the context of contemporary research and urgent scientific issues impacting New York City. The focus of this class will be climate. We will investigate emerging climate science in the context of New York City, gathering our own data where possible and using publically available data where available. This course will involve field work, data processing and use of on-line tools where possible. It will also involve reading, communicating and data presentation.
We will consider temperature and urban micro-climates, land/water interfaces and extreme weather, precipitation patterns, urban infrastructure and surface water quality and the role of vegetation in modulating urban climate. This class will require students to get out of their comfort zones both working with data and communicating results. Your first field trip will be the Bio Blitz. The Bio Blitz this year will be in Brooklyn Bridge Park, September 13 & 14 sign up here https://openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu/bioblitz/
As a culture, we face the dual challenges of doing “good” science and sharing it so others can use it. It is not enough to state our credentials and our methods, we also need to share our work and our passion so that our efforts are integrated into the larger culture. The 1985 “Bodmer report” notes “Science affects many, if not most, policy issues of national and international importance. It also affects a wide range of personal activities, from health and diet to holidays and sport. . . . Science and technology therefore should be major considerations in public policy. Whether they actually are depends on how far (a) the decision-makers and their advisers, and (b) the public to whom they are ultimately responsible, understand the scientific and technological aspects of each issue . . It also depends on the willingness and the ability of the scientific community to explain these aspects publicly “ (https://royalsociety.org/~/media/Royal_Society_Content/policy/publications/1985/10700.pdf) Doing “Good Science” calls the question of Scientific integrity. Current financial and political pressures reinforce the importance of commitment to science based on reproduceable research and un-altered data.
In addition to developing a firm grasp “Science Sense”, students will build science communication skills that will enable them to share their knowledge with others.
Class Culture
It is important to complete the required assignments before coming to class and think about the parts you find most interesting or most challenging. If you are prepared for class in this way, then we can use class time to address the most difficult aspects of the material and work together to apply the knowledge you have gained. Group work will give you the opportunity to build collaboration skills finding ways to work with people you have little in common with. Our group projects will emphasize personal accountability in a team setting, fair distribution of tasks and effective communication.
Class Culture
It is important to complete the required assignments before coming to class and think about the parts you find most interesting or most challenging. If you are prepared for class in this way, then we can use class time to address the most difficult aspects of the material and work together to apply the knowledge you have gained. Group work will give you the opportunity to build collaboration skills finding ways to work with people you have little in common with. Our group projects will emphasize personal accountability in a team setting, fair distribution of tasks and effective communication.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Students will hone their Science Sense during this course, specifically students will:
- Acquire a proper sense of scale and be able to make order of magnitude estimates with reasonable assumptions.
- Understand and get experience with measurement and data collection through activities in the field (including a BioBlitz common event) and be able to create and communicate their results using graphs and basic statistics.
- Become familiar with proper experimental design and the practice of scientific inquiry.
- Understand that science makes progress and changes through time based upon newly available evidence.
- Practice their critical thinking skills and employ reasonable skepticism.
- Learn how to communicate science to different audiences.
The first two months of class, September and October, we will spend looking at climate issues in New York City. We will consider the NYC climate from an experiential perspective, engage topical scholarship, generate a research question, design an experiment and collect data for each of 4 topics. For each topic small groups of 2 or 3 students will prepare a 2-minute talk on a topical article they have read and present data they have gathered that is relevant to the question. The first class meeting of the module will introduce a topic and create a small group reading project that will be completed in the intervening days and explored fully in the following class meeting. In this way, a given topic will be explored both in and outside of the classroom setting, and both individually and through group work. During the second week of the module we will discuss data sources, design data collection methods and collect data.
At the end of October, students will submit their own questions on the climate topics in NYC and form final project groups focused on shared interests. Groups may contain up to 4 students.
November and December will be dedicated to data analysis and presentation and science communication. We will work with various data analysis and presentation tools and models and develop a comfort level with descriptive statistics and data mapping. Analytical methods will be presented in class and groups will use these methods to analyze their data.
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory at all class meetings (including one 5-hour shift at the BioBlitz and one session of the end of semester poster conference). Attendance and lateness will be recorded in every class meeting. Because participation in small group projects makes up a very large grade component in the class, you will suffer a grade deduction for each unexcused absence and more than two unexcused absences will result in a failing grade. Absences can be excused for religious observances if notification is sent at least a week ahead of time. If you are sick and cannot come to class, you must have a note from Student Health Services or your doctor for it to be excused and you need to tell me you won’t be in class. In all cases of absence, you MUST contact me to get a make-up assignment.
Academic Integrity
You are expected to follow both CCNY guidelines regarding academic integrity
(available here: http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/about/upload/academic_integrity.pdf) and the guidelines put forth in the Macaulay Honors Pledge
(available here: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/community/handbook/policies/honors-integrity/). Plagiarizing the work of others will not be tolerated.
You are expected to be familiar with these policies.
Assignments and Grading
Your success in science forward will be assessed in two primary ways: a participation component and a research/writing component. Participation refers to your performance during in-class discussions and group work *including presentations and data collection assignments*. The presentations will be summaries of topical articles, you will read articles and create summaries in small groups – the rubric for the article summaries is posted on the web site. You and your group will prepare one article summary every 4 days of class. Data collection will also be done in small groups and will involve either field work as in the first two class modules or finding publically available data and posting the data into our class online data repository. Article summaries and data gathering will be material for a semester-long group research project, for which written work will be submitted at various stages of the research process. You are expected to complete all assignments on time. Your final grade in this course will be a letter grade, although individual assignments will usually be graded on a number scale.
Grading Breakdown and Descriptions
Participation – 15%
You are expected to attend every seminar and arrive on time. Participation includes attending every class, arriving on time to class, being actively engaged with the material we are discussing, and contributing to group work. Your participation will be judged by the group work you present in class, by the material you load onto the class website and by my observations of you during class.
A note on attendance: If you have an excused absence, you will not lose any participation points for that day. However, participation points will be subtracted for being late to class or missing class without an acceptable excuse. You may make up some lost points for missing group work by doing BOTH of the following: 1) letting me know before class that you are unable to attend AND 2) requesting a make-up assignment and completing it on time.
You are also required to attend two common events: the BioBlitz and the end of semester Seminar 3 Poster Conference. The BioBlitz is a species diversity survey where students are teamed with scientists to find as many species as they can, which will occur in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn on September 13-14, 2025. Each student will attend one 5-hour shift at a time of their choosing. The Poster Conference is where you will present your semester research project. Students are required to attend one session of this conference.
Weekly assignments 50 %
10 weekly low stakes assignments – 5 points each
Your weekly preparation for class will involve either a reading, summarization and presentation assignment or a data collection assignment. Often this will involve finding a scientific paper or new article on a topic that interests you, summarizing that published work and presenting that summary to the class. The rubric for reading summaries is in the course materials section of the website in the “Resources References and Tools” section. Data collection assignments will be posted to the “Post” section of our class site under the “data” subheading prior to the start of class on the date they are due.
Research Project – 35%
You and your group will formulate a research question and test it using one of the data sets we have gathered. You can use BioBlitz data and/or additional data that you download or collect during the semester. There will be multiple opportunities to work on parts of this process during class., You will also need to work with your group outside of class on designing and executing your analysis and preparing your presentation. You will present a draft of your poster in class and present your work for peer review. You will receive a list of comments and recommendations which you will incorporate into your poster and resubmit for approval on 12/1.
A breakdown of the different steps of the research project that will be submitted during the semester is as follows:
Research Question – 5%
Groups for the research project will be determined by areas of interest. Please submit your possible questions to me via our OpenLab site on 10/15. Please title the assignment “Research Question Ideas”. You will then be assigned a group and work with your group to think about the available data and devise your research question. Your group will have the opportunity to meet and plan during class, and you should also find a time to meet outside of class to continue your discussion and finalize your research question. Each group member should find one scientific article that is relevant to the research topic. Your group will send your research question and citations for your articles via our OpenLab site – each group member must submit an email listing all group member names. Please submit your group question to me via Open Lab site by 10/20. Again each group member must submit the group question. Please title the assignment “Proposed Research Question”
Annotated Bibliography – 5%
An annotated bibliography lists citations and provides a summary of the content of those citations. Your annotated bibliography should include at least 8 references, of which at least 6 must be from the primary literature (peer-reviewed journals). Please submit your annotated bibliography to me via Open Lab on 10/27. Each group member must submit the bibliography separately. Please title the assignment “Annotated Bibliography”.
Project Proposal: Experimental design, data sources & time line– 10%
For your project proposal, you will flesh out your research question by providing background information, describing your hypothesis, planned methods and a time line in a research proposal. Please submit your proposal to me via Open Lab 10/30. Each group member must submit the project proposal separately. Please title the assignment “Project Proposal”
Poster Presentation – 15%
The final output of your research project is a research poster to be presented at the end of semester Poster Conference. You will submit a draft on 12/1. Each group member must submit the poster separately. You can select a day for your final poster presentation on December 6 thru Sunday December 10 during the Seminar 3 Poster Conference. You will need to sign up for the poster conference. https://openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu/steam/
Science Forward Fall 2025 – Schedule
Module 1 – Deconstructing Science – September
- The Nature of Science and the Critique
History of Science
Milestones & turning points
Philosophy of Science
Influential thinkers
Science, Ethics & Society
What are ethics?
Ways of knowing
1.2 The Process of Scientific Inquiry
Questions, hypotheses, theorems etc.
Experiment design, data collection & bias
Data analysis & interpretation
finding what you are looking for & seeing what you are NOT looking for.
Engaging the unexpected
Sharing: science communication
September 13 & 14: bio blitz
i load data onto the collection site
ii – what’s your experience – 2 minute in class presentation
What is vegetation in your nabe like?
Can you formulate a question? How would you find the answer?
Module 2 – Urban Climate – October
2.1 Climate/Temperature/UHI/ urban micro-climates & Meet GIS
Assignments
1- read UHI articles-2 minute in class presentation
- discover GIS post a map
- GIS add your data to a map
4 – feel temperature identify temperature 1-5 scale on a map,
post map to the e-portfolio site
be prepared to discuss– What did you notice?
Are you curious about anything?
- – post field data to Class website
2.2 Vegetation & Urban Climate & Discover GIS
Assignments
1 – Read Urban Forestry articles – 2 minute in-class presentations
September 15 & 16: bio blitz
load data onto the Open Lab site
2 – what’s your experience – 2 minute in-class presentation
What is vegetation in your nabe like?
Can you formulate a question? How would you find the answer?
2.3 Land water interfaces & extreme weather & Use GIS
Assignments
1 – Readings on land water interfaces and extreme weather –
2 minute in-class presentations
2 – what is YOUR experience? – formulate a question,
propose a way to find the answer – 2 minute in-class presentation
find some data relevant to the question
post data to the data section of the e-portfolio site
What’s your question?
data, where did you find it?
How would you find the answer?
2.4 Precipitation, urban form and surface water quality – Manipulate GIS
Assignment
1 – Readings on urban surfaces & surface water quality –
2 minute in-class presentations
2 – formulate a question, propose an analytical method find
data- where is it & what to do with it – 2 minute in class presentations
load data into website
Guest Speakers
Module 3 – Communicating Science /Communicating Climate – November & December
3.1 Data! – Using the Tools
analyzing data/presenting data/visualizing data
maps and scale -QGis &/or google maps
statistics and graphs
models and on-line tools
coastal vulnerability software NFIPS
UHI software
Itrees
3.2 Posters! – Create with GIS
Creating your poster – elements of the poster
Talking about your poster –
Who are you talking to?
How can you change-up your chat based on your audience?
Important dates
– Tuesday, August 26, First day of Fall 2024 classes
– Monday, September 1 College Closed
Last day to add or swap a course
– Monday – Wednesday Sept 22 – Sept 24 no classes
– Wednesday, October 1 thru Thursday October 2 No Classes Scheduled (College Open)
– Monday, October 13 College Closed
– Tuesday, October 14 classes follow a Monday schedule
– Monday, October 20 No Classes scheduled
– Friday October 24 classes follow a Monday schedule
– Wednesday, November 6 Last day to withdraw from a course with a “W”
grade
– Thursday November 27 thru Friday November 28 College Closed
– Tuesday – Monday December 16-22 Final Exam period
– Monday December 22 end of fall 2025 term
– Friday December 26 Final grade submission deadline
The full academic calendar, including many other important dates, is available on the
Office of the Registrar’s website.
