This course will explore the validity of arguments and/or conclusions in dinosaur research through evaluating the scientific evidence. in this course, students will read, experiment, and evaluate scientific literature surrounding dinosaurs. Students are expected to work with others to evaluate the plausibility of the dinosaur concepts and theories, and hands-on experiments to add additional information to their interpretations. Students will be expected to participate in evaluation mechanisms to assess critical thinking and science literacy. There are no prerequisites and no laboratory component to this course, although hands-on activities will be a primary focus each week.

Goals

This course is intended to engage students in science and the fossil record through the study of dinosaurs. It is intended that students will develop ideas, evaluate existing theories, and explore evidence to support or refute dinosaur interpretations. Through this course it is intended that students develop scientific fluency and critical thinking skills.

Objectives

• Explore the scientific method and how science is conducted, communicated, and synthesized in dinosaur research.
• Develop theories behind dinosaur morphology and behavior and assess how these theories are supported or refuted by evidence from the fossil record.
• Evaluate the usefulness of modern analogues in dinosaur morphology and behavior.

Textbook

The textbook for this course is “The Story of Dinosaurs”, authored and curated by Dr. Ashley Burkett. The textbook and associated ancillaries have been intentionally created and licensed to be free for students to use and other educators to modify for use in their local contexts. Although the resource is licensed CC-BY, it is the author’s intent that students not be required to purchase the book either as a standalone resource as a package with other resources.

A Note on Pedagogy

This inquiry-based course uses dinosaurs to establish scientific literacy skills and demonstrate how scientists synthesize ideas from a limited data set And how the ideas about our interpretations change when more information is presented i.e. a new fossil find. Dinosaurs are charismatic, and most people know at least some information about dinosaurs, however, much miss information exists, and very few have the expertise to be able to disentangle the scientific literature to understand completely. How interpretations And assumptions are made about dinosaurs.

As such, this course can be easily scaled to the level of the studnets and quizzes and other tools embedded in the course can serve as a means of assessment in doing so. While this course is descigned for non-science majors with a goal of increasing science literacy and accessibility to how the scientific community reach a consensus and deal with new information which may challenge commonly held paradigms; much of the geology, paleontology, and biology concepts covered in this course can be challenging for college students and therefore scaffolding and several low stakes but confidence building exercises are needed throughout the course. It is the personal belief of this instructor that allowing students creativity and space in the classroom to participate in the self-exploration of the content is crucial for engement and a deep-learning of hte material. Science should be accessible to anyone despite backgrounds, GPAs, or majors. This course demonstrates one way in which this idealogy can be employed.