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1. HSS 102 | Spring 2019
Critical Reading and Communication
Sciences in/as Society
Pooja Sancheti
(pooja@iiserpune.ac.in)
Pushkar Sohoni
(pushkar.sohoni@iiserpune.ac.in)

2. Class Schedule
Lectures: Wednesdays 10:50 – 11:50 a.m.
LHC 103
Pooja Sancheti & Pushkar Sohoni
Tutorials: Fridays 4:20 – 5:20 p.m.
V. Abhinaya (B1) LHC 105
Pallavee Gokhale (B2) LHC 106
Prajakta Divekar (B3) LHC 107
Vibhishan B. (B4) LHC 108

3. Two objectives of the course
• Exploring links between science and society
• Developing communication skills

4. Exploring links between science and society

5. The class will explore…
• Science as part of wider society
– Historical, political, economic contexts
• Ethics in scientific practice
• Scientists and their lives
• Science in literature and film
• Science and colonisation

6. Developing communication skills
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
in the Academic Context

7. Reading
• Techniques like scanning, speed reading, and
close reading
• Detecting shifts in vocabulary, tone, purpose
• Picking out information/ideas/logical flaws
• Differentiating between different kinds of
writing (historical, logical, informative,
argumentative, creative etc.)

8. Writing
• Organization/Structure of various types of
writings for different purposes
• Editing
• Summarizing and Condensing
• Plagiarism, Citations, Sourcing

9. Listening and Speaking
• Attentive listening practices (picking out key
words, ideas, segues)
• Making (PPT) Presentations
• Class presentations
• Group Discussions (Etiquette and Verbal Skills)

10. Do we have quizzes and exams?
Yes.
Are assessments/evaluations based on
content discussed or skills acquired?
Both!
Lectures and tutorials are equally
important.

11. Grading
• Mid term exam: 35%
• End term exam: 35%
• Quiz: 10%
• Project: 10%
• Participation/class exercises (tutorials): 10%

12. Quiz is on January 25th.
Based on content and skills
in lectures and tutorials.
There will be no re-quiz.

13. What is Science?
“Science is a systematic enterprise that creates,
builds and organizes knowledge in the form of
testable explanations and predictions about the
universe.”
Wikipedia

14. Science is…
•A set of methods
• Primarily, evidence-based reasoning
•A type of human knowledge
and
•A social practice/institution

15. Are Social Sciences truly sciences?

16. Attributes of Scientific Research
• Systematic Enquiry
• Hypothesis
• Objective Search
• Reproducibility
• Modelling
• Theory/Framework of Theory
• Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

17. Systematic Enquiry: Research is a systematic
enquiry or investigation aimed at acquiring
new knowledge or solving a given problem. It
involves certain approaches and methods for
arriving at answers.

18. Hypothesis: A scientific hypothesis is the initial
building block in the scientific method. It is an
idea or explanation that can be tested (and
proved correct or wrong) through study and
experimentation. It is often coded as an
“if…then” formulation.

19. Objective Search: Scientific objectivity expresses
the idea that the claims, methods, and results of
science are not, or should not be influenced by
particular perspectives, value commitments,
community bias or personal interests etc.

20. Reproducibility: A measurement
is reproducible if the investigation is repeated
by another person, or by using different
equipment or techniques, and the same results
(or close enough to be valid) are obtained.

21. • Modelling: A model is a mental-visual
representation of an idea, an object, or a
process or a system that is used to describe
and explain phenomena that cannot be
experienced directly. Models link theory with
experiments.

22. • Theory: A scientific theory is an explanation of
an aspect of the natural world that can be
repeatedly tested and verified in accordance
with the scientific method, using accepted
protocols of observation, measurement, and
evaluation of results.

23. Creating a Hypothesis
Testing of Hypothesis
(design of experimental apparatus)
Reproducibility of Experiment
If the experiment fails, then the hypothesis is
rejected, or eventually superseded by a
hypothesis that is experimentally supported.

24. Inductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning

25. Summary
- Society and science are inextricably linked.
- Society and science shape each other.
- Science is only a sub-set of knowledge about the
world around us.
- What constitutes scientific knowledge as opposed
to other knowledge changes through time.
- The writing, reading, and listening
(communication) of information constitutes
knowledge.
- Science does not exist in a bubble isolated from
language and other systems.