Undergraduate Course: Critical thinking - a tour through the science of science (NEBM10031)
Course Outline
| School | School of Biomedical Sciences |
College | College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Neuroscience (Biomedical Sciences) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | Not all research is conducted, or reported, to the same quality. Understanding what makes for good research, and being able to apply this understanding both in your own research and in assessing the work of others, is a crucial skill for the scientist.
Where previously what made for "good science" and "bad science" were largely a matter of opinion and/or prejudice - a largely subjective judgement - there are now more objective approaches which can provide a firmer foundation for analysis. This is the emerging field of evidence based translational medicine.
The course will teach you how to assess the internal validity of a piece of work (are the conclusions reached justified by the methodology and the data analysis?); and the external validity (how much might the findings described generalise to other experiments, other situations). The course will largely (but not exclusively) draw on examples from the neurosciences, but the principles are common to all experiments seeking to model human health and disease.
The course will also provide an introduction to the tools of systematic review and meta-analysis; and include 2 classroom exercises, one on the critical appraisal of a piece of work and one on the design of an experiment. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | no |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2012/13 Block 3 (Sem 2), Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Seminar | | 1-5 | 09:00 - 13:00 | | | | | | Central | Seminar | | 1-5 | | | | 09:00 - 13:00 | |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course the student will:
1. Understand the importance of internal and external validity in science, and the measures which can be taken to improve the validity of research.
2. Critically appraise the extent to which a publication describes measures to avoid bias.
3. Design a simple experiment including the conduct of a sample size calculation and description of measures to avoid bias.
4. Understand the principles of evidence based translational medicine
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Assessment Information
| 100% In-course Assessment |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Study design, validity, critical appraisal |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Richard Ribchester
Tel: (0131 6)50 3256
Email: rrr@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Tina Harvey
Tel: (0131 6)50 5059
Email: Tina.Harvey@ed.ac.uk |
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© Copyright 2012 The University of Edinburgh - 31 August 2012 4:23 am
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