1. Project throughout the semester to identify one’s research quest.
2. Group essay on particular aspect of course material that especially intrigues the student.
3. (Smaller value) a written personal reflection at the end of the course.
4. (potential, yet to confirm) Some form of oral presentation / interaction; could be tutorial engagement, or, depending on class size, oral presentations.

This course focusses on the subjective experience of being a scientist. It is not a mechanical how-to. We do not talk about how to do statistics or conduct experiments or write papers or grant proposals. Rather we discuss and provide insights and tools to help students / beginning scientists live a more meaningful life in doing science from their own subjective experience. To that end, the course will be organised around three broad headings:

1. Ways of looking at Science (What are the different ways of looking at science, and how does that affect how one feels about it and approaches it? As well as the traditional ways (science as knowledge or science as institution); a particular focus will be on science as personal – the view of science from the subjective experience of the working scientist).

2. Ways of doing Science (with questions like, e.g., How do you choose a good question? What happens when you get stuck? What are the cognitive tools that help you do better science? How does your attitude to science affect what you do? How do you cope with failure and getting stuck? How do you navigate and thrive in the social side of science?)

3. Ways of making meaning (i.e., The personal challenges of being a scientist, and what one can do about them. How to deal with the inevitable crap? How to raise yourself above the menial and crappy side of things to attain some transcendence and create meaning for yourself by doing science?)

The tutorials will be organised around a series of questions which will be posed in advance. Students should come prepared to discuss the questions.

At the end of the course, it is expected / desired that students will:
• Be able to better articulate their own motivations for doing science
• Describe the many different ways of looking at science, and explain how that shapes the way science is done
• Describe different approaches to doing science, and have mastered some generic cognitive tools to help do science better
• Have had practice in shaping and refining their scientific quest, and be able to articulate what makes a good quest
• Be able to enumerate many of the headaches (“apparent necessities”) of being a scientist and have learned some strategies for dealing with them
• Be able to create a sense of personal meaning in their approach to doing science

will be provided by the lecturer