C/NATS1850 6.0A Science and Pseudoscience. Strange events.

Write three to seven sentences, look online for websites and news to expand on the subject

C/NATS1850 6.0A Science and Pseudoscience Fall/Winter 2019-20

Guidelines for Annotated Bibliography Exercise
Due Date: November 18 (completed draft) and December 2 (final draft) at 11:55pm (-10% off final grade per day late, beginning midnight)

If you experience technical trouble submitting to Moodle and it is close to the deadline and keep trying to submit to Moodle until you are successful. The time stamp on the email will be considered the submission time.

This assignment must be the independent work of each student. No collaborations are acceptable. Keep drafts, rough work and notes until the final grades for the course go in - you may be asked to produce evidence of original work

Objectives:

Through this assignment you will:

• explore recent topics relating to the science and technology of "weird things” or denialism

• To get a sense of the scientific understanding of a “fringe” topic

• learn to use the library’s online databases in order to search for relevant articles in newspapers and magazines (popular sources)

• learn to cite sources using APA format

• learn to create an annotated bibliography

• practice obtaining resources from York’s SPARK pages

• practice summarizing the main themes of articles, and stating their relevance to the course

• build skills and collect resources that may be used in the Term Project

Instructions:

1. Choose a topic from the course. Topics may include any kind of “weird” science described in Schick and Vaughn (ex. paranormal experiences, telekinesis, energy healing, divination etc.), or a denialist issue (ex. antivaxxers, climate change denial, flat earth etc.).

2. Collect 8 good quality sources, that address some "science of the weird” and show an effort to collect both popular and scholarly sources (discussed in class).

You must include at least 1 scholarly source, and may have 0 or no more than

3 video sources.

Examples of good sources:

• Web sources associated with a recognized institution

• Newspapers from any location

• Quality magazine articles

• Books or chapters in books - must have reference sections

• Scholarly articles published in peer reviewed journals.

• Websites associated with any of the above

• Websites associated with a professional organization

• Documentary films (short youtube clips or vlogs not acceptable)

• Video news magazine reports from reputable sources (CBC, BBC, ABC and other major news networks etc.)

• Reputable interviews (ex. New Thinking Allowed)

• Lecture or conference presentation videos

Examples of poor sources that do not fit assignment criteria:

• Wikipedia (you can use this as a starting point for general research, but it is not a good quality source because it is a wiki - look at the references on the Wikipedia page if you wish to follow up on some information)

• Encyclopedias or dictionaries (you can use them for general information but not as assignment sources)

• Blogs or vlogs

• “New Age” books and publications - ex. “channelled information, information with no reputable references given (ie. Unverified)

• “Fake news” sites
2. List the sources in alphabetical order by author, in APA format.

3. Underneath each source in vour list write a brief summary of each article of 3-5 sentences in vour own words (no quotations). You may like to consider the following, but please do not mechanically answer these questions - only consider those that apply, and use your own creativity to integrate the information into an interesting summary paragraph:

What is the specific topic?

What are the people, institutions, techniques or phenomena described (if any)? What is new, or novel, or of interest?

What are some of the unanswered questions, or suggestions, or future developments proposed (if any)?

How does this connect to some of the other sources in your list (if relevant)?

Are there any other main points in this article?
In addition, in a further 3-7 sentences, answer the following:

How would you like to expand your understanding of this topic? Describe 2-3 questions/issues that this source raises for you. Be as specific as possible by referring to a particular community, idea, technology or scientific discovery.

Format of Annotated Bibliography (marks will be deducted if format is not followed):

• Use an annotated bibliography format (see below)

• Submit online to Moodle as .doc, or .pdf - note that .pages, Google docs not supported

• Descriptive title on a title page, along with your name and course information.

• 12pt font (preferably Times New Roman)

• double spaced

• no extra spaces between paragraphs - indent to indicate a new paragraph

• 1 inch margins

• APA citation format is used, with page number cited along with date of publication. See “APA Style Overview” on right hand bar at
httD://www.vorku.ca/spark/creatina biblioaraphies/index.html

Annotated Bibliography Format:

A bibliography is a list of sources (popular and scholarly) that is written in APA referencing format. An annotated bibliography differs from a regular bibliography in providing a summary/discussion below each source. Please see the Assignments box for information on annotated bibliographies, and supportive lecture recordings.

Note that your sources should be in alphabetical order by author, using APA format for sources. Write the first bibliographic source's information in APA format, then your annotation (summary and discussion paragraph) followed by the next source alphabetically by author, and its summary paragraph, etc.

Do not add an additional list of references at the end. The annotated bibliography is already a complete list of sources. Do not add an abstract. The complete assignment includes a descriptive separate title page followed by the alphabetical (by author) list of sources, each with their summary/discussion paragraphs. No other information is needed. Be sure you review APA format and pay attention to formatting - consistent font, and correct spacing, punctuation, capitalization, italicization, etc. Consult sources on APA format for references.