Science Is a Way of Thinking

The first lesson of this course is free to read. No signup, no card. Open lesson 1.1 in the curriculum below.

Course Overview

Purpose

Science education often reduces science to a body of facts and a sequence of steps (‘the scientific method’). This course recovers science as a way of reasoning: the habits of evidence evaluation, model revision, productive failure, and skeptical inquiry that define scientific thinking. Participants learn to teach science-as-thinking across disciplines, not just in science class.

Audience

K-12 teachers of all subjects (not just science), instructional coaches, administrators who evaluate science instruction. Particularly valuable for teachers who want to go beyond ‘the scientific method’ poster.

Prerequisites

None. No science background required—this is about thinking, not content.

Estimated Time

6-8 hours

Learning Outcomes

• Explain why ‘the scientific method’ as typically taught misrepresents how science actually works.
• Identify the key epistemic practices of science (evidence evaluation, model building, productive failure, peer critique) and describe how each can be taught.
• Design activities that require students to evaluate evidence quality rather than simply collect data.
• Differentiate between genuine scientific argumentation and ‘debate theater’ in classroom activities.
• Apply the concept of productive failure to lesson design: structure tasks where initial failure drives learning.
• Evaluate lab activities and inquiry tasks for whether they develop scientific thinking or merely follow procedures.
• Construct model-revision sequences where students iteratively improve explanations based on new evidence.
• Teach skeptical inquiry without fostering cynicism or science denial.

What’s inside

6 sections, 18 lessons and 7 quizzes — roughly 6–8 hours of work, taken at your own pace with no expiry.

1. The Scientific Method Myth
2. Evidence Evaluation, Not Just Data Collection
3. Model Building and Revision
4. Productive Failure and the Role of Being Wrong
5. Scientific Argumentation in the Classroom
6. Skeptical Inquiry Without Cynicism

Certificate of completion

Finish the course and a printable certificate is generated automatically, showing your name, the course title, the completion date and contact hours — suitable for professional development records. View your certificates.

Who teaches this

Corey Christen, PhD, teaches biology, anatomy and physiology, and related sciences asynchronously to college students across the United States. These courses come out of that work rather than from research about it — the failure modes described here are ones encountered in real classes, and the fixes are ones that survived contact with them. More about the instructor.

Keep going

If this course was useful, The Anti-Burnout Kit for New and Seasoned Teachers covers the workload and burnout side of the same problem.

You can also browse the full course catalog, or read The Price of Illiteracy — my book on why science literacy matters.

Buying for more than one teacher? Group pricing starts at two seats and we accept purchase orders. See pricing for schools and districts.