There were three parts to this paper.

There were three parts to this paper. I will provided the prospectus so you can look back on it for the topic. I can provide the historical background I did but I did very poorly so I dont even think it would help much. I feel like it would be much easier for you to just write in your own words. IT needs to be 6-10 pages long but Im perfectly fine with exactly six. If its done well I will definitely make sure to tip!

1. Prospectus (5%) Briefly describe a scientific controversy that you plan to investigate in more detail during the remainder of the course. You should describe this controversy in about 1-2 pages and provide several (at least 2-3) sources that you plan to use for further research about the controversy. Because we are investigating public controversies in this course, it may be appropriate for some of these sources to be from the mainstream press; however, at least two sources should be academic journal articles or books.

2. Historical Background (20%) For the next component of the Research Project, you will write a 3-4 page research paper on the historical background of the scientific controversy that you chose and briefly described in your Prospectus. Your historical background should describe what the controversy is about, how it arose, and how it was closed or resolved (if it has been closed or resolved). You can incorporate your Prospectus into this assignment, but you should expect to present your controversy in substantially more detail in this part of the assignment.

3. Final Research Paper (25%) The last part of the Research Project will provide a philosophical analysis of your scientific controversy. You will assess whether your controversy is a real scientific controversy or a created controversy (this is a technical term introduced in your Harker book). If it is real, you should explain what the source of the scientific disagreement was and how it was resolved (if it was resolved). You should evaluate whether, and to what extent, your controversy undermines the authority of science. If you decide your controversy was created, you should analyze how this occurred (on the model of the examples that Harker gives in Chapters 8, 9, and 10). The final version of the paper should be 6-10 pages long and must respond to every part of the assignment (it should include your historical background and your philosophical analysis, as well as a bibliography of sources).