Sense & Sensibility & Science has been taught in many different formats at lots of different institutions. The course is designed for a fourteen week semester with two lectures and two lab/discussion sections per week, but it can accommodate other formats as well.
Weekly Schedules
If your institution accommodates it, the course is designed to have two sixty to eighty minute lectures and two eighty minute lab/discussion sections per week.
| Monday | 60-80 Minute Lecture |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 80 Minute Lab/Discussion |
| Wednesday | 60-80 Minute Lecture |
| Thursday | 80 Minute Lab/Discussion |
If preferred, the course can also be conducted with two hour and a half "hybrid" sections per week. In this case you need to either combine the material from the lectures and lab/discussion sections or provide the content to students in written or video form prior to class.
Caution
It may be hard to combine content in hybrid sessions with a class of more than 80 or so students.
Class Size
The course has been run with as few as 10 students and as many as more than 300. The lectures can generally be scaled to accommodate classes of any size, but the lab/discussion sections are designed around 30 students. The labs/discussions can be run with fewer than this number of students fairly easily. If you have more than 30 you may want to split the class into multiple lab/discussion sections to better accommodate the needs of the activities.
Semester Systems
If your institute uses a semester system then you likely have the time to cover all of our lessons during your term. You can find the week by week schedule below.
Quarter Systems
If you're operating on a quarter system then you will have to make some compromises about what topics you cover and in what amount of detail. We recommend consolidating the lessons in accordance with the schedule below.
Quarter System Compromises
Being shorter than the semester schedule, a quarter system inevitably means certain topics need to be cut or condensed.
In week 3, Probabilistic Reasoning is only briefly covered in order to motivate Calibration of Credence Levels. Likewise, Signal and Noise is mainly used to introduce the term "signal-to-noise ratio."
In week 4, only the singular and general causation portion of Causation, Blame, and Policy is used.
In week 9, Scenario Planning may get cut for time and clarity.