Teaching Scientific Reasoning with the Case of Cholera
These are course materials to introduce undergraduates to scientific reasoning in the footsteps of historical figures who were collecting, analyzing and interpreting data to understand how cholera was transmitted – and how it could be stopped. The materials are being developed by Peter Vinten-Johansen*, Tom Coleman and Julia Koschinsky (both University of Chicago). Below are teaching materials related to John Snow, cholera theories, and evidence from 19th century London in the context of spatial data analysis.
*Peter Vinten-Johansen is Associate Professor Emeritus and an expert of the history cholera in 19th century London. He is the author of Investigating Cholera in Broad Street: A History in Documents (2020) and lead author of Cholera, Chloroform and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow (2003).
Instructor Guide: Teaching Scientific Inquiry in the Context of Cholera Theories and Evidence in 19th century Britain by Peter Vinten-Johansen and Julia Koschinsky.
Article: Causality in the Time of Cholera: John Snow & the Process of Scientific Inquiry, by Coleman, Koschinsky & Black (2023).
8 Datasets with Documentation by Falcone, Koschinsky et al. Open data used in this course.
GeoDa Scripts: EDA and ESDA with GeoDa John Snow & the 19th Century Cholera Epidemic by Peter Vinten-Johansen and Julia Koschinsky.
The Original Difference-in-Difference Research Design: John Snow’s Grand Experiment. Illustrated in GeoDa. Also see Thomas Coleman’s R code.