Class: M
11:00-12:30 in C107 Instructor: Dr.
Rob Pfaff
WF
10:00-10:50 in C102 Office
Hours: M
10:00 - 10:50
WF
11:00 - 11:50
(and
by appointment)
Office: S
304A
Phone: 866-6380
The required texts for the course
are available at the College Store. 1) Core
5 Syllabus. 2) James Trefil, The
Nature of Science: An A-Z Guide to the Laws and Principles Governing Our
Universe, Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
COVERAGE
The lecture material will be
covered on or about the dates indicated in the Core 5 Syllabus. If warranted,
this schedule may be revised as the semester progresses. Important dates in
our discussion class are given below:
|
Week
|
Date
|
Discussion
Period Activity
(We'll
fill these in later!)
|
Graded
Work
|
|
1
|
8/24
|
|
|
|
2
|
8/31
|
|
|
|
3
|
9/7
|
No Discussion –
Labor Day
|
|
|
4
|
9/14
|
|
1-Pager 1 due
|
|
5
|
9/21
|
|
Discussion Exam 1
|
|
6
|
9/28
|
|
1-Pager 2 due
|
|
7
|
10/5
|
|
|
|
8
|
10/12
|
|
1-Pager 3 due
Common Midterm Exam
(cumulative for the 1st half of the course) Wednesday, 10/14
|
|
9
|
10/19
|
|
|
|
10
|
10/26
|
|
1-Pager 4 due
|
|
11
|
11/2
|
|
Discussion Exam 2
|
|
12
|
11/9
|
|
1-Pager 5 due
|
|
13
|
11/16
|
|
Short Story due
|
|
|
11/23
|
Thanksgiving break
|
|
|
14
|
11/30
|
|
Research Paper due
|
|
15
|
12/7
|
|
|
The
Common Final Exam (cumulative for the 2nd half of the course) is Wednesday,
December 16 at 10:00
EXAMS,
REPORTS, PAPERS, AND GRADING
The following activities will
take place or be due at the times stated above.
|
2 Common Exams
|
175 pts
ea
|
|
2 Discussion Exams
|
100 pts
ea
|
|
1 Presentation
|
60 pts
|
|
1 Short Story
|
125 pts
|
|
1 Research Paper (5 pages)
|
125 pts
|
|
2 Lab Reports
|
60 pts
ea
|
|
5 1-Pager Lit Commentary
|
20 pts
ea
|
|
participation
|
70 pts
|
The Core
5 faculty have agreed to the following policy on lecture attendance. You may
miss three (3) lectures without penalty. The fourth and subsequent absences
will cause your course grade to drop by 3% per missed lecture. Because of this
policy, seating at Core 5 lectures will be by sections; look for me the first
day to identify our section. Please check your athletic, activity, and travel
schedules to ensure that you will not miss more than three lectures. Athletic
absences will count against the three allowed. Also, if you transfer Core
sections, your attendance record will go with you.
Your grade will be determined
from the sum of your scores on the graded work. You are responsible for topics covered in the text, even if they are
not covered in class. You are also responsible for topics covered in class,
even if they are not covered in the text.
The short story is to be a
science fiction story. It is an attempt to tie together the literature parts
of earlier Cores with the content of Science Core. See the end of this outline
for details. The other paper will be a research paper, at least five pages in
text length. See the end of this outline for details. Both of these papers
will be submitted to turnitin.com. Our course ID is xxxxxx and the enrollment
password is yyyyy.
The two lab reports will be chosen
from among several experiments being done by Core 5 sections. We will talk
about these labs in more detail the week before each is to be done. However,
even though the procedures may be carried out in groups, each student is to
write their own lab report.
The presentation is to be a short
(10 – 15 minute) review of Core 5 lecture. Each student will be assigned
a lecture and is responsible for presenting a summary of it at the next
discussion meeting. I am not looking for introduction of new material, but
rather a review of the terminology and important ideas from the lecture. You
should think up analogies or quick demonstrations to illustrate the ideas.
That is, I am looking for a presentation, not simply a reading of the lecture
notes.
The 1-Pagers are due each week
stated above. You are to look for a science article in the popular press (news
magazines, science magazines, etc.) and write a short (approximately one page,
hence the term 1-pager) summary of it and a commentary on it. No
WWW pages may be used. The only acceptable newspapers are national
papers, such as the Wall Street Journal.
The 1-pagers may be hand written but put it on decent, untorn, 81/2 x 11 inch
paper. Attach a photocopy of the article to it.
Your results of discussion and
lab activities will count 5 points per week that we have an activity planned.
Two weeks aren’t graded, the discussion exam weeks.
The grade cut-offs are below:
|
Grade
|
Percent
|
Grade
|
Percent
|
|
A
|
93%
|
C+
|
77%
|
|
A-
|
90%
|
C
|
73%
|
|
B+
|
87%
|
C-
|
70%
|
|
B
|
83%
|
D+
|
67%
|
|
B-
|
80%
|
D
|
60%
|
Exams are to be taken at the
scheduled times; 1-pagers and the papers are due at the beginning of the
discussion period on the due date. Late papers will be docked 10% of their
value for each day (or fraction thereof) they are late, starting at the due
time; therefore, a paper that is 1 hour late will be docked 10%, after your
class’s meeting time the next day, the penalty is 20%, etc. If a conflict
arises which prevents completing a task at the scheduled time, I may, at my
discretion, give an extension. Requests for extensions must be made prior to
the start of the scheduled due time. A telephone message is sufficient.
Requests made after the scheduled due time will not be considered. In
addition, it is my policy not to approve dropping the course after the
College’s drop date.
In view of the H1N1 virus, students
will be not penalized if they become ill during the semester. Stay in and seek
medical attention if you experience any flu-related symptoms, rather than
attend class.
If you are a student with a
disability, kindly meet with me immediately to discuss the accommodations you
will need during class activities, examinations, and out of class assignments
in order to participate fully and demonstrate your abilities.
Feel free to keep your scores in
the spaces provided below so you can always tell where you stand in the course.
Short Story Guidelines
For this assignment, you are to
write a science fiction short story. Experience shows that typically these
stories should be at least 5 pages long, double spaced, in order to accomplish
all the elements. Sometimes it can be done in less, but not usually. Note I am
more interested in the development of the story than in the length.
These guidelines are not meant to
be exhaustive. Face it, whole books have been written on the subject.
Hopefully, however, I can give you enough general points to get you started on
your short story. In many ways, though, just pick up a short story you like
and see how it’s structured.
The basics:
A Short Story
·
is built around one problem or conflict
·
is able to be read in a single sitting
·
does not feature very many characters
There are four elements to the
story
·
Characters – the people, animals, and creatures featured in the
story; the “who”
·
Setting – the time, place, and environment of the story; the
“where”
·
Plot – the sequence of events, what happens; the “conflict”
·
Theme – the message, lesson, moral, the main idea
Graphically, the story should
follow a curve:
where you start by introducing and
developing characters, defining the environment, and introducing the conflict.
As the story continues, complications are introduced, showing how the
characters’ static existence is challenged. The climax is the part where the
turmoil is at a maximum and it is not clear how or even whether issues can be
resolved. However, by the end, the issues (or some of them) are resolved. It
is not necessary to resolve all issues, it is acceptable to let the reader
think of how s/he would resolve the issues.
Since this is an assignment for a
science fiction short story, you must include technology. It must be
plausible. You must show an understanding of how the technology or concept is
used and you must define it for the reader. The technology issues can either
represent 1) the actual source of the conflict (e.g., how will Earth avoid
annihilation from its own pollution history) or 2) a source of a complication
(e.g., we could win the race if not for the giga-horsepower engine in our
unscrupulous adversary’s vehicle). How technology figures in, including
whether it is part of the problem or part of the resolution, is up to you.
Note that the story requires the
use of technology, that is, applications (machines or processes) of science.
Simply stating some scientific principle is not sufficient. Also, the names of
the characters should be fictional, too!
Utilize the Writing Clinic. The
students there are usually well-versed in fiction.
Really...go look at one of your
favorite short stories!
Note: Short
stories are not research papers and so do not need references.
You will submit the short story
to turnitin.com.
Research Paper Guidelines
You will need to research a topic
covered in Core 5; your choice. BUT, I expect to see at least five full
MEANINGFUL pages of text, so don’t choose a topic that is too narrow or for
which little information is available. Conversely, don’t choose a topic so
broad that five pages of text are only a superficial treatment. I will consult
on topics, but the final choice is yours.
From the above, you should get
the idea that I want five full pages of text (typed, 10- or 12-point Times New
Roman, double-spaced, 1” margins on all sides, page numbered). In addition to
the five pages of text, you should have a cover sheet with the title, the date,
and your name; footnotes, illustrations, etc., should follow the five pages of
text. (I do expect footnotes, not a bibliography. Check The Everyday Writer for more information.) I don’t really care
whether you use Modern Language Association, American Library Association,
American Psychological Association, American Chemical Society, or some other
style, but be consistent. Your paper should feature a concise (short)
introduction, the meat of the discussion, and a conclusion.
Beyond it covering a Core 5
topic, your paper should do four things.
·
First, it should review past research on the topic, that is, give a
history of the study of your topic.
·
Second, it should discuss what the current theories are.
·
Third, it should present what researchers think the future study of the
topic is likely to reveal.
·
Fourth, discuss how this topic (what is known and how it’s studied) fits
into your own value set.
Obviously, the history of the
topic and the current theories require footnotes. The future predictions can
be footnoted to researchers, but you can also venture your own predictions.
The value assessment probably won’t be footnoted unless you find citations
backing up your beliefs.
You must have a minimum of five
references. For a research paper, newsmagazines (such as Time and Newsweek),
encyclopedias, dictionaries, and newspapers are NOT acceptable
references. Journals, monographs, and higher-level magazines, such as Scientific American, are suitable as
references.
The only web pages that are
suitable as references are those that are electronic versions of print
journals. So for example, articles from Discover
magazine that can be retrieved online are acceptable.
You will submit the research
paper to turnitin.com.