Dr. Therese Shelton
Associate Professor,
Dept Math and Computer Science,
Southwestern University,
Georgetown, TX.
http://www.southwestern.edu/~shelton
shelton@southwestern.edu
(email is my preferred method of contact if not in person)
office MBH 143; X1489 (863-1489). Office hours for F15 usually Tues 2:30, Wed 10:30, Thurs 10:30. Appointments are welcome. Drop-ins will be accommodated as soon as possible or with an appointment.
Assessment
| Summer Assignments (due orientation wk) | 20% | 8% Essay on summer reading. due 10 am Mon Aug 17
8% Waste Log, Reflection. due 9 am Tues Aug 18 4% Newspaper Articles. due 10 am Wed Aug 19 |
| Class discussion and Short Writings | 20% | throughout the semester |
| Civic Engaged Learning | 20% | 8 hours of service total in several opportunities with reflections.
At least the first 4 hrs & reflection due in week 4; all due week 6. Some details below. |
| Research Paper and Presentation | 30% | 5% Topic, brief outline, and preliminary bibliography due electronically Mon Sep 14
10% Paper due Sep 23 5% Poster: Draft due electronically Oct 1, Pre-approved printed poster due Oct 6 10% Presentations Oct 8, 1st Symposium Oct 15 8:30am-11:15am |
| Written Exam | 10% | Oct 6 |
Course Description
Current Catalog Description for FYS in general: "...introduce[s] new students to college, exposing them to what it means to live and learn in the Southwestern University environment through sustained study of and conversation about a topic within the liberal arts tradition. In particular, seminars focus on introducing students to college-level expectations in the following areas: critical reading, writing cogently, critical and creative thinking, research, and informed discussion. Additional academic socialization components prepare students for the challenging intellectual demands of college-level course work."
re-articulated mission statement of the FYS/AES program:
The mission of the First-Year and Advanced Entry Seminars is to help the new student begin to practice an education that arcs over the whole course of the student's experience and across the curriculum, connecting the questions and perspectives one encounters and the skills one develops to each other and to the world. It is a concurrent rather than preliminary experience, focused on exploratory topics or themes that help students think about what they are learning in their other classes and their larger education. Seminars introduce and reflect upon intellectual skills common to the liberal arts: formulating cogent questions, forging connections between methods of inquiry, recognizing and challenging assumptions, seeking out and listening to multiple perspectives, and rethinking/redefining the role of reading, writing, and discussion in inquiry and student centered learning.
Specific to Talkin' Trash: Explore practical, ethical, and social implications
of resource scarcity, waste and wastefulness, and stewardship.
Go beyond the usual 3R's:
Reading, wRiting, and 'Rithmetic, and
Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle.
Materials
YOU are your primary resource!! Engage fully, and practice good
critical thinking skills. I am your primary reference and may provide supplemental material.
Look for postings via email, our shared drive, and Moodle.
Trash by Andy Mulligan. ISBN 9780385752169. 2011 Random House, Inc
Garbology by Edward Humes. ISBN 9781583335239. 2012 Penguin
Periodic assigned reading materials.
Continual access to your SU email, Moodle,
file storage (SU GoogleDrive;
Helios via Finder/MyComputer navigation or the SU portal's MyBackpack/HomeDirectory/H:),
the internet, and Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Powerpoint) or their Google equivalents.
Use the campus file storage capabilities mentioned above and
an auxiliary storage medium such as USB drive or portable hard drive.
Learning Outcomes The following is a partial list.
Upon successful completion of this First Year Seminar, the student will be able to
demonstrate a successful transition from high school to college by
exhibiting skills necessary for success in a rigorous liberal arts college environment,
including an understanding of college-level expectations of
critical reading
§ cogent writing
§ critical and creative thinking
§ informed discussion
§ research
In particular, the student will be able to:
§ locate and appropriately use valid resources.
§ create written works that have no major errors in grammar, punctuation, or usage.
§ produce a research paper that incorporates a body of knowledge using
and acknowledging appropriate sources, recognizing the importance of documenting sources and avoiding plagiarism.
§ discuss ethical and social implications of trash and water and other human resource issues.
General Comments
We will work on communication skills, both written and oral.
Clear and effective writing requires good sentence construction, punctuation, and proper grammar.
Justification of assertions is essential, whether in technical or persuasive writing.
Be an active rather than passive learner. Take responsibility for your
learning.
The course will periodically make use of technology,
particularly the academic databases, Microsoft Excel and Word, and Google documents, spreadsheets, and Drive (as well as SU gmail and Moodle.)
It is the responsibility of the student
to save frequently and often and to have back-up copies of all files on independent
media.
Use a filename with an appropriate
name and extension. To be ultra safe, avoid spaces or special characters,
though an underscore is generally safe. For instance, "FYS_As1_Shelton_Newton.docx"
is a good name for Assignment 1 with authors Shelton and Newton.
I expect you to take advantage of the Center for Academic Success and Records (CASAR) if needed,
and I will notify that office if I believe someone may benefit from the opportunities
that office affords.
There will be a mix of individual and collaborative work
as well as a variety of teaching and learning styles.
Collaborative work will sometimes require meeting with peers outside of class time.
I look forward to reading your thoughtful comments on course evaluations.
Helpful as these comments are, they will not help you in this semester.
They are designed to help me teach future sections of this course.
Please give me feedback, either in person, by voice mail, by e-mail,
or with a note left under my door throughout the semester.
Anonymous comments are fine.
The course is "an opportunity for students to develop habits of living and thinking
that empower them to probe deep, uncover structure and connections,
make meaning and discovery, and realize that with enough effort and
perseverance, whatever they put their minds to can be understood with
a little more clarity and focus."
[Ed Burger,
Op-ed piece that appeared in the Austin American-Statesman, Dec. 27, 2013.
SU version
Paideia Moments: Students are encouraged to apply
a tool or connect a concept from this course to a topic, situation, or question
from another course or area outside mathematics. Be creative and genuine
when working in this direction.
Community Engaged Learning
Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) is one example of civic engagement whereby students apply academic skills and knowledge to address a community need, issue, or problem and to enhance student learning.
CEL is a form of teaching and learning in which students engage in structured service and action that is responsive to community needs, provides mutually beneficial experience for students and community partners, and is designed to include critical analysis and reflection linking service to academic, cluster, and discipline specific learning goals.
See SU's CEL site.
Grading Policy and Scale
Each student earns a grade based on meeting standard
objective criteria; I do not "give" grades; rather, I assign grades based on
student performance according to institutional and national college-level standards.
Everyone begins with zero.
The expectation for excellence increases throughout the semester.
Please note that, according to the Catalog,
"all required work is expected to be completed for [a grade of C]".
In other words, even if your grade is 99, if you miss a single assignment, such as a minor assignment
in this class, it is possible that your grade could be anything less than a C.
Completion of all work is just one of the requirements for a grade of C or better.
If all work is completed, and absences are not excessive,
the following grading scale will be used:
98.00-100 = A+; 92.00-97.99 = A; 90.00-91.99=A-. The pattern continues through D-.
0.00-59.99=F.
A grade of C- is required for a course to count as a pre-requisite for another course or to count toward a major or minor.
Your grade may be lowered by excessive absences at the rate of 10 percent
per 6 absences. It is possible that
a student who accumulates absences amounting to a total of
two weeks of class days or three consecutive class days (excused or unexcused)
will automatically fail the course.
NO Curving: I do not grade you based on who else may be in your class.
I set standards which I communicate to the class, and then I evaluate how
you as an individual meet these standards. The only grade which might be
altered or curved (and I do not guarantee a curve) is the course grade;
this means after the final has been taken. I also do not round (except,
perhaps, the course grade, and this is not guaranteed); 89.75 is a B+,
not an A-.
I am careful in grading because I assume that you are careful in preparing
your material. I expect you to read any comments I make. Sometimes I make
few written comments but have a general class discussion and/or post a
detailed key. It is important that you understand my grading system, so
if you are puzzled by a grade, please see me.
I use different standards when grading different kinds of work. For instance, I will be more lenient of errors on a short, in-class assignment that is more of a learning experience;
I will expect a higher standard on take-home assignments and on exams.
Attendance, Past-Due Assignments
As explained in the Student Handbook, your attendance at each class is required.
It is certainly stating the obvious that
you need to come on time and stay the entire time, alert and awake, fully engaged in classroom activities.
In this spirit, any electronic devices (phones, laptops, tablets, etc) should be off unless used in an academically appropriate and approved manner for our particular course;
on some rare occasions it may be appropriate to have a phone on but in a silent mode.
During exams these may not be used at all.
Use of class time for active computer lab use is a privilege; students shall refrain from
distractions such as email or games during class time. In all endeavors, students
shall focus on the task at hand.
A university approved excuse is generally required to make up any missed exam or assignment. If you know before-hand that you will be gone, you may have to complete an assignment early.
If you will be absent, email me as well as tell me in person. It is always the student's responsibility to make up missed work in a timely fashion. See SU's policy on absences due to religious and cultural traditions, which includes the following:
Southwestern University recognizes that it has students from a variety of religious and cultural traditions that have special days of observance or celebration that may take students out of their regular activities on certain days during the school year. Since the academic calendar does not always coincide with these days, the following policy is to be followed in order to facilitate student absences due to cultural and religious observances.
As far in advance as possible, the student is expected to notify the professor(s) or instructor(s) of the class(es) to be missed.
The student is expected to learn what assignments or exams are due or will be assigned on those dates and negotiate with the professor(s) or instructor(s) alternate times for fulfilling those requirements. Students should be prepared to fulfill the requirements prior to the class(es) to be missed.
Assignments must be turned in at the beginning of class on the due date unless otherwise specified. This includes electronic submissions.
Any assignment not turned in at that time will be penalized one full letter
grade for each 24 hour period that it is overdue.
In general, an assignment that
is more than 72 hours overdue will not be accepted.
Honor System, Some Expectations for Individual and Collaborative Work
We are all very fortunate to have the Honor System here at Southwestern.
In general, professors establish ground rules for acceptable collaboration
or rules for exams, and students follow those rules. You must write out
and sign the honor pledge on all work to be graded. The approved
wording is as follows:
"I have acted with honesty and integrity in producing
this work and am unaware of anyone who has not."
By matriculating at this university, each of you has agreed to uphold this wonderful tradition.
Unless otherwise specified, work is to be done individually.
When group work is allowed, full collaboration is essential. This does not necessarily mean
that everyone has all of the answers. In some cases, one student may appropriately be at the forefront of
collaborative work while others are in more of a following mode. If, however, someone is
contributing very little or not at all, then obviously that person would need to be excluded
from the pledge.
When collaboration is allowed, that means with another student from your section in the current semester.
In addition to the more obvious violations of our Honor System,
such as collaborating on individual work or plagiarism, some examples include, but are not
limited to:
falsifying data, marking someone as present on the roll sheet who is absent,
including someone in a group pledge who did not collaborate,
discussing "pop quizzes" or exams with someone who has not taken it, including someone
from another section of the same class,
submitting work done in a previous semester,
unauthorized use of resources (human or inanimate, printed or electronic),
texting or web searching for answers,
having a book or solution manual open during an exam,
listening to or viewing unauthorized pre-recorded notes,
using unauthorized programs on your calculator or electronic device.
Signing the pledge indicates compliance with those rules.
Students with "Disabilities" meaning who are "differently abled"
Southwestern University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students should contact the Center for Academic Success and Records (CASAR) to determine their eligibility to receive accommodations.
It is the student's responsibility to discuss any necessary
accommodations with the appropriate faculty member in a timely manner.
(Note: This syllabus may be amended.)