CHEMISTRY 1905 Prof. Christy L. Haynes Smith Hall 121 Office: Smith 243 Tues 1:25 – 3:05 pm [email protected] THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT Spring Semester 2012, 2 Credits CHEM 1905 is a freshman seminar course at the University of Minnesota. While one major purpose of this course is to explore intellectual material, this course also presents the opportunity for you to interact directly with a small community of your peers and a University faculty member. Use the freshman seminar as a springboard for a successful experience at the University of Minnesota. Dystopian literature focuses on controlled or repressed projections of society, often enabled by either technological development or catastrophe. In this course, we will read several dytopian novels and delve into the scientific concepts introduced, debate social implications, and reflect on the works in both written and oral forms. Students registered in this course must use the UThink blog site created for this class. Things found on our blog: • Updated syllabus • Class announcements • Class blog topics • Paper/presentation guidelines • Links to useful websites To access the UThink blog for this course: 1. Go to http://blog.lib.umn.edu/chaynes/vonnegut2/ 2. Click on "Login to this blog" under Links on the left. 3. Enter your University of Minnesota Internet ID (X500 Username) and password 4. Choose the link to “The End of the World as We Know It.” This will take you to main menu for our course blog. 5. If you would like to see the main blog or post a comment to an existing discussion thread, click “View Site” on the left side of the page. ATTENDANCE: Attendance is important! You are responsible for all announcements and for all material covered in class. More than two unexcused absences from this class will result in a failing grade. SUPPLIES: Required • Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood (originally published 2003) • Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (originally published 1932) • Anthem, Ayn Rand (originally published 1938) • Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut (originally published 1963)POLICY ON SCHOLASTIC DISHONESTY: Scholastic dishonesty is any conduct described as follows (from the CLA Classroom Grading and Examinations Procedures): "Scholastic dishonesty is any act that violates the rights of another student with respect to academic work or that involves misrepresentation of a student's own work. Scholastic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) cheating on assignments or examinations; plagiarizing (misrepresenting as one's own anything done by another); submitting the same or substantially similar papers for more than one course without consent of all instructors concerned; depriving another of necessary course materials; sabotaging another's work." If a student is guilty of scholastic dishonesty, the instructor will assign a grade of zero on the work involved and will report the matter to the Office for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity (http://www1.umn.edu/oscai/conduct/student/index.html). OTHER IMPORTANT UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA POLICIES: University policies on sexual harassment, classroom conduct, students with disabilities, and more can be found at: http://policy.umn.edu/Policies/index.htm. COURSE GRADES (A-F): Your grades on the writing assignments, oral presentation, online discussion, and your participation, will be combined as follows to determine the overall grade in the course: Component Weight Participation 10% In-Class Writing 15% Scientific Presentation 25% Cover Letter/Resume 25% Creative Writing or Literary Analysis 25% Total 100% Letter grades and grade point average: Please refer to the Undergraduate Catalog at http://www.catalogs.umn.edu/ug/ for details on the University's grading policy. S/N Grading: For those in a college outside of the College and Science and Engineering, if you are registered for this course on an S/N basis, a grade equivalent to "C-" on the A-F scale is required in order to receive an "S". WEEKLY READING ASSIGNMENTS: I expect that you will read the assigned portions of the novels each week before class. If you do not complete the reading, the participation and in-class writing portions of your grade will suffer because you will not be fully engaged in the class activities. CREDITS AND WORKLOAD EXPECTATIONS: One credit is defined as equivalent to an average (over a full semester) of three hours of learning effort per week necessary for an average student to achieve an average grade in the course. For example, a student taking a two credit course that meets for two hours per week should expect tospend an additional four hours per week on coursework outside the classroom in order to achieve an average grade. INCOMPLETES: A student who is otherwise doing satisfactory work but cannot complete the final assignment for a valid reason can obtain a course grade of I (incomplete). Arrangements to receive this grade must be made with Prof. Haynes prior to the last week of class and provisions for making up the final assignment will be arranged on a case-by-case basis. A signed contract is required. It is expected that this option will rarely be exercised. WITHDRAWLS: I hope that every student will successfully complete this course. If, however, it becomes necessary to drop the course you must officially withdraw from the course following the rules for your college. PARTICIPATION: The participation portion of your grade will be based on attendance, your level of engagement in class discussions, and your role as a peer reviewer. DYSTOPIA-INSPIRED SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION: Purpose: Perform research on a scientific topic present in Brave New World, Cat’s Cradle, or Oryx and Crake – practice research and citation techniques. Create a presentation to share understanding with the entire class. Practice presentation skills. Lead class discussion on the role of science/technology in this novel. Guidelines: During the first class meeting, you will choose a scientific concept from a novel that is part of the assigned course reading. If you find that you prefer an alternate scientific topic from the same novel, please check with the instructor to ensure that your topic does not overlap with another group. You should work to learn the fundamental concepts behind the chosen scientific topic, making use of books, periodicals, websites, etc. You should then create a 20 minute presentation for the rest of