Dr. Sarah's First Year Seminar Class Highlights Fall 2009

The following is NOT HOMEWORK unless you miss part or all of the class. See the main class web page for ALL homework and due dates.

  • Mon Dec 7 Present abstracts. Course Review. Future research opportunities - IRB process and research opportunities such as the Appalachian Undergraduate Academy of Science program and the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) program, instructional assistant. Class slide show. Evaluations.
  • Wed Dec 2 Review Frenzy activity. When faced with an impossible situation to win, you can cooperate to arive at a situation where no one wins, you can forfeit, or you can wait it out until you are the last person standing. Relate to unsolved problems. Ethics of what to work on - dissection, atomic bomb. Friend or Foe. Take group picture. Reflect on what kind of research should our government support. Quotations. Share from the University Sponsored Activities project.
  • Mon Nov 30 Take questions on project 5 and final project. Pictures. Science blogs. Lab-Worn Doctor-Lady.
    Writing contest. Share from the recent news article that interests you about a breakthrough or controversy in science or mathematics from the assignment on Monday October 26 (we already analyzed the article for formal writing and rewrote some of it informally, but now you will be asked to share what you found in the article).
    Use cartoons to break up into groups.
    1. Give an example from this semester where an aspect of your personal, historical, or cultural perspectives caused a problem in one of your courses.
    2. Give an example from this semester where an aspect of your personal, historical, or cultural perspectives positively affected the generation of knowledge / led to your success.
    Frenzy
  • Mon Nov 23 Reflect on unsolved questions and research versus problem solving. Momix reflection. Form groups by the random sequence generator. Break up into 4 groups. Ethics in class. Break up into 7 groups. In groups, reflect on
    I. C. Examine and evaluate how their own personal, historical, and cultural perspectives affect the discovery and generation of knowledge;
    Notable Failures
    Class slides
    Are genetically modified foods safe to eat? Nectarine. Bigger, disease resistance, etc. Relate to Thanksgiving.
    Balloons - sometimes it is easier to work alone but more fun to work together.
  • Wed Nov 18 Meet in the library. Peer Review Reflection on presentations or on Dr. Donovan Leonard. Go over assignments for the rest of the semester. Work on the final project.
  • Mon Nov 16 Project 4.
  • Wed Nov 11 Meet in CAP.
  • Mon Nov 9 Hannah's discussed registration and activities. Quote of the day x2. Review the themes of multiple "answers" in science and mathematics, the process of research and designing experiments. Begin the theme of how we analyze the results of studies and experiments and make decisions. Also discuss the theme of how we find unsolved problems. 1969 Vietnam draft. Draft data and Starr. Ceria nanoparticles in human lung fibrolasts. Taking Sides Should the development of nanotechnology be slowed? Divide the class into both sides. Which arguments were most compelling to you? Arguments became more similar as time went on.
    I. C. Examine and evaluate how their own personal, historical, and cultural perspectives affect the discovery and generation of knowledge;
    Etiquette for scientific and mathematical talks. Research Donovan Leonard in Academic OneFile from the library and the web and write down a question for him.
  • Wed Nov 4 Meet in the library. Quote of the Day. Work on Project 4.
  • Mon Nov 2 Quote of the Day. Writing Tip. Hannah's Tip and Activities. Discuss can machines be conscious.
    Pilot Ace Turing Test ALICE Plays Turing's Original Imitation Game Can Computers Win the Turing Test?
    Pleo Seal, Most human looking robots in 2007, Einstein robot, Jules. Neurotechnology and mathematics in the brain. Design a building.
  • Wed Oct 28 Quote of the day. Reflect on class deciding on activity and relate to scientific community converging on a theory. Phlogiston experiment. GE experiment. Dr. Jill Thomley and design of experiments.
  • Mon Oct 26 Read the writing tips. Compare with the printed article. Choose one paragraph from your printed article and rewrite it as if you were chatting with a friend. Hannah's Tip and Activities. Continue the theme of research versus problem solving. Can we turn one item into another (iron into gold, for example)? Pants activity. From this initial state, is this state possible?. Designing models and experiments. Sun rise. Motion of stars. Planets. Decide about Tuesday the 27th.
  • Wed Oct 21 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction writing activity. Collect homework. Take questions on Project 4. Problem solving versus research continued. Generating knowledge in science and mathematics - research on games.
  • Mon Oct 19 During the first part of class today, we will work on portions of the the general education objective:
    I. C. Examine and evaluate how their own personal, historical, and cultural perspectives affect the discovery and generation of knowledge;
    1. Take the HumanMetrics Questionnaire.
    2. On ASULearn message me the Myers-Briggs type that the test gave you.
    3. Next read through the description of the type the test gave you and the "opposite" type with no common letters at The 16 MBTI Types.
    4. If time remains before we come back together, research to find some controversial aspects of the MBTI Indicator.
    MBTI reflection and relationship to success in courses.
    Hannah's tip of the week and activities. Quote of the day. Discuss TAKING SIDES. Look at the results of the class survey from last week.
  • Wed Oct 14 Share an interesting or surprising aspect from project 3. Form groups by the random sequence generator. Imagine that a friend deposits $1,440 into your bank account each morning. You have 24 hours in which to spend the money, with no balance carried over from day to day. Any money that you fail to use will be canceled at the end of that day. What would you do? Discuss with in your group.
    Conducting our own research - work in groups on: The Chemical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
    Part 1 of the case:
    1) What additional questions would you like to ask?
    2) Are there any experiments or tests you would like to perform?
    When you have completed these questions, ask me for part 2.
  • Mon Oct 12 Meet in 209b. Hannah's tips and activities - look at the forum on ASULearn and the posting titled Sarah J Greenwald. Quote of the day. Group Juggle revisited - try to get around to everyone as fast as we can. Taking sides introduction - form a group of 3-4 people and discuss your 3 responses. Review course goals. Take the anonymous survey on ASULearn about the course. We'll look at the class responses together. Review preliminary research for project 1. Search for Michael Coble's research on the web, and pull this up. The class searches for these references in library databases (Subject Guide Forensics, Web of Science, Academic OneFile, Academic Search Premier, PubMed). Search in advanced Google scholar from 1999-. Work on project 3.
  • Wed Oct 7 Share who you are interviewing, what area they are in, and why you chose them.
    Beginning of the course: Breakthroughs and controversies applied to summer reading book and scientific topics you are interested in, as we learn how to conduct library research, look at multiple sides of an issue, and look at author credibility.
    This week: What is the process of applied and theoretical research in science and mathematics.
    Starting next Wednesday: Make these themes more personal - how can we design experiments and conduct research on unsolved problems.
    Andrew Wiles and Proof (proof.mov). Take notes.
    What are the controversies?
    What are the breakthroughs?
    What is the process of mathematical research like?
    Search for Author: Wiles, A* Look at MR1333036 and MR1333035. Also do "Search for Full Text" and pull up the actual articles. Look for the references. Look at google search for Andrew Wiles and Andrew Wiles site:www.math.princeton.edu search. arXiv.org search for Andrew Wiles. Google scholar search for Andrew Wiles.
  • Mon Oct 5 Hannah's Tip of the Week, interesting activities at the university and mathematics and science activities, project 5, quote of the day. Discuss Bender's Big Score/Research/Scholarship. Use a random sequence generator to call on people to discuss the article. Discuss The Science Behind Anastasia Discuss controversies in DNA typing. Listen to some of the interview with Michael Coble. Search for Michael Coble's research.
  • Wed Sep 30 Collect project 2. Discuss project 1 and project 3. Watch some of my mathematics feature on Bender's Big Score. Name game from Monday continued.
  • Mon Sep 28 Hannah's Tip of the week and science and mathematics activities at the university. Quote of the day. Reflect on the GIC - the breakthroughs, the controversies, and the connections to science and mathematics. Discuss related physics and geometry connections
    The weight of the average adult human head is approximately 12 pounds. For the tress fall, would the head of Blaire or Reid make the most forceful impact? Why? Whose head would hit fastest? Why? Elephant and Feather - Free Fall, and Elephant and Feather - Air Resistance).
    Who should stand on which end of the mountain peak board for maximum stability
    Constructing a square. Construct perpendiculars then draw in circles to get perpendiculars and even more circles. Make small square first - shoulder to shoulder and count off. Grab rope and take steps back. Or fold length in half and then in quarters. Count off and have 1/4 class stand at that length. Repeat until close back up. Construct an equilateral triangle out of two pieces of rope. 2 people stand along length. 2 other people take the lengths and they create circles until they meet.
    Balancing the entire group on the smallest mountain peak platform.
  • Discuss project 2 and updates to the course calendar. Discuss scholarly journals versus magazines: Nature. Discuss creditable versus credible and formal writing and the writing center. Name game. Write down the people in the class whose name begins with an E. Then they introduce themselves - my name is ____ and it begins with an E. With an A. With an S. Ends in a H. Ends in an E. Ends in a Y. The people who weren't in any other category. Reflect on connection to science and mathematics. Discuss homework reading. Search for the credentials of the two authors David L. Bodde and Robert Zubrin.
  • Wed Sep 23 Meet in the Outdoor Programs in the Student Recreation Center for the GIC.
  • Mon Sep 21 Hannah's Tip of the Week and science and mathematics activities at the university. Quote of the day. Discuss 1 truth and 1 lie (I was born in Buffalo, NY, and I failed my first calculus test in college). Discuss the topics chosen from Defining Moments for the preliminary research and for project 1. Discuss GIC (as we complete activities, think about the breakthroughs, the controversies, and connections to mathematics and science), and homework for next week, including project 2.
  • Wed Sep 16 Meet in the library.
  • Mon Sep 14 Collect reflection. Hannah's Tip. Activities this week. Quote of the day. Discuss reflection for Wed, upcoming projects, GIC, and MOMIX. Names in motion. Discuss TAKING SIDES. If time remains, then go over library research part 1.
  • Wed Sep 9 Share name history. Collect reflection on summer reading book. Finish egg bungee experiment. While waiting for the contest, go back to the calendar from the first day and work on the class discussion activity. Discuss convocation, upcoming events and projects. Class discussion on the summer reading book.
  • Wed Sep 2 Quote of the day. Collect $20. Library databases for SYNC.
  • Library Research Guides by Subject and
  • LibraryDatabase Collections by Subject (Jstor SYNC then Steven Strogatz, MathSciNet)
  • arXiv.org e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology and Statistics [once you have located an article, check to see whether it has been accepted for publication as some of the articles in this database are in the review process]
  • google scholar search.
  • Compare and contrast with some of Hannah's web references from her PowerPoint.
    Review Cayman Island coin toss. Randomness continued. Pick a random number from 1 to 10 experiment and Excel analyses, chi test and p-value. Egg bungee experiment and r2 value. Names in motion. case study: class discussion
  • Mon Aug 31 Collect SYNC reflection and class money. Quote of the day. Hannah introduction, tip, and science and mathematics activities. Share from syllabus and also concentrate on learning names. Take class pictures. Cayman Island coin toss for blanket activity. Discuss SYNC. Hannah presents SYNC info.
  • Wed Aug 26 Survey, information sheet, introductions, choice of final exam day, discuss course and advice from last semester. Group juggle, success in college studies.