STS 401, Spring 2009
Michael E. Gorman,
4-3439,
Note on Professionalism: All professionals have to re-schedule deadlines and must occasionally miss meetings. But professionals provide advance notice, when possible, or--in the event of illness, accident, or other crisis--make an effort to contact colleagues and/or supervisors as soon as possible. In the event you must re-schedule a deadline, provide me with a memo before the due date, explaining the reasons for the delay and indicating when the assignment will be completed. I will initial it if I approve the request.
The Honor System and the School of Engineering and Applied Science
The School of Engineering and Applied Science relies upon and cherishes its community of trust. We firmly endorse, uphold, and embrace the University’s Honor principle that students will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor shall they tolerate those who do. We recognize that even one honor infraction can destroy an exemplary reputation that has taken years to build. Acting in a manner consistent with the principles of honor will benefit every member of the community both while enrolled in the Engineering School and in the future.
Please remember to pledge every assignment.
You are always bound by the honor code
in this class. Be careful not to plagiarize,
which means copying more than five consecutive words from a source other than
your own writing. You also must give credit for any ideas that are not your
own, or are not common knowledge. Please follow proper citation
format.
Note on Discussion: Class participation is an important component of your grade. You are allowed to have one unexcused absences from class. (Job interviews count as excused absences--please alert me in advance).Beyond that, I take-off for every class you miss. Why? Because this is a seminar, and you owe it to your peers to be there to carry your load in discussion, listen to presentations, etc.--in other words, this is a matter of professional courtesy.
As part of your class participation, each student will be required to lead at least one discussion . You should pick one of the readings, and come to class prepared to guide an intelligent, informed discussion of it, directing and focusing when necessary. While I have provided some questions for discussion in the schedule on the collab site, discussion leaders should bring in their own questions—it is my impression that student-generated questions are more effective at provoking discussion than mine. There should be at least two facilitators for each reading.
The other participation component of the class is having read the article(s) for each class, and being ready to offer a brief oral summary, or respond to a question. The instructor reserves the right to ask students to respond to a question in writing, at any time during the class--especially if he feels the students have not read the assignment.
Other thesis -related assignments, are described on the general syllabus for STS 401
Required Texts: Jared Diamond, Collapse, available in paperback at the bookstore
Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (New York: Houghton Miffllin, 2006), available at the UVA bookstore or Amazon or most bookstores in paperback.
Assignments related to these readings will be described on the collab site.
Hints on building a literature review: