FYS 100-235: First Year Seminar

Syllabus & Assignments

Wk	Topic	Assignment
1	Introduction: Class logistics; The 7 domains of critical thinking. How this class will be taught: activities will be authentic, integrative, ill-structured, staged, collaborative, and reiterative. General theme of this class: Resources (especially energy).	Activity: Core domains in everyday life
2	Using the New York Times in Class	Activity: Definition of outlier
3	Library Session 1: Reference Sources	Activity: Reference Sources
4	Library Session 2: Popular News Sources	Activity: Info literacy:
5	Library Session 3: Popular Magazines/ Scholarly journals	Activity: Popular periodicals
6	Library Session 4: Evaluating and Citing	Activity: Info Lit
7	Outliers: Matthew Effect	Activity: Matthew Effect
8	Outliers: 10,000 hour rule	Activity: Integrative activity: Marshall Plan
9	Energy Resources: Sources, facts, and problems	Activity: Clean Coal?
10	Trouble with Geniuses:	Activity: Debate: What affects/ influences success
	Current Events	Assignment 6
11	Energy Resources: Problems	Assignment 7
12	Joe Flum:	Assignment 9: Cultures
13	Energy Resources: Problems	Assignment 10: Nuclear Energy
14	Harlan KY:	Assignment 11:
15	Energy Resources	Activity: Global warming debate
16	Outliers: Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes	Activity: SwissAir/ EgyptAir/ TWA/PanAm
17	Rice Paddies & Math Tests	Activity 12: Length of numerals assignment
18	Marita’s Bargain:	Activity 13: Educational Systems in different countries
19	Definition of Success Revisited	Assignment 14
20	Current Events	Assignment 15