Freshman Forum, CAS 101, Fall 2002

Meetings:
	Mondays, 3 - 4:20 PM
	108 Bowne Hall

Faculty members:
	Alan Middleton	Maxim Marchevsky
	443-2408 (Office) 423-0321 (Home, before 10 PM)	443-2579 (Office) 422-3097 (Home)
	211 Physics Building	217 Physics Building
	aam@syr.edu	marchev@physics.syr.edu
	Office hours: 3-4 Wed., 2-3 Mon., or by Appt.	Office hours: TBA

Goals:: The goals of this forum are to help you get started and to get more out of your university experience by discussing shared goals and concerns about being a student and ideas related to the Freshman Lecture. We hope this course will help you to become acquainted with the members of your community: other students, the faculty and staff of the University, and the residents in the SU area.

Grading:: You will receive a letter grade for this course. This grade will reflect your attendance at regular classes, active participation, completion of assignments, and your attendance of events. Everyone starts out with a grade of an B+. If you miss or don't actively participate in a class, an event, or don't turn in an assignment, your grade will drop by a step (for example, B to B-.) If you miss an outside event and don't inform one of the faculty ahead of time, your grade will drop by two steps. You can raise your grade by one step by making an extra, creative contribution to the class, such as investigating something for discussion at the beginning of class. (Classes will begin with some time for general discussion of the past week.) Two steps up (with no steps down) get you an A. That is the CAS101 grade we hope will be recorded on everyone's transcript.

Student responsibilities:

Attendance at all Monday meetings (7 meetings.)
Attendance at 3 events: dinner the week of Sept. 7, play on either Sept. 25 or Sept. 26, and neighborhood field trip the week of Sept. 16.
Active participation in meetings and events (contributing ideas in discussion and focusing attention on the reading and writing.)
4 journal reports/essays (1 every 2 weeks, due Sept. 9, Sept. 23, Oct. 7 and Oct. 21.) You are requested to write reflections on the beginning of your college experience, written as an essay or as a letter to an individual. The length is at least a full page and are to be submitted in written or printed form at the beginning of class. These writings are considered confidential and will be returned to you at the end of the course.
A written summary of interviews on goals, success, and grades.
A reading analysis, related to the Freshman lecture reading material.
Extra prepared contributions to the class discussions.

SCHEDULE

Mon., Aug 26	Introductory meeting: photographs, introductions, survey, course overview, campus walk (observatory, Dome echo, hospitals.)
Week of Sept. 2	Labor day holiday - so no class. Dinner out will be scheduled for this week.
Mon., Sept. 9	Reflective writing due.First reading analysis due.Success/grade interviews due. The politics of Star Trek (videos). Also, what do grades mean? How does one study for an exam?
Week of Sept. 16	Yom Kippur holiday - so no class. Tour of the University neighborhood will be scheduled for this week.
Mon., Sept. 23	Reflective writing due. What do professors do with their time? Includes research lab tour.
Wed./Thurs., Sept. 25/26	M. Butterfly at the Syracuse Stage.
Sept. 30	International component of the university: instructors & students, study abroad.
Oct. 7	Reflective writing due. Second reading analysis due. Discussion of the role of science in people's lives: what is science, what is fiction? Are science and technology "bad" or "good"?
Oct. 14	Impressions of Freshman lecture : additional discussion of science. Decide Oct. 21 activity.
Oct. 21	Reflective writing due. Democratically chosen activity (subject to veto.)

Grades & Success Interview Assignment

Please hand in a one and a half to two page summary and discussion of the meanings of grades and their correlation with achievement or success. In preparation, you are required to ask a few questions of a professor, an SU student and another person (could be another student or professor, or someone else.) These questions are:

What is success in a course (or the course you teach)?
What is the purpose of assigning a grade to a student?
How do grades correlate with achievement or with success?
(Ask of any student) How do grades and success in a course differ from high school goals?
What would you recommend doing if I started to fall behind in a course?