BIS 300c: Interdisciplinary Inquiry
Spring 2009– UW2-205
TTh 11:00am – 1:05pm
Instructors
Robert Turner / Robert EstesAsst. Professor of Environmental Science / Science Reference and Instructional Librarian
UW2-210 / LB1-310G
(425) 352-3616 / (425) 352-5242
/
With help from the staff of The Writing Center, The Quantitative Skills Center, The Career Center,and The IAS Program
Office Hours
MW 3-5pm, Th 2-3pm / By appointmentText to Get
Reynolds, N and Rice, R (2006). Portfolio Keeping: A Guide for Students. Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston, MA. 60p.
Course Description
Interdisciplinary Inquiry is a 5 credit seminar-style course where student contribution in the classroom is the primary goal and lectures are essentially nonexistent. The learning objectives and activities of the course are facilitated by the professor in collaboration with staff of the Library, the Teaching and LearningCenter, theWritingCenter, the QuantitativeSkillsCenter, and the CareerCenter.
The purpose of BIS 300 is to introduce and orient students to upper-division work in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences program (IAS). This includes an introduction to the use of a portfolio, a personal academic history book students will build by inserting and assessing key work throughout their IAS career.
BIS 300 will teach you how to pose questions, conduct research to find answers to those questions, realize that those answers only produce more questions, then pursue those questions as well.1 The course content is less important than the student’s understanding of and engagement with this complex process of producing knowledge, both individually and socially.2
As we produce knowledge through the guided reading of challenging texts, spirited and thoughtful discussion of complex intellectual concepts, and careful writing, each student will develop a foundation of ideas and skills for success as an IAS major, and more importantly, as a lifelong learner.3
What sets this version of BIS 300 apart from other sections is the focus of our knowledge production. You will be challenged to develop a proposal for a senior seminar course in the IAS program that the professor will be teaching in spring 2010. The course will have a sustainability research orientation and a community partnership component. The target audience for the course will include (but not be limited to) students in the following options - Environmental Studies (particularly the Sustainability and Society track), GST, SEB, and STS.
To come up with a good proposal will require everyone in the class to learn about sustainability, community service learning models, the shared characteristics of IAS senior seminars, the differences between the various options in IAS, and the interests of students in the targeted options. We will acquire a good working knowledge of these various topics via assigned readings (and a few films), independent online research, lots of in class discussion, and by designing and conducting interviews and surveys.
After we establish a base of understanding on sustainability issues, students will work in groups to investigate more specific questions of interest. As you will find, the practice of framing the questions, finding the answers, and generating a proposal for an IAS course are interdisciplinary tasks that will set you on the track for success in IAS and beyond.
1 From Burgett, B (2004). BIS 300 Interdisciplinary Inquiry syllabus. Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program, University of Washington Bothell.
2 From Krabill, R (2006). BIS 300 Interdisciplinary Inquiry syllabus. Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program, University of Washington Bothell.
3 From Goldstein, D (2006). BIS 300 Interdisciplinary Inquiry syllabus. Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program, University of Washington Bothell.
Student Learning Goals
All BIS 300 courses are designed to help students:
- Understand and become excited about the interdisciplinary production of knowledge and the ways it underwrites different aspects of the IAS program;
- Gain a critical understanding of the IAS program's diverse and inter-related (inter)disciplinary fields and methods of inquiry.
- Become better readers, with enhanced skills in reading and interpreting not only text but also data.
- Become better critical thinkers and writers, capable of posing and addressing a variety of complex questions, and writing in a variety of modes. As part of this process, become more skilled at critical self-reflection on their own work.
- Become better researchers, able to use resources at UWB and elsewhere in order to identify existing and complementary scholarly work while producing original knowledge through data gathering and interpretation.
- Learn to work collaboratively, as both learners and teachers.
In addition to the above objectives, it is expected that students who complete this section of BIS 300 will also be able to:
- Explain the purposes and value of a learning portfolio, as well as demonstrate their ability to create one that meets their personal goals and IAS standards.
- Explain the purpose and shared characteristics of the IAS Senior Seminar.
- Articulate a personal philosophy on sustainability and discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with pursuing it.
- Evaluate the cases for and against the sustainability movement and sustainable development proposals.
- Evaluate sustainability scholarship from disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.
- Articulate how they have improved in their abilities to: tolerate ambiguity in readings and assignments; anticipate and resolve conflict in group situations; and take advantage of diverse skills and perspectives in group work.
- Document how they have improved in their abilities to:compare, synthesize, and assess multiple perspectives; and present, support, and evaluate positions and conclusions (their own and those of others) in their writing.
- Document how they have developed in their capacity to conduct research as characterized in the IAS Assessment Rubric for interdisciplinary research.
Ground Rules and Support
Course Workload
The general university expectation is that you will need to work a minimum of 10 hours per week on this course outside of the classroom to keep up with the assignments and achieve the learning goals. Successful students will likely spend more time than this. These hours include time devoted to course readings, homework assignments, writing assignments, and group collaboration. We strongly encourage you to budget your time wisely. Being present for each class period is only the first step to succeeding in this course and is generally insufficient by itself to ensure academic success in the IAS program.
Participation in Class Discussions and Group Activities
Open discussions and group work are fundamental to the success of this course. Participation in these activities will have a bearing on your final grade. To ensure maximum benefit for all involved, please adhere to the following guidelines during discussion and group activities:
- Make an effort to foster a positive group dynamic and take advantage of the group outside of the classroom. Your time interacting with your fellow students has the potential to be one of the most stimulating aspects of the course.
- Try not to let your previous ideas or prejudices interfere with your freedom of thinking. Seek out differences in opinion - they enrich discussion.
- Stick to the subject during discussions. Try to avoid long stories or anecdotes.
- Assist and encourage others in your group as you design and pursue your research projects. Explore and take advantage of each other’s strengths.
- Come to class prepared for discussion. That means do the readings!
Academic Integrity
Participation in this course comes with our expectation that your work will be completed in full observance of University of Washington’s policy on academic integrity. Accordingly, no cheating or plagiarism will be tolerated. Cheating is the use or attempted use on a quiz, test, or other formal examination of sources of information not specifically permitted by the instructor, or the assistance of another student in such unauthorized use of information. Plagiarism is the use of another person’s words or ideas misrepresented as one’s own original work. All confirmed cases of plagiarism will result, at a minimum, in a failure of the assignment and a letter to the Vice Chancellor. You are encouraged to discuss course assignments with each other, but what you submit must be your work. If you have questions about what can be considered cheating, facilitation, or plagiarism, please ask the instructor and visit the following web pages:
Academic Support
There are two academic support centers on campus: The Quantitative Skills Center (QSC) and the WritingCenter. The WritingCenter supports UWB students with any aspect of the reading and writing process.
WritingCenter:UW2-124
The QSC supports students in any area of inquiry that requires quantitative reasoning. It’s the place to seek help and work with others on common problems.
QSC: UW2-134
Technology in the Classroom
Since technology can greatly enhance education, we will be employing a variety of technologies to gather, produce, and express knowledge. But there are times when technology can be intrusive and disruptive to the education process. Please refrain from surfing the web and text messaging during class.
Course Assignments
It is likely that most of the courses in your life have been content and lecture dominated. You have been trained to politely absorb information presented, then regurgitate as much of it as you can remember back on exams. This is not going to be one of those courses. You will not be a passive vessel to be filled with the instructor’s thoughts. This course is largely about the process of learning, being aware of how it happens, and putting your new-found understanding and student powers to work. All of this requires you to be an active learner.
We will prompt and examine your process of learning in multiple ways. These will include directed readings, group discussions (in class and online), reflective and analytical papers, and the generation of a course portfolio.
Reading Assignments
Because there will be no venue for the simple absorption and regurgitation of lecture-delivered facts…because one of the primary course learning objectives is to enhance your skills in reading and interpreting texts…because much of our learning and group work will spring from discussions and writing on shared readings…it is absolutely essential that you do the assigned readings.
The reading assignments can be seen on the course schedule at the end of this syllabus and online. You will note that instead of a textbook, there are many diverse readings from a wide variety of sources. Although there are generally multiple readings required for each class period, the good news is that most of them are much shorter than a typical textbook chapter. You will have to work withus to make all of this diverse reading synthesize into a coherent learning experience!
Writing Assignments
This course is a framework for you to advance as a self-reflective learner and critical thinker. One of the best ways to prompt this development is via the writing process. Accordingly, much of thecourse work will include writing. That includes writing on what you read, writing on what you are thinking, revising what you’ve already written, writing questions you’d like to have answered, etc. Approximately 80% of your grade will be based on what you write! What is this, some sort of English class? Well, no. We will, of course, be expecting to see junior level writing proficiency, but what we are most interested in seeing is evidence of thought and engagement. Take this opportunity to let your inner scholar speak through your writing. Invest yourself. Don’t settle for the easy answers or obvious questions. Dig deeper into the assignments. Do your own research beyond the course bibliography. Use the writing process to give your mind a workout.
The Portfolio
As you complete school assignments, the easy thing to do is to forget about them. But wait! You can get more out of them. What if you collected them and used them to evaluate your progress as a learner? This is what you will start doing in this course. You will build a learning portfolio, a personal academic history “book” consisting of key documents from your coursework in all of your classesthat best demonstrate your thinking and learning. This class will be where you start this process. As you progress through the IAS program, you should continually add to your portfolio and actively reflect on how your collective work on the assignments in these very diverse courses adds up to a coherent educational experience.
More specifically, you should use the portfolio to:
Identify areas of success, growth, and challenge as you prepare for your upcoming courses, particularly your senior seminar;
Develop and apply an understanding of the IAS program learning goals in relation to your own scholarship; and
Practice the process of revision in order to integrate the learning goals into your approach to scholarship.
The Senior Seminar Project
Much of your thinking and work in this course will be directed toward your internal journey as a student and scholar. But we will also concern ourselves with the world outside of your skin. How do you transform from solitary learner to active contributor as a researcher in the world? The term project will give us the framework to both model this process and work on collaboration skills.
After we have learned about our environmental challenges and the socio-ecological movement known as sustainability, we shall turn our attention to the development of a new IAS senior seminar course – one with a sustainability research orientation and a community partnership component. How can you help to design this course? What do you think you would have to know to contribute in a worthy way? You will work in small groups of 5 to identify what you would like to know and ways to find answers to your questions. As a group you will create, conduct, and analyze a survey, conduct some interviews, and identify some worthy organizations working to foster sustainable practices within a community. As an individual, you will find at least one article (that hasn’t been assigned) that you think would be a good candidate for the reading list of the senior seminar. As a final deliverable for BIS 300, you will submit a proposal for the senior seminar that will contain an analysis of your group research results, a discussion of all the group survey results, and some activities you think would be great for this senior seminar.
Course Evaluation
Your grade in this course will be determined by your performance on the evaluation instruments shown in the table below with relative values.
Reflective Essays (2) / 20 points / 8.7%Diamond Critique – Draft / 10 points / 4.4%
Diamond Critique – Revision Goals / 5 points / 2.2%
Diamond Critique – Final / 10 points / 4.4%
Diamond Peer Review / 10 points / 4.4%
Quantitative Skills Worksheet / 8 points / 3.5%
Research Questions (2) / 10 points / 4.4%
Annotated Bibliography / 5 points / 2.2%
Group Survey – Questions & Goals / 5 points / 2.2%
Group Survey – Final / 5 points / 2.2%
Group Survey – Database / 10 points / 4.4%
FinalProposal / 15 points / 6.7%
Portfolio – Archive online / 5 points / 2.2%
Portfolio – Outline / 5 points / 2.2%
Portfolio – Draft (with Introduction) / 10 points / 4.4%
Portfolio – Critique(option for 2nd reflective essay)
Portfolio – Final / 40 points / 17.5%
Participation / 21.9%
Blackboard Discussions (2) / 10 points
Class Participation / 20 points
Group Effort / 20 points
Total Points / 228 points* / 100%
Incompletes
University policy states: “An incomplete may be given only when the student has been in attendance, has done satisfactory work to within two weeks of the end of the quarter, and has furnished proof satisfactory to the instructor that the work cannot be completed, because of illness or other circumstances beyond the student's control. To obtain credit for the course, a student must convert an Incomplete into a passing grade no later than the last day of the next quarter.” Incompletes are like a ball and chain… they drag you down. Don’t go there.
Grading Scale
Grades will be determined according to the following scale:
A = 4.0 =100-99% B = 3.1 = 86%C = 2.1 = 76% D+ = 1.4 = 69%
3.9 = 98-97% 3.0 = 85%2.0 = 75%1.3 = 68%,
A- =3.8 = 96-95%2.9 = 84% 1.9 = 74%1.2 = 67%,
3.7 = 94-93% B- = 2.8 = 83%C- = 1.8 = 73% D =1.1 = 66%,
3.6 = 92-91% 2.7 = 82%1.7 = 72% 1.0 = 65%,
3.5 = 90%2.6 = 81% 1.6 = 71% 0.9 = 64-63%
B+ =3.4 = 89%2.5 = 80%1.5 = 70% D- =0.8 = 62%
3.3 = 88% C+ =2.4 = 79%0.7 = 61-60%
3.2 = 87%2.3 = 78% (lowest passing grade)
2.2 = 77%
I do not use a curve. You accumulate points…I add them up…I divide by the total number of possible points. That’s it.
Missed Work and Lateness Policy
For every day you are late in turning one of the assignments, your grade on that assignment will be reduced by 5%. However, latitude on assignment due dates may be granted for documented emergencies and illness.
Course Bibliography
Brin, D (2005). A Glass Half Empty: Jared Diamond’s ‘Collapse’ Shows Santayana Was Right About that Little History Thing. San Diego Union-Tribune. [Online] Available:
Diamond, J (2005a). The World as a Polder: What Does it All Mean Today, in Collapse. Penguin Books, NY. Pp. 486-525
Diamond, J (2005b). Further Readings, in Collapse. Penguin Books, NY. Pp. 486-525
Felder, R (1997). Meet your Students. Chemical Engineering Education, 31(2): 106-107. [Online] Available:
Felder, R and Solomon, B (No Date). Index of Learning Styles. North CarolinaStateUniversity. [Online] Available: 3/19/07.
Freire, P (2002). The Banking Concept of Education, in Bartholomae, D and Petrosky, A, eds., Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers, 6th ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston. Pp. 258-273.
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (2009a). The UWB Interdisciplinary Arts and Science Program. University of Washington, Bothell. [Online] Available:
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (2009b). Senior Seminar. University of Washington Bothell. [Online] Available:
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (2009c). 2009-2010 IAS Senior Seminar Packet. University of Washington, Bothell. [Online] Available: