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Fall 2004
FYS 101A First Year Seminar (AH) SENSE OF PLACE 3 credits
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GFR/GER:Meets A/H. GDR:Meets H. What
social and cultural meanings do we attach
to such everyday environments as "the
city," "the suburbs," "the countryside"?
Our own comfort level and our
understanding of such settings have
immense consequences, both in terms of the
kinds of choices we make about our own
lives-where we want to live, work, engage
in other activities- as well as how our
society is shaped now and how it will be
shaped in the future. Since the topic is
inherently interdisciplinary, the course
will draw upon insights from a variety of
fields, including American Studies,
Literature, Geography, Sociology, and
Psychology. Readings will include novels
set in urban Baltimore and rural Colorado,
together with a vareity of other articles
and essays. The course will function in
seminar format, with discussion based upon
readings and assignments. Class field
trips for observations of local
Baltimore-area sites will provide
opportunities for first-hand investigation
testing concepts from the course. We will
visit a Baltiore neighborhood, the nearby
greenspace of Patapsco Valley State Park,
and the planned suburban community of
Columbia. Regular writing assignments will
include essays on the assigned readings,
field observation and analysis reports,
and a final project on a particular
"place," presented either in power-point
or on-line format. This course carries
Arts and Humanities credit within the
General Foundation requirements. Its
emphasis upon reading, writing, discussion
and field research makes it an excellent
introductory course for first year
students.
[3019] 0101 MW.........2:00pm- 3:15pm (ITE 237) ORSER, E
FYS 101B First Year Seminar (AH) Living and Dying 3 credits
in Ancient Athens: An Archaeologist's
Point of View (AH)
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GFR/GER:Meets A/H. GDR:Meets H. In this
course we will investigate the way people
lived and died in Athens during the period
sometimes called "The Golden Age of
Athens," ca 460-400 BCE. First, students
will learn how to interpret archaeological
remains from the period. Second, they will
be introduced to the other disciplines
used by archaeologists of Athens, classics
and history, in which the primary focus is
written evidence. My colleauges in the
Ancient Studies Department will serve as
visiting scholars to explain life in
Athens from their own prospectivess
(warfare, economy, education in the
theater, literature). The students will
work with primary evidence, including
artifacts in the Walters Art Museum. The
class introduces them to the evaluation of
sources, since the material and written
remains do not seem to agree in many
cases. It also brings students to the
understanding of the necessity, at least
in classical archaeology, of using printed
as well as Web based sources in research
projects.
[7557] 0101 TuTh.......1:00pm- 2:15pm (FA 006) GOLDBERG, M
FYS 101C First Year Seminar (AH) Beethoven's Music 3 credits
& Cultural Legacy
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GFR/GER:Meets A/H. GDR:Meets H. Few
figures in Western musical history possess
such an enduring fascination as Beethoven.
He is one of those artists--such as
Shakespeare or Michelangelo--so central to
Western cultural history that any telling
of this "story" is scarcely conceivable
without them. This course will have three
main aims: firstly, that of attaining a
greater understanding of Beethoven's music
through close listening of representative
works from all three periods of his
artistic output. The basic elements of
Beethoven's musical form will be explained
and certain works analyzed closely. Later,
individual groups will present for the
class analyses of their favorite works.
The ability to read music is not required,
and all analysis wil be aurally based.
Secondly, it is hoped that these efforts
will lead to a deeper understanding of the
notion of abstract music; that a piece of
music can unfold a coherent and powerful
experience through purely musical means,
without the crutch of a text program. In
Beethoven's time this was a radically new
notion, and it was largely due to his
influence that it has become inseparable
from the high cultural prestige of
classical music. Thirdly, this course will
focus on the heritage of Beethoven's
entire cultural setting, the Golden Age of
German culture, and its role in
propagating a "spiritual" from of cultural
enlightenment, intended to be both
universal in its ideals and specific in
speaking directly to each person's
innermost soul. Readings form recent
approaches will question the relevance and
validity of this legacy -- including the
notions of high art -- in our present
culture.
[3020] 0101 TuTh......11:30am-12:45pm (FA 212) COX, F
FYS 102A First Year Seminar (SS) Images of Madness 3 credits
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GFR/GER:Meets SS. GDR:Meets S. In
contemporary society, vitrually everyone
goes to movies theatres or views feature
films at home on videos, DVD's or
televisoin. For many people, films,
regardless of their accuracy, serve as a
major source of information on social
issues, including mental illness. This
course reviews Academy Award winning films
depicting mental illness to consider the
influence of motion pictures on the public
perception of social issues, policies, and
services. Beginning with The Snake Pit
(1948) through As Good as it Gets (1997),
we will analyze films using a historical
framework and in conjunction with assigned
readings that address cultural
stereotypes, societal attitudes, and the
public's response toward people with
mental illness. We will look at the
history of treatment and services for
persons with mental illness, social work
practic, and service delivery networks, In
addition, we will explore critical
concepts in socal work practice and policy
related to people with mental illness. The
class will engage in critical thinking,
analysis, and discussion of these
issues--including social work's role as
advocate and change agent. Class
assignments, case studies, and group
exercises will help us to understand the
potential power of the mass media,
specifically films, and to question our
awareness of and response to mental
illness.
[3021] 0101 Tu.........4:30pm- 7:00pm (SS 204) TICE, C
FYS 102B First Year Seminar (SS) Contrasting 3 credits
Visions of Society
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GFR/GER:Meets SS. GDR:Meets S. This
course will be based on reading four
influential works, which set forth
contrasting visions of society. The four
works are Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations,
Plato's Republic, Marx and Engels'
Communist Manifesto, and Max Weber's
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism. Each of these works with which
educated people are expected to be
familiar since each of them continues to
shape discussions of policy and social
affairs. Yet undergraduate students are
all to infrequently provided opportunites
to study these texts first hand in their
general education courses. This course
will provide students with this
opportunity. It will aim to develop an
understanding of each of these four texts
and the contrasts between the visions of
society implicit in each of them. In
addition each student will be asked to
read and report on a piece that exhibits
the contemporary influence of one of the
four texts above. For example, a
contemporary discussion about the use of
choice and vouchers as a way of reforming
the educational system could be
interpreted as an application of
principles of competition proposed by Adam
Smith. Thus, a further aim of the seminar
will be to cultivate an appreciation of
the on-going relevance to contemporary
policy and social issues of these works.
Each of these texts crosses current
disciplinary boundaries and can be seen as
drawing on the disciplines of Economics,
Philosophy, Political Science, and
Sociology.
[3022] 0101 TuTh.......4:00pm- 5:15pm (ITE 237) MITCH, D
FYS 102C First Year Seminar (SS) Diversity, Ethics 3 credits
and Social Justice in the Context of
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GFR/GER:Meets SS. GDR:Meets S. Schools
are strong social institutions that
influence all of us. There are many
significant political, cultural,
psychological, and ethical forces that are
directing how schools prepare students to
succeed in our rapidly changing world. It
is important to understand how education
policies, practices, issues and values are
constructed and changed. In multicultural
America, classrooms mirror the diverse
nature of children'backgrounds, cultural
experiences, languages, and "ways of
knowing." Drawing from our experiences as
products of the education system, we will
explore and mediate the tensions that
exist in current reform efforts as schools
endeavor to meet the needs of diverse
students. This course will use an
inquiry-based approach to examine federal
and local policies and how they impact
students, schools and society. Students
will participate in activities at a local
school in UMBC's Professional Development
Schools network. The Professional
Development Schools are active learning
communities in which higher education
faculty, P-12 faculty, and students
collaborate to optimize learning and
success for all. Students will complete a
service- learning project based on their
unique talents, interest, skills and field
of study that makes a contribution to a
school.
[3023] 0101 MW.........3:00pm- 4:15pm (SS 101) OLIVA, L
FYS 103A First Year Seminar (MS) Physics Through 3 credits
the Decades (MS)
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GER:Meets M/S. GDR:Meets M. In this
course, we will study some of the greatest
ideas in modern physics. These ideas have
been used to describe nature on the scale
of the universe (10'''meters) down to the
smallest size where the concept of a
length remains valid (10-" meters). Since
this journey parallels the history of
modem physics, particular emphasis will be
placed upon the evolution of the science
of measurement and the way in which
developments in physics have led to our
present-day understanding of the nature of
the universe. We will study how modern
astronomy has led to an understanding of
the size and history of the universe. We
will explore Eintsein's theory of
relativity and see how both length and
time are relative, not absolute,
quantities. We will try to understand how
the fundamental forces of nature act by
the exchange of carrier particles that can
be created according to the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle; a theory that led
to the death of determinism in our
description of -nature.
[3024] 0101 TuTh......11:30am-12:45pm (SS 206) ROUS, P
FYS 103B First Year Seminar (MS) Paradigms and 3 credits
Paradoxes: Attempt to Understand the
Universe
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GER:Meets M/S. GDR:Meets M. There are at
least two kinds of scientic activities:
acquiring and generating data, and
inquiring and generating general modes of
understanding. The latter activities will
dominate this course. The course contents
include discussion of some remarkable
features of the universe: the class
discussions will require no more
scientific background than gained from
high school chemistry and mathematics.
Some topics for the course are as follows:
Matter doesn't collapse, shrink of
disppear - it has size, weight, and
sometimes shape. We take this granted.
Don't we? Positive and negative charges
attract. The atomic nucleus is positive
and electrons are negative. Why don't
these parts of atoms get closer and
closer, and eventually collapse? In other
words, we ask, not only why are atoms so
small but also why are they so big? This
topic is merely philosophical. Questions
of fuel efficiency and national defense
arise as naturally as those of the
existence of the universe. There are 26
letters in the English alphabet. There are
4 letters in the genetic code and some 100
chemical elements in the periodic table.
There are millions of distinct words,
individual organisms and chemical
compounds. Are numbers 26, 4 and 100 small
or are they large? As such, our study
includes the nature of language,
information and life. Consider the number
3.14159265357988... . Can you identify it?
Answering this question should be easy as
pie. Hatmakers set the number equal to 3.
Is this a rational choice? Answering this
question tells us about the nature of
numbers, measurement, design, and
industry, and also about the answerer.
[3025] 0101 MW.........2:00pm- 3:15pm (MP 105) LIEBMAN, J
FYS 103C First Year Seminar (MS) Issues in 3 credits
Biotechnology
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GER:Meets M/S. GDR:Meets M. Almost every
newpaper issue today has one or more
articles about how our society is being
affected by new advances in biotechnology,
and how its impact is controversial. Some
of these issues include: cloning, genetic
engineering of plants and animals, DNA
analysis as a means of determining
parentage or involvement in criminal
events, development of new medicines and
vaccines, the emergence of drug-resistant
bacteria, the human and others species'
genome project, the origin and genealogy
of human group, etc. For our society to
discuss these issues in a rational and
thorough manner, its important to
understand the scientific basis for the
methods used, their limits and
uncertainties, and their relationship to
other areas of life sciences, medicine,
public policy, and bioethics. Through
directed readings, class discussions, and
student presentations, this seminar will
focus on understanding these various
aspects of modern biotechnology with an
emphasis on its scientific basis.
Practical demonstrations and visits to
UMBC labs using biotechnological
techniques will be an important part of
the course to illustrate how the methods
theoretically discussed in class are
actually done.
[3026] 0101 F..........2:00pm- 5:00pm (BIOL461) CRAIG, N
FYS 104A First Year Seminar (C) Stereotypes: How We 3 credits
Deal With Differences
(PermReq) Grade Method: REG
GFR/GER:Meets C. GDR:Not applicable.
Stereotypes-national, ethnic, racial and
religious-have existed for millennia and
are found in every part of the globe.
Groups of one kind or another often
develop a certain, commonly held
perception of other groups that resists
contrary evidence suggested by reason or
experience. Many conflicts in today's
world involve stereotypical views of
others and tend to make difficult problems
even more complicated and harder to solve.
In this course we will see how sterotyping
works by studying the American stereotype
of the French, as well as the French
perception of Americans. (Knowledge of
French is not required.) Through readings,
ads, commericals, movies and television
programs, we wil consider the
misunderstandings and prejudices that
underlie these caricutures and
generalizations. Students will then
conduct their own analysis of a stereotype
of their choice and present their findings
to the class. They will also submit a
written report of their findings at the
end of the semester.
[3027] 0101 MWF.......10:00am-10:50am (SS 101) ROSENTHAL, A