First-Year Seminar
This two-semester course addresses the Undergraduate Learning Goals that call for the development of clear thinking and communication skills, while helping students establish patterns of life-long learning and integrating knowledge of self and the world.
Students will improve their writing by:
- Composing multiple papers in both semesters
- Writing a major research paper in the second semester
- Revising all papers after peer and instructor review
- Learning to improve organization and mechanics, discover their own voice, and develop a sense of audience
Students will improve their discussion skills by:
- Participating in discussion based classes
- Receiving explicit instruction on discussion techniques
- Practicing leading discussions
- Receiving periodic feedback on their discussion skills
Students will improve their public speaking ability by:
- Practicing public speaking over the year
- Practicing and presenting a formal oral presentation on their research paper
- Receiving peer and instructor feedback
Students will improve their critical thinking by:
- Engaging in class discussions that focus on examination of arguments and evidence
- Reading and evaluating increasingly challenging texts
- Receiving feedback on essays that focus on critical thinking
- Carefully examining multiple points of view in their research papers
Students will improve their understanding of information literacy by:
- Completing a variety of small research tasks connected with librarian presentations
- Learning how to conduct refined searches and evaluate a variety of sources in the research paper
- Gaining an understanding of plagiarism and learning academic standards for citations
Students will learn some disciplinary content that integrates self and society by:
- Reading to prepare for class, discussing material, applying critical thinking skills to discussion, writing papers, and completing the research paper
