GEN 410 - Baccalaureate Capstone I
Course Outline
Program: | General Education |
Course Number: | GEN 410 |
Course Title: | Baccalaureate Capstone I |
Credits: | 3.0 |
Prerequisites: | Junior standing; completion of lower division General Education requirements |
A. Catalog Description of Course
The baccalaureate capstone is a course about ideas and the ways in which the educated person contends with them. The course deals in an integrative, interdisciplinary fashion with the five broad General Education themes: The Self and Others, Global Perspectives, Creative Expression, Science and Technology, and Communication. The course invites students to engage in a sophisticated way with ideas and works that raise questions about and shed light upon contemporary life. Through the process of reading, reflection, writing, and discussion, students will be required to demonstrate the critical thinking and communication skills generally held to be the hallmark of the educated individual pursuing and enjoying an informed life.
B. Goals
1. To present students with opportunities to interact with significant works related to the General Education themes.
2. To engage students in thoughtful consideration of these works through reflection, writing, and discussion.
3. To refine students' communication and critical thinking skills, including the ability to evaluate, interpret, and synthesize material drawn from the five General Education themes.
4. To prepare students for GEN 411 through the development of a proposal which will be expanded as part of that course into an independent research project.
C. Objectives
Students will:
1. Analyze readings of an interdisciplinary nature.
A. Recognize authors' arguments and consider their implications.
B. Establish connections between works.
2. Evaluate readings in light of the five General Education themes.
A. Develop and express awareness of the place of specific readings within thematic frameworks.
B. Develop and express awareness of the connections among the themes and the various readings.
3. Communicate knowledge of course material through writing, speaking, and other appropriate media.
A. Write clear, sound, and substantial essays which take account of the complexity of their subject matter.
B. Prepare and deliver effective oral presentations.
C. Engage in academic argument and criticism.
4. Apply critical thinking skills to the problems raised within the course.
A. Recognize arguments.
B. Identify strengths and weaknesses of arguments in the context of specific problems.
C. Synthesize materials from a wide variety of sources.
5. Develop and present an acceptable proposal for a research project to be completed in GEN 411.
A. Identify an academically valid, interdisciplinary area of inquiry.
B. Develop an initial research question within the area.
C. Identify potential research sources.
D. Outline of Course Content
I. Ideas and How to Approach Them
Reading: Wilson, Consilience
II. Ideas and Experience
Readings: Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Postman, Technopoly, Achebe, Things Fall Apart, and other thematic and supporting selections as determined by individual instructors
III. Development and Presentation of the Research Proposal
A. Review of basic research methods
B. Identification of topic
C. Identification of potential resources
D. Preparation and presentation of proposal
Reading: Booth, The Craft of Research
E. Suggested Texts
Achebe, Chinhua (1994) Things Fall Apart (New York: Anchor).
Booth, Wayne C. (1995) The Craft of Research (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Postman, Neil (1986) Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Viking).
Wills, Garry (1992) Lincoln at Gettysburg (New York: Simon and Schuster).
Wilson, Edward O. (1998) Consilience (New York: Knopf).
F. Suggested Modes, Media, and Techniques of Instruction
Lecture, discussion, research.
G. Suggested Reading List
Czikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1991) Flow (New York: Harper Collins).
Demos, John (1995) The Unredeemed Captive (New York: Vintage).
Dewey, John (1988) Art as Experience (New York: Perigee).
de Tocqueville, Alexis (1988) Democracy in America, trans. by G. Lawrence and ed. by J. P. Mayer (New York: HarperPerennial).
Hacker, Diana (2000) A Pocket Style Manual (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins).
Kevles, Daniel (1993) The Code of Codes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Kuhn, Thomas (1996) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Noonan, Peggy (1999) Simply Speaking: How to Communicate Your Ideas With Style, Substance, and Clarity (New York: Harper Collins).
Osborne, Michael and Osborne, Suzanne (1999) Public Speaking (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin).
Panofsky, Erwin (1986) Meaning In The Visual Arts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Postman, Neil (1986) Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Viking).
Ruggiero, Vincent (1997) The Art of Thinking (New York: Addison-Wesley).
Zinsser, William (1995) On Writing Well (New York: Harper Collins).
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