GEN 411 - Baccalaureate Capstone II
Course Outline
Program: | General Education |
Course Number: | GEN 411 |
Course Title: | Baccalaureate Capstone II |
Credits: | 3.0 |
Prerequisites: | GEN 410 |
A. Catalog Description of Course
This seminar course gives students the opportunity to integrate their course work with individual research projects. Each student is responsible for the production, presentation, and defense of a research paper which addresses a specific academic topic related to the college's General Education core. Research projects must demonstrate significant knowledge within the selected topic area, an understanding of its place in an integrated intellectual framework, and a high level of skill development.
B. Goals
1. To help the student explore the significant area of inquiry he/she identified (within GEN 410) for study.
2. To provide students opportunities to explore the conceptual context of the identified area.
3. To provide students opportunities to demonstrate competence within the applicable disciplines.
4. To provide students with opportunities to demonstrate the ability to integrate the specific body of knowledge with a larger intellectual framework.
C. Objectives
The student will:
1. Refine an academically valid research question and plan within the identified field of inquiry.
2. Read appropriate source material.
3. Collaborate with the instructor in establishing specific learning objectives for the research project.
4. Collaborate with the instructor in establishing suitable and rigorous research and learning activities appropriate to these objectives.
5. Achieve the identified objectives through performance of these activities.
6. Write, present, and defend a culminating research paper.
7. Participate in the self/peer assessment process.
D. Outline of Course Content
N.B. Course content will vary with student projects.
I. Introduction and course structure
A. Purpose of the course
1. Research / Analysis
2. Integration / Synthesis
B. Purpose of the course
1. The research process
a. The research question
b. Development of research materials
c. Organization
2. The purpose and procedure of presentation and defense
3. Review of proposals
C. Discussion of resources and methods
II. Directed research and writing
III. Presentation of works, criticism and defense
E. Suggested Texts
Booth, Wayne C. (1995) The Craft of Research (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
And as appropriate to specific field of inquiry.
F. Suggested Modes, Media, and Techniques of Instruction
Discussion, presentation, and other modes as appropriate to specific field of inquiry.
G. Suggested Reading List
Achebe, Chinhua (1994) Things Fall Apart (New York: Anchor).
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 (1985) Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Viking).
Ruggiero, Vincent (1997) The Art of Thinking (New York: Addison-Wesley).
Wills, Garry (1992) Lincoln at Gettysburg (New York: Simon and Schuster).
Wilson, Edward O. (1998) Consilience (New York: Knopf).
Zinsser, William (1995) On Writing Well (New York: Harper Collins).
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