Freshman Intro to the University
Fall 2009 | Spring 2010
Fall 2009
FYS 101: Turning to One Another: Beliefs and Behaviors
Meets Arts and Humanities General Foundation Requirement (AH)
Diane Lee
Dean of Undergraduate Education
Associate Professor of Education
Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park
Email: dlee@umbc.edu
Jill Randles
Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
M.Ed., Lynchburg College
C.A.S., Loyola College
Email: jrandles@umbc.edu
We are witnessing renewed interest in matters related to truth, community, connectedness, and spirituality. Concomitant with headlines about war, ENRON, cloning, the Tsunami, and steroid use in sports is a vibrant dialogue about social responsibility, moral reasoning, ethical action, and the sources of beauty, creativity, and passion that give life purpose and meaning.
As we enter the twenty-first century, we will need people who can lead with head and heart, who can combine the life of the mind with work for the greater good, and who exhibit the skills, knowledge, imagination, and spirit to create an equitable, sustainable, whole, and hopeful world. This calls for a curriculum that explores the scientific, aesthetic, and ethical dimensions of thought and behavior. This course is oriented toward that exploration of questions that are both personal and global in their orientation. For example: What is my faith in the future? What do I believe about others? What is the relationship I want with the earth? When and where do I experience sacred? There will be opportunities for conversation to occur around topics such as these; literally a “turning to one another” in order to expand and inform our understanding of how our beliefs and behaviors have the power to transform.
Students will enter this exploration by:
- examining writings related to beliefs and behaviors;
- discovering different ways spirituality is represented in music, literature, poetry, across cultures, throughout history, and in patterns of involvement such as environmental stewardship, feeding the hungry, building shelters for the homeless, etc.; and
- reflecting on class discussions and readings in guided journals.
Diane Lee is Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education. Although in a primarily administrative position at this time, she is best known as “a teacher of teachers.” She was selected by her colleagues to receive the Presidential Teaching Professor Award for 1997-2000. When she is not working you will most likely find her reading a good book, visiting a local craft’s fair, gardening, or playing with her grandchildren.
Jill Randles is the Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. She is a student advocate at heart and has worked closely with UMBC students as an academic advisor. She is the recipient of the 2002 President’s Commission for Women Achievement Award acknowledging her work in the areas of diversity and equity. When not on the job, she spends time with family and friends, runs, rides horses, judges horse shows, and is an avid reader.
FYS 102: Images of Madness
Tuesdays, 4:30-7:00 p.m.
Meets Social Science General Foundation Requirement (SS)
Carolyn Tice
Professor of Social Work
Associate Dean and Program Chair
DSW, University of Pennsylvania
Email: tice@umbc.edu
In contemporary society, virtually everyone goes to movie theatres or views feature films at home on videos, DVD’s or television. 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 practice, and service delivery networks. In addition, we will explore critical concepts in social 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.
Carolyn Tice teaches social welfare policy. She has presented and published in the area of media and social services, which has been a long time interest of hers. Carolyn is the author of three books on social work practice from a strengths perspective.
FYS 103: Issues in Biotechnology
Meets Science General Education Requirement (S)
Nessly Craig
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
E-mail: craig@umbc.edu
Almost every newspaper 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 other species’ genome project, the origin and genealogy of human groups, etc. For our society to discuss these issues in a rational and thorough manner, it is 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.
Nessly Craig has taught courses in molecular and cellular biology to undergraduates, graduate students, and adult workshop participants for many years and has seen the development of biotechnology first hand. He has been involved in research using the techniques of molecular biology and tissue culture to study the mechanism and control of protein synthesis, and the mechanism and the control of ribosomal RNA synthesis in mammalian cells. In his “other life” he has been involved in building a house, gardening, stained glass, and raising a son who is now in college and provides lots of “feedback” as to what students really want and find useful.
Diversity, Ethics and Social Justice in the Context of Schooling
FYS 102: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Meets the Social Sciences General Education Requirement (SS)
Vicki Williams, Director of Student Services, Education
Ph.D., University of Maryland, Baltimore County
E-mail: vwilli5@umbc.edu
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’s 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, interests, skills and field of study that makes a contribution to a school.
Vickie Williams, an educational psychologist, has worked in a variety of clinical settings, including Pre-K through 12 schools. Her background includes degrees in human services psychology, community psychology, and education. She is interested in studying diverse classrooms in multicultural communities and serves as a liaison to professional development schools in Baltimore County, as well as to community colleges around the state. Dr. Williams teaches Educational Psychology and Analysis of Learning and Teaching. Her current research focuses on the beliefs and dispositions of teachers from diverse classrooms.
FYS 103B: Paradigms and Paradoxes: An Attempt to Understand the Universe
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Meets Science General Foundation Requirement (S)
Joel F. Liebman
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Ph. D., Princeton University
Email: jliebman@umbc.edu
There are at least two kinds of scientific activities: acquiring and generating data, and inquiring and generating general modes of understanding. The latter activities will dominate this course. The course contents include discussions 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 follow.
Matter doesn’t collapse, shrink or disappear – it has size, weight, and sometimes shape. We take this for 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 … 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 not 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 types of organisms and chemical compounds. Are these 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 as easy as pie. Hatmakers equate this number 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.
Joel Liebman teaches Chemistry, ranging from CHEM 100, “The Chemical World”, a GFR course emphasizing science and society, through CHEM 410/610, “Quantum Chemistry/Special Topics in Theoretical Chemistry/Chemical Bonding”. While my written contributions have mostly been in the research journal literature, I have coauthored or co-edited numerous books, book chapters and data bases, have had poems published as well, and was the nominator for the 2005 First Book Experience reading. I am a firm believer that science is an interpersonal, international and interdisciplinary endeavor and I have ongoing projects with scientists in England, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, as well as the US. I enjoy thinking and understanding, and thinking about thinking and understanding in particular. I enjoy words – I am responsible for some new words in the scientific vocabulary associated with new concepts, and I have been held responsible for verbalizing some of the “worst” puns heard by my students and coworkers alike. Chemical and comical are not antonyms, nor antithetical.
FYS 102L: Banned Books: An American Contradiction
Meets Social Science General Education Requirement (SS)
Pattee Fletcher
Associate Professor
Ph. D. Syracuse University
Email: pfletcher@umbc.edu
This course explores the paradox of living in a society which constitutionally protects freedom of speech and of the press, yet assumes a “right” to ban written words which are not acceptable to individuals and/or groups in an effort to conform to their political, social, sexual, or religious beliefs. The use of censorship to silence important or controversial ideas and truths is not unique to the United States. It has existed since humanity could put “pen to paper,” continuing unabated through the centuries. The focus of this course is to examine the banning of books in the U.S., historically and today. What is it about words that is so frightening, repugnant, or threatening? And how does it happen that, in spite of a government built on freedom of speech and press, we are willing and sometimes able to suppress written words which we judge to be harmful? We will analyze the books and the paradox which constitute banned books.
FYS 101Q: Building a Culture of Peace: What Would It Take?
Meets the Arts and Humanities General Education Requirement (AH)
Joby Taylor
Director of the Shriver Peaceworker Fellows Program
Affiliate Faculty, Language, Literacy and Culture Program
Ph.D., University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Email: jtaylo14@umbc.edu
Building a Culture of Peace will engage students in investigating the diverse meanings and methods operating in the study and practice of peace. The course will be divided into four main sections: Making Peace, Building Peace, Teaching Peace, and Being Peace. Each section will include interdisciplinary exploration of primary texts, key terms, major theories and methods, and a guest presentation. Each will also include individualized research opportunities for students that will result critical and creative essays and across a range of interrelated topics and build toward an overall course learning portfolio. We will also make two Baltimore excursions, visiting historic peace movement sites and current organizations doing peace work. The overall course goal is to ground students in an understanding of the broad issues exploring the prospect for a holistic Culture of Peace.
FYS 103L: What is the World Made of?
Meets the Science General Education Requirement (S)
Laszlo Takacs
Professor of Physics
Ph.D., Loránd Eötvös University, Budapest
Email: takacs@umbc.edu
A historical approach will be used to explore how the concept of matter developed from the ideas of ancient Greek philosophers through the modern concepts of elements, atoms, and molecules to our current view of elementary particles and how the matter of the universe evolved since the Big Bang. The development of practical materials will also be studied from the use of native metals and early pottery to modern materials engineering and ultimately the atomic-level control of nanomaterials. Although the unifying theme of the course is science history, substantial excursions will be made into the relevant areas of physics, chemistry, and materials science, especially when discussing current understanding and practice.
Spring 2010
FYS 106B: VIENNA 1900
Meets the Social Science and Culture General Education Requirement (SS & C)
Alan Rosenthal
Associate Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages and Linguistics
Ph.D., Rutgers University
Email: rosentha@umbc.edu
The title of the course is the term often used to describe the period of remarkable intellectual life and artistic creativity spanning roughly forty years—from 1880 to 1920. In this time, Vienna was the cultural capital of the western world. We will study this period and the people who made it famous. We will consider how Vienna flourished in its golden age, and we will identify the seeds of its gradual decline and eventual disintegration, which took place from 1920 to 1938. Finally, we will consider possible lessons to be drawn for our place and time.
FYS 102: Sexuality, Health and Human Rights
Meets the Social Science General Education Requirement (SS)
Ilsa Lottes
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Email: lottes@umbc.edu
Who has the right to access scientific information about individuals’ sexuality and sexual health? What privacy rights do people have in their sexual relationships? Who controls when and if one has children? In the last decade, scholars and advocacy organizations have been asking such questions that link sexuality, health and human rights. Increasingly, these linkages are made by human rights advocates, those marginalized by their gender and/or sexuality, feminists and professionals in the health and, family planning fields.
In this seminar, we will consider a number of sexuality, health and human rights questions: What are sexual rights? What is meant by sexual health? How important are sexual rights? What characteristics of a society promote or hinder sexual rights? What responsibilities are tied to sexual rights? Do views on sexual rights conflict with the general welfare of society? To what extent do Americans have sexual rights? What laws restrict sexual rights?
Students will become sensitized to views on sexual rights and the reasons/justifications for these various perspectives. In this process they will learn how to critique social science research, evaluate strengths and weaknesses of this research, and identify common errors of scientific and everyday reasoning.
Ilsa Lottes teaches Human Sexuality in Sociological Perspective and Human Sexuality in Cross Cultural Perspective as well as courses in social science research methods and statistics. Her latest publications include the book, New Views of Sexual Health, the Case of Finland and an article ‘Sexual Health Policies of Other Industrialized Countries: Are There Lessons for the USA?’ She was one of the social science experts consulted for The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior (Office of the Surgeon General, 2001) and continues to do research in the areas of health, sexuality and human rights. She is a member of international professional organizations such as the International Academy of Sex Research and the World Association of Sexology and regularly presents her work at their meetings. She enjoys listening to jazz, dancing, traveling and visiting friends in Europe.
7/15/2021