Natural Sciences First-Year Seminar
Courses, UMass, 2022
I was instructor of record for a self-designed first year seminar course for the Fall semester of 2022, entitled “Order and Chaos”. A key motivating topic of the course was the idea that atomic motion can seem chaotic, random, bizzare, and disconnected from the world we live in. Through some final, multi-week long group projects, the students explored ways that random atomic motion can give rise to emergent, stable properties. I also gave the students lots of time and practice writing, reading, speaking and listening to scientific storytelling.
Key topics for the course:
- “Think like a scientist”
- Scientific storytelling skills
- Formulate scientific questions
- Conduct mini research projects
- Assessments included mini-storytelling writings/presentations, and a long final project and presentation
- “Hidden cirriculum” of college
- Who are professors?
- Time-management and test-taking skills
- What resources are available to help students?
Check-out how it went here