STS 200 Syllabus Spring 1996

1. Welcome
Welcome to the Project Vision version of STS 200, Science, Technology, and Society. This course is an experiment in collaborative learning as well as in the use of some of the latest information gathering and sharing technologies. You will be participating in this course along with students from two other Commonwealth Campuses. It is with these students that you will collaborate during several activities and assignments.

STS 200 is a course designed to teach you to think integratively rather than in the more common reductionist mode. What does this mean? Well it means that rather than breaking knowledge down into small bits for examination (reductionism), we will be attempting to put the small bits together into an integrated whole. STS 200 is basically about relationships, linkages, cause-effect, historical connections. We will examine how we got where we are today and what that history might tell us about where we might be going. You will not be learning small bits of information in a vacuum. You will not be asked to memorize specific facts to produce on request during an exam.

As Rustum Roy, one of the founders of STS at Penn State, likes to say," Your college education is like a plastic model car you buy at the hobby store." The fender might be English 15, while each wheel might be the science courses and so on. If you look on the box, it says, "Glue not included." Well, STS is designed to be the glue.

2. Definitions
What we are going to glue together are the interactive effects of science, technology, and society. Here are some very brief definitions of these terms for the purposes of this course:

SCIENCE: before the year 1650 it was all knowledge, regardless of how acquired, the field of inquiry, or the evidence used. After 1650, it became knowledge of natural phenomena gained by discovering relationships in Nature (as opposed to human relationships). Science attempts to establish cause and effect, normally using the scientific method of-- observation, hypotheses, experimentation, and verification.

TECHNOLOGY: before the year 1800, it was the craftsmanship, skill, or technique used to manufacture or to make-by-hand some artifact. Modern technology has moved beyond the handmade. It now includes the systems used to make things as well as the things themselves.

SOCIETY: a group of people sharing some common factor or factors such as political boundaries, ethnic background, cultural interest, religion, expertise, material accumulation, values, etc. At the heart of it are the relationships between and among people.

In extremely abbreviated form, science is knowledge of nature and how we get it; technology is what we make using that knowledge; society is people relating to people and the context within which that happens.

You will be working much of the time in teams or groups both for activities and for assignments. It is imperative that you hold up your end of the bargain in this regard. We have chosen group work because it relects the way things often are in the real world. Group problem-solving skills are among the most important you can have. While we will attempt to individualize grades as much as possible, there is still an impact on the whole group if one of you does not live up to your responsibilities. If you are selfish, everyone suffers. We are asking you to be mature and responsible in your group activities.

The course will be a mixture of many things. Sometimes an individual class on a specific campus will meet at a certain place during a certain time for in-class activities. Sometimes you will be on your own and will be expected use your computers to access lessons that are on-line and respond to those lessons on-line. Sometimes you will be working on an assignment as part of a team on your campus. As such, you will decide when and how to meet (in person, electronically? etc.) and how to complete the assignment. Sometimes you will be sharing your completed assignments with people on other campuses electronically. Sometimes you will do planned activities with people on other campuses. And finally, you will be asked to be a part of a team that has members from each of the campuses working together to complete an assignment.

There will be a specific place for the class to meet on each campus. There will also be a specific time set aside for the class to meet so there is a time that does not conflict with other classes. There will not be a complete daily schedule as you are used to in other classes. Occasionally, instructors will ask that all of the class members for a specific campus meet during the meeting time. Occasionally, all of the classes will meet at the campus class "space" at the prescribed time so as to share information among all of the people taking the course at all of the campuses. Sometimes you will meet with each other electronically on campus and/or across campuses. You may even choose to meet face-to-face in the vision room during non-scheduled time. There is a great deal of flexibility and diversity in this class. This can be a tremendous asset or a serious liability depending upon the maturity with which you approach this freedom.

3. STS THEME ANALYSIS

4. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF ASSIGNMENTS

1. You will be asked to access each of the four subunits of the HISTORY OF TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES UNIT. These activities will be on-line for the most part and you can do the lessons at your own time and place. You will produce one "page" for each of the subunits that is an example of one of the principles discussed. The page should represent an example from that unit's time period and should demonstrate an STS theme as discussed above. You do not have to choose a transportation example; it could be any technology from that time period. These pages will be posted on the campus server ,will be available to everyone taking the course, and will be worth ten points each. There will be four pages total.

Additionally, you will view and respond to four of your peers example pages: one from each era (subunit) and at least two from students at the other two campuses. All we want you to do is to view four example pages and send brief (one to two paragraph) critiques to their creators. Try to avoid the juvenile, the defamatory, the obscene or the profane. Say something of substance, not just that you liked it or didn't like it. Each critique is worth three points for a total of twelve.

Both the response pages (examples) and the critiques will be put in your online portfolio which will be posted to the campus server by March 14, 1996. More about the portfolio later.

2. You will participate in various in-class and on-line activities/lessons. These are in lieu of lectures and will provide you with the necessary background to complete the assignments. There are four of these: the Agricultural Technologies Simulation, the Multidimensional Risk Assessment Simulation, the Deer Management Simulation, and the Medical Ethics Simulation. You get ten points for doing each of them. The Agricultural Technologies Simulation will be done mostly online while the other three will be done in class; come to class and do them, and you get ten points each.

3. You will be paired with a fellow STS 200 student on your campus. Your team will be given a list of five items that are related to each other by some historical theme. Your job will be to research thoroughly each item, determine the theme, ascertain how each item is related to the theme, and find any causal relationships in the whole enterprise. There will be, of course, scientific, technological and social elements to each analysis. Your team will then produce not a paper, but a presentation or lesson on-line that explains how your items are related. This presentation, activity, lesson (call it what you wish) will be available for everyone taking the class. The presentation is worth 100 points. See the examples from previous STS classes for content ideas ,but remember, they had to do a paper and you have other options. Grades depend on content , not flash, but we expect about 15-20 slides per presentation. YOU MAY CHOOSE YOUR OWN PARTNER.

Additionally, you must view three of your peer's presentations and send crititques to the authors, a couple of paragraphs will suffice. These critiques will be included in your portfolio due March 14. Each is worth three points for a total of nine.

4. You will be placed in a special interest group for the purpose of debating the efficacy of a particular site for Pennsylvania's low-level radioactive waste disposal site. This will be debated by all of the students taking STS 200 on all three of the campuses. Each special interest group will have representatives from all of the campuses. In other words, group A will have several members from Berks, several from Delaware and several from Mont Alto. You will be required to put together an argument for or against the site that reflects the interests of the role-playing group to which you are assigned. All of the arguments will be made available on-line. The presentation your group produces (both the on-line part and the "live" presentation via PICTEL) will be worth 100 points.

5. GRADES

Item	Qty.	Pts.	Total Points
Response pages	4	10	40
Response page critiques	4	3	12
Integration presentation			100
Integration pres. crtitques	3	3	9
Debate presentation			100
Four simulations	4	10	40
	Total		301

Grade	Points
A	276
A-	270
B+	264
B	246
B-	240
C+	234
C	210
D	180
F	<180

6. DUE DATES FOR ASSIGNMENTS

(see also:Schedule)
1. Transportation unit example pages are due as follows: first page due Jan. 18 by NOON, second page due Jan. 25, third page due, Feb.1, and fourth page due Feb. 13.

2. The integration presentation must be finished and on-line by Feb. 29 at NOON.

3. The radioactive waste site final debate presentations will be done during the fourteenth week of the semester.See schedule for specifics of your group. The presentation online is due by April 11 at NOON.

4. Portfolio is due March 14 by NOON

5. Late assignments will cost 10% per day.

7. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

The electronic nature of parts of this course as well as the collaborative nature of it create some unique opportunities for cheating. Wholesale theft of other's work, uncited use of other's work, etc. is still cheating whether it is done electronically or not. If we catch someone in an act of academic dishonesty, we will fail said person in the course and prosecute same to the fullest extent available through the University disciplinary system. Enough said?

8. Detailed Descriptions of Assignments

History of Transportation

Introduction

I. Pre-Industrial Revolution in America

II. Mid to Late Nineteenth Century America

III. Late nineteenth Century to WW2

IV.Post WW2 America

Integration Assignment

Nuclear Waste Simulation

Risk Assessment

Medical Ethics Simulation

Diversity-Farm Prices

Deer Managemnet

9. Daily Schedule

10. Individual Timelines Schedule

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