REVISED  2/27/11

 

Course:            FRST 101: Freshman Studies II

Term:               Winter 2011

Class:               MWF 11:10 AM-12:20 PM, Youngchild Hall 115

Instructor:       Matt Stoneking, Professor of Physics

Contact:          stonekim@lawrence.edu   832-6724 Younchild Hall 110

Office Hours:  Tuesdays 10:00 – 11:30 AM, Thursdays 1:30 – 3:00 PM

 

Catalog description:

Required of first-year students and selected transfer students. A continuation of Freshman Studies I, this course is designed to help students refine their abilities as readers, writers, and thinkers. As in Freshman Studies I, instructors stress close reading, cogent discussion, and clear writing. Regular class sessions are again supplemented by lectures and performances by Lawrence faculty members or by visiting scholars or artists.

 

Works:

Stanley Milgram, “Obedience to Authority”

Stephen Jay Gould, “Bully for Brontosaurus”

Igor Stravinsky, “The Rite of Spring”

Jorge Luis Borges, “Collected Fictions”

Zhuangzi, “Basic Writings”

 

Graded Elements:

Discussion / Lecture Summaries            15%

Paper 1 (3-5 pages)                              10%

Paper 2 (3-5 pages)                              15%

Paper 3 (5-7 pages)                              20%

Re-write of paper 1                              10%

Midterm Exam                                     15%

Final Exam                                          15%

 

Links to documents:

Milgram Handout #1

Milgram Handout #2

Gould Handout #1

Gould Handout #2

Gould Handout #3

Gould Handout #4

Stravinsky Handout #1

Borges Handout #1

Zhuangzi Handout #1

Zhuangzi Handout #2

 

Lecture reaction template

 

Paper assignment #1

Paper assignment #2

Paper assignment #3

 

Schedule:

 

 

Obedience to Authority, by Stanley Milgram

M 1/3 Introduction

W 1/5 Re-read chapters 1-5

F 1/7 Lecture by Professor Matt Ansfield

M 1/10 Re-read chapters 6-9

            Lecture summary #1 due

W 1/12 Re-read chapters 10-15 and the appendices 

 

Bully for Brontosaurus, by Stephen Jay Gould

F 1/14 Read essays #11 (Life’s Little Joke) and #27 (Genesis and Geology)

M 1/17 MLK Day, no class

W 1/19 Lecture by Professor Bart DeStasio

Also read essay #18 (To Be a Platypus)

Paper #1 due (3-5 pages)

F 1/21 Read essays #9 (Not Necessarily a Wing) and #22 (Krapotkin was No Crackpot)

            Lecture summary #2 due

M 1/24 Read essays #8 (Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples), #3 (The Creation Myths of Cooperstown) and #31 (The Streak of Streaks)

W 1/26 Read essays #15 (Petrus Camper’s Angle) and #12 (The Chain of Reason Versus the Chain of Thumbs)

F 1/28 Read essays #21 (In a Jumbled Drawer) and #5 (Bully for Brontosaurus)

 

M 1/31                         Midterm Exam

Rite of Spring, by Igor Stravinsky

W 2/2 Introduction and overview.  Listen to the entire piece at least twice before class.

F 2/4 Lecture by Professor Julie McQuinn  

M 2/7 The scenario and the ballet:  Watch the Joffrey Ballet reconstruction of the 1913 production before class.

                Lecture summary #3 due

W 2/9 The score.

F 2/11 READING PERIOD, no class

 

Collected Fictions, by Jorge Luis Borges

M 2/14 Read The Circular Ruins (p. 96) and The Immortal (p. 183)

W 2/16: Lecture by Professor Rosa Tapia

            Paper #2 due (3-5 pages)

            Also read Borges and I (p. 324) and Man on Pink Corner (p. 45)

F 2/18 Read The Library of Babel (p.112) and The Lottery of Babylon (p. 101)

            Lecture summary #4 due

M 2/21 Read The South (p. 174) and Death and the Compass (p. 147)

W 2/23 Read Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote (p. 88) and Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (p. 68)

Re-write of paper #1 due

F 2/25 In collaboration with your partner(s), prepare a 7-9 minute presentation on your assigned story:

·         A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain (p.107)

·         The Aleph (p. 274)

·         The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim (p. 82)

·         The Garden of Forking Paths (p. 119)

·         Funes, His Memory (p. 131)

·         The Gospel According to Mark (p.397)

·         The Ethnographer (p. 334)

 

 

Basic Writings, by Zhuangzi

M 2/28 Read Sections 1-3 (pp. 23-48)

W 3/2 Lecture by Professor Karen Carr

            Also read Sections 4-7 (pp. 49-95)

F 3/4 Read the remainder of the book (pp. 97-141) 

            Lecture summary #5 due

M 3/7 Re-read Sections 1-6 (pp. 23-88)

T 3/8     Paper #3 due (5-7 pages)

W 3/9 Re-read the remainder of the book (pp. 89-141).

 

Sa 3/12 3:00-5:30 PM              Final Exam