Sophomore Science Seminar

Catalog description

Covers topics related to success in upper level courses including critical thinking, library resources, reading primary literature, and communication skills. SC 210 Sophomore Science Seminar (2) The main objective of this course is to serve as a bridge between the first two years of a science program and the last two years. Sophomore students need to understand that upper-level coursework in the sciences requires higher order cognitive skills as well as an intellectual maturity that enables the student to meet the challenge of upper level coursework. Students also require an ability to access the multitude of scientific information available on the web and in library databases therefore students will be expected to demonstrate their ability to retrieve information. Sophomore students are faced with many exciting possibilities that they should be aware of including undergraduate research and cooperative education. This course will enable students to make more informed decisions about how to best structure their own educational needs while meeting the demands of upper level coursework. Students will be assessed via a variety of methods including participation in discussion, actively seeking information from seminar guest speakers (in the form of questions), written reports (interview with faculty member, summary of scientific article, synthesis of newspaper reports about recent discoveries, individually selected research topic), and oral presentations (critique of recent science information in newspapers, independent topic, interview with faculty member).