Course Syllabus

Seventh College First-Year Honors Seminar (SEV 20)

Spring 2021

Instructor: Provost Kate Antonovics

Class meeting time: Tuesdays 4-4:50 pm via Zoom

Email: kantonov@ucsd.edu

Office hours: Mondays 3-4 pm via Zoom

Course Description: This course introduces students to UC San Diego’s vibrant intellectual community through weekly seminars led by UC San Diego faculty and other invited speakers, who will discuss their path-breaking research and other exciting artistic and scientific endeavors taking place on campus and in the surrounding community.

Learning Objectives: After completing this course, you will have:

• A deeper appreciation of the range of intellectual, cultural, and artistic endeavors taking place at UC San Diego
• A greater level of comfort talking to UC San Diego faculty about their research and career paths
• More ideas about how to get involved in research in a variety of disciplines
• Closer personal connections with other Seventh College students

Course Structure and Expectations

• Week 1 we will go over the course syllabus and come up with a list of appropriate questions to ask faculty about both their research and career paths.
• Every week (except weeks 1 & 10) there will be an invited guest speaker, typically a UC San Diego professor, who will discuss their research and/or other creative and artistic pursuits. I also have asked each speaker to discuss their career path and to offer suggestions about how to get involved in research in their field. You are expected to attend class each week and keep your camera on. 
• Over the quarter, you will be assigned to two discussion groups. Your first discussion group will meet in weeks 2-5, and your second will meet in weeks 6-9. Each discussion group will have four members. Each week after Tuesday’s class meeting, your group will be asked to get together for at least 30 minutes outside of class to discuss a series of short reflection questions related to that week’s speaker, and, as a group, you must turn in written answers to these reflection questions. It is each group’s responsibility to a) find a time to meet outside of class for at least 30 minutes, and b) to equally divide up the work involved in submitting written answers to the reflection questions.
• At the end of the quarter, you will be asked to complete two assignments, 1. a very short assessment of your and your group members’ contributions to the group discussions and the reflection questions, and 2. a one-page reflection paper about your experience in the course.

Class Participation:

• As mentioned above, you are expected to come to class and keep your camera on. Class participation points work as follows: 3 points if you attend class and have your camera on, 2 points if you attend class and have your camera off, and 0 points if you are absent. If you need to miss class, please email me, preferably ahead of time. You also must watch the video recording of that week’s class, though this is not considered to be a substitute for attending class or participating in the class discussion. If there is a special reason why your camera needs to be off on a particular day, please let me know.

Grades:

• Class attendance and participation: 30%
• Weekly group reflection questions (graded as group): 8 x 5% = 40%
• Group assessment questions: 5% = 5%
• Final 1-page reflection paper: 25%

Academic Integrity: Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.  Students are expected to do their own work, as outlined in the UCSD Policy on Integrity of Scholarship.  All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Academic Integrity Coordinator.  In addition to the penalties imposed by the Academic Integrity Review Board, I also reserve the right to fail students found guilty of academic misconduct.

The following are a few examples of academic dishonesty in this class:

• Plagiarizing your group’s response to the weekly reflection questions 
• Plagiarizing any aspect of your final reflection paper
• Lying about your reason for missing a class
• Misrepresenting your or your group members’ contributions on the group assessment questions