Course Syllabus

Jump to Today

Seventh College First-Year Honors Seminar (SEV 20)

Spring 2022

Instructor: Provost Kate Antonovics

Class meeting time: Tuesdays 4-5:50 pm

Class location: Seventh College West, Building 2 - Multipurpose Room OR alternate location

Email: kantonov@ucsd.edu

Office hours: Mondays 4-4:50 pm (in my office in The Gallery above The Market). I cannot have office hours on 5/9, 5/23, or 5/30. On those weeks, please email me to set up an alternate time to meet. 

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 as well as other exciting artistic and scientific endeavors taking place on campus.

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

Each week an invited guest speaker will discuss their research and/or other creative and artistic pursuits during the first half of class. I also have asked the speakers to talk about their career paths and offer suggestions about getting involved in research. 

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. Your discussion group will use the second half of class to discuss several reflection questions related to that week’s speaker. You are expected to participate fully in these discussions. It is your group’s responsibility to figure out how to divide up the work involved in submitting written answers to these reflection questions. Since there are 4 people in each group, and each group meets for 4 weeks, one natural way to divide the workload is to have one person responsible for submitting the written answers each week.

At the end of the quarter, you will be asked to complete a one-page reflection paper about your experience in the course.

Weekly Schedule

  • Week 1: We will go over the course syllabus and spend time getting to know each other.
  • Weeks 2-9:
    • 4-5pm: Invited guest speaker + Q&A
    • 5-5:50pm: Group discussions
    • NOTE: This will be different if we have a field trip.  
  • Week 10: TBA

Class Participation

As mentioned above, you are expected to come to class, and if we meet via Zoom you are expected to keep your camera on. Class participation points work as follows: 3 points if you attend class and are engaged in the class discussion, 2 points if you attend class and are not engaged, and 0 points if you are absent. If you need to miss class or if we are meeting via Zoom and you cannot have your camera on, please email me, preferably ahead of time. 

Grades

  • Class attendance and participation: 30%
  • Weekly group reflection questions (graded as group): 8 x 6.25% = 50%
  • Final 1-page reflection paper: 20%

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

Course Summary:

Course Summary
Date Details Due