A syllabus for the course will be found here.
Participation in class is important, and regular attendance and participation is expected. Excessive absences will result in a reduced grade, and, in extreme cases, will result in the student's removal from the class.
As a courtesy to others, please do not engage in personal conversations during the class period. Please turn off cell phones and other devices not needed for your engagement in the classroom.
It is important in all classroom interactions with your fellow students to adopt an attitude of civility and grace. Please attend carefully to student presentations and be professional in your questions and comments.
Faculty have been asked to insert the following in course syllabi:
Please review university emergency preparedness and response procedures posted
at
www.pugetsound.edu/emergency/. There is a link on the university home
page. Familiarize yourself with hall exit doors and the designated gathering
area for your class and laboratory buildings.
If building evacuation becomes necessary (e.g. earthquake), meet your instructor at the designated gathering area so she/he can account for your presence. Then wait for further instructions. Do not return to the building or classroom until advised by a university emergency response representative.
If confronted by an act of violence, be prepared to make quick decisions to protect your safety. Flee the area by running away from the source of danger if you can safely do so. If this is not possible, shelter in place by securing classroom or lab doors and windows, closing blinds, and turning off room lights. Stay low, away from doors and windows, and as close to the interior hallway walls as possible. Wait for further instructions.
4. Office of Accessibility and Accommodation:
The Academic Standards Committee recommends that faculty include in their syllabi a statement about the Office of Accessibility and Accommodation (OSAA):
If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Peggy Perno, Director of the Office of Accessibility and Accommodations, 105 Howarth, 253.879.3395. She will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.
(From the core requirements)
The First-Year Seminars at Puget Sound introduce students into an academic
community and engage them in the process of scholarly inquiry.
In these discussion-based seminars, students develop the intellectual habits
necessary to write and speak effectively and with integrity. Students increase
their ability to develop effective arguments by learning to frame questions
around a focused topic, to assess and support claims, and to present their work
to an academic audience both orally and in writing. As part of understanding
scholarly conversations, students learn to identify the most appropriate sources
of information and to evaluate those sources critically. Over the course
of two seminars, students-with increasing independence-contribute to these
conversations and produce a substantive scholarly project.
In the first seminar in this sequence, students engage challenging texts and
ideas through guided inquiry led by the faculty member. Students begin to
develop the academic abilities of reading, writing, and oral argument necessary
to enter into academic conversations. Assignments in this seminar largely
involve sources prescribed by the instructor, rather than sources students
search for and identify themselves. In Seminar II, students build on and
continue to develop the academic abilities introduced in Seminar I. The seminar
culminates in independent student projects that incorporate sources beyond the
instructor-prescribed course materials.
Each seminar is focused around a scholarly topic, set of questions, or theme.
These seminars may be taken only to fulfill core requirements.
Guidelines
These seminars teach students how to frame a problem or question, how to develop
a thesis, how to defend their thesis effectively, and how to think critically
about arguments-their own and those of others.
These seminars address important conventions of written argumentation (including
audience, organization, and style), as well as approaching writing as a process.
In Seminar I, assignments focus on material largely provided by the instructor.
In Seminar II, students produce a substantive scholarly paper or project,
appropriate to the skill-level and preparation of first-year students, that
involves independent research.
Each seminar requires students to present arguments orally through discussion
and more structured presentation. Concepts and practices of information literacy
including issues of academic integrity are integrated into these seminars.
In Seminar I, students learn to distinguish between different types of
information sources (for example, scholarly vs. popular, primary vs. secondary)
and learn to evaluate sources of information for biases, reliability, and
appropriateness.
In Seminar II, students learn to craft research questions, search for and
retrieve information, and seek appropriate assistance in the research process.
In this course, you will be asked to read and comment on readings pertaining to the early history of mathematics. These readings will be selected to give you a foundation in the development of geometry from early civilizations in Babylon, China, Egypt, through the early history of geometry in the pre-Hellenistic and Hellenistic world, through Alexandria, and into the development of non-Euclidean geometry in the nineteenth century.
My intention is to outline the major points in the development of geometry and to introduce you to the ideas and individuals involved in that development, and to highlight points you may want to pursue further as a research problem.
My expectation is that the primary lecture material will mostly be finished in the first half of the semester. Course meetings following mid-term will be taken up by student presentations, occasional instructor presentations, and student status reports.
Research papers
Class participation will be determined by
For more information on essays and the two research papers, please see this document (modified 3/12/2014).
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