A course in how to find out about anything

Instructor: Susan Blandy Office: LRC Lower Level
Office Hours by Appointment
Class Meets: Thursday noon in the LRC
Exams: A midterm and final, open book, given in class

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Grade is based on: 30% homework and class participation
20% midterm exam
20% final exam
30% final project

Final Project is outlined on attached sheet.
YOU MUST CLEAR THE TOPIC WITH ME BY______DATE __
You may do the project in connection with a paper assigned for another course or on any topic that interests you. No final project will be accepted until the draft is reviewed by both of us.

COURSE OUTLINE EATING HAMBURGER IS A POLITICAL ACTIVITY

The rest of the course is based on our pooled research of various topics. Students will be asked to contribute topic ideas for the second half of the course. You are encouraged to collaborate on your work. You are expected to become familiar with the basic research tools and techniques shown on the matrix you receive September 6.

September 6 Developing a Topic (brainstorming and what to do with it);
Documenting Sources

September 13 Organization of Libraries: what you can expect; Library
Congress System, Developing Search Vocabulary,
Boolean search, Nesting

September 20 Evaluating Resources; Evaluating Sources for Credibility and Usefulness
WHERE IS THE BIOMASS THAT CREATES YOUR DAILY OXYGEN?

September 27 Primary and Secondary sources, documents; Interlibrary Loan

October 4 Periodicals and their Indexes; Professional and Popular materials October 18 MIDTERM

October 25 Project draft due on-line strategies

THERE HAS NEVER BEEN PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST . . . .

November 1 Using a thesaurus and bibliography

November 8 Annotations; How to Read a Book, a Newspaper, a Periodical in a minute and a half

Specialized Reference Books

AND THEY ALL MOVED OVER ON THE GROUP W BENCH . . . .

November 15 as above: rehearse, repeat, review, try new sources, learn about resources in fields of special interest to you

November 29 "
December 6 "
WEEK OF DECEMBER 10: FINAL EXAM, any 2 hours of your choice, open book

December 20 Last day to turn in project; review of exams and grades, coffee and doughnuts or something seasonal

Homework must be done the week it is assigned. The success of the class depends upon your contribution. Your success depends upon attendance and homework. Material covered during a class lecture will not be repeated for those who missed a class. Making up work is your responsibility. Plan to spend two hours outside class for every hour in class. You will find that the assignments can be done in other college libraries. Much of the class is like a scavenger hunt: You may not be sure exactly what you're looking for or where to find it. Many people find this unsettling; let's discuss.

BRAINSTORMING, A.K.A. THE CATEPILLAR
A process to use at the blackboard to demonstrate topic and
search term choices

Instructions:

1. Put the topic in the middle, circle it.
2. Put down word forms: plurals, adjectives, verbs, gerunds, etc.
3. Put down synonyms and antonyms
4. Put down answers to who, when, where, why, what, whether, how, who cares, who's affected, who knows, and all the negatives of same
5. From all the words and ideas choose a possible focus for your research.
6. If that doesn't pan out you can come back to the work you've done and choose a new focus.

Topic: Environmental and International Aspects of a Styrofoam Cup of Coffee (instructor brings sample to class)

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Treaties,          of coffee: traditions,                     history of coffee:
international       coffee houses, flavors                    role in European
cooperation: ozone                                        exploration, colonies
hydrofluorocarbons                                          agricultural
                              fast food                                        
   
lands:  use for own needs?
                                                                               
depletion?
plastics                      ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^
                              ^  STYROFOAM ^                  where grown: 
                              ^            ^                  Nigeria? Kenya?
not biodegradable             ^    CUP OF  ^              Columbia, Jamaica?   
                              ^             ^           
stacking things               ^            ^         exporting natural resources
mass produced things          ^    COFFEE  ^
  throw-away things            ^^^^^^^^^^ ^                                    
                                         commodity price fluctuation
                              
                                    insulation
                                                                exchange rate  
                                                            hard currency for
oil supply: priorities on its use                                              
      developing countries
            oil imports                       real costs: environmental        
                
                                                  non-renewable resources      
                   Food & Drug Administration
                        metric system                                          
                  
                                                                               
                      exporting DDT, etc.
non-nutritive agricultural                        
products in a hungry world                        third world labor force

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LECTURE OUTLINE

How do we know that we know and when do we know enough?
An outline of the process of reasoning, cognitive styles and cultural bias.
I. Observation and Fact and Inference:
The Knowledge Triangle

II. Kinds of Reasoning

Language: connotations/implications
Process: Reasoning from sign
Reasoning from cause
Reasoning by analogy
Reasoning by example

III. Organizing your reasoning: cognitive/research/persuasion styles

Specifics build to thesis: INDUCTION (Natural History)
General concept yields specifics: DEDUCTION (global, theoretical)
Compare and contrast
Rule and examples

IV. Falacies

Generalization
This happened, therefore that:
Authority
False analogy
Polar thinking
Revenge
Large numbers
Ad hominem
Magic words
Circular reasoning

V. Cultural Bias

Evolution: Marx, Darwin
Revolution: Thomas Kuhn
Connection: Bateson, Buckminster Fuller, etc.

CULTURAL STYLES: Notes for Lecture

1. Cultures tend to have a dominant way of viewing the world, called often, a "worldview". This world view style dominates the selection, valuation and organization of information. We tend to ignore what doesn't fit as being unimportant. This of course is the basis of mystery stories: the detective notices information that doesn't look normal, but that no one else noticed because they literally didn't see it: it wasn't important enough to be conscious of.

(rain in Arizona vs. Oregon coast)

2. The 19th and early 20th century dominant world view was that of evolution. The two best known thinkers in this style are Darwin and Marx, although the faith in "progress" is also part of this.

3. Thomas Kuhn argued that we do not evolve world views or scientific theories but exchange one for another -- a revolution in the way we see things.

(geosynclines vs. plate tectonics, Gallileo vs Aristotle)

4. Gregory Bateson, an English biologist, and Buckminster Fuller, among others, said that the dominant world view style of the 20th century should be connectedness; patterns that connect or wave theory are terms often used.

Scientists study the connections:

Unified Field Theory, biochemistry, biophysics, sociology of medicine, ecology, economics of acid rain, etc., all the deoderant ads, and awareness that countries have to live together.

Russians want to redirect northflowing rivers from Arctic to central Asia desert lands. U.S. worries: This would affect U.S. grain sales, but also climate. We are also worried about how forest clearing in Amazon will impact weather, genetic losses.