PsTL First Year Inquiry (PsTL 1525W)
The First Year Inquiry class rotates between lectures and small discussion sections in order to utilize active learning strategies and to develop students’ skills in reading, critical thinking, academic writing, and thoughtful discussion. This unique approach also builds academic and interpersonal bridges between students and faculty members, which enables smooth transitions to college and produces long-term academic success.
The Fall 2009 FYI class will wrestle with the question: “Can one person make a difference?” by discussing a common book "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines, reading and discussing supporting books and articles, writing reflective academic papers, and creating a Capstone Project to present at the FYI Symposium.
Fall 2009 FYI Descriptions
Section 1: My Space: As each of us moves through a typical day, we make choices and take actions that, whether or not we realize it, impact the people and environments around us. In this course, we will explore the individual’s relationship to his/her surroundings, building a better understanding of interactions among cultures, generations, and the environment. We will consider the following: how cultural and generational values and practices affect our decisions over our lifetimes; how the natural world shapes our behavior; how to effectively communicate and work collectively; and how these factors contribute to our identity as individuals and a society. Through all of this, we develop a deeper sense of who we are, the pushes and pulls that exist in our world, and how each of us makes a difference within it. Three books for this class will assist us as we explore, through intensive small group work and discussion, the people, history and natural world in the southern US. Two are novels (A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest Gaines, and Power, by Linda Hogan), and one is a nonfiction essay (“Atchafalaya” from The Control of Nature, by John McPhee.)
Section 5: Who am I? Why am I here? How can one person make a difference? That’s a big question. Trying to answer it leads to other big and important questions that we will explore including: What does it mean to be a human being? What gives life meaning? Why should we want to make a difference? What do we owe to other human beings? If a person does succeed in making a difference, what makes that success possible? This section of FYI explores these big questions from the disciplinary lenses of psychology, history and literature. We will start by looking at issues raised in A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. We’ll consider the historical context for the story and the meaning given to “race” and power in the United States at that time (and now); we’ll tackle the book’s questions about the meaning of life and the way individuals can make a difference in their interpersonal interactions. With our next book, the novel Hard Time by Sarah Paretsky, we’ll think about what it means to do your job well and when does the job we have move from being a day at work and a way to earn a buck to a calling. How do we find a passion that we devote ourselves to? Finally, we will consider what it takes to make a really big difference. Is it luck? Is it special talent? Or, is it hard work that produces the exceptional person? Malcom Gladwell’s book, Outliers, describes how these factors come together to position certain individuals for greatness.
Section 9: Justice Isn’t Just Us: Reading A Lesson Before Dying will help us explore and express our own views of two institutional systems that clearly need people who can make a difference: the American educational system and the American justice system. But before we can stand up to make a difference in such large institutions, we must look inward to understand our beliefs and values about those institutions. For that inward look, we’ll discuss how education can help or hurt a person’s understanding of who they are, and also consider how our courts, laws, and prisons work or don’t work. Then we’ll look outward, reading contemporary stories of people’s experiences in the educational and justice systems; we’ll read analysis articles that attempt to explain those experiences, and we’ll read profiles of activists trying to change those systems. Finally, our capstone will be a collaborative project highlighting both inward beliefs and outward actions by asking students to research and publicize the work of a local person or group attempting to make changes that students in our class believe in and want to support. Acting toward justice is never acting for ourselves alone.
Section 13: Energy...Illuminated! Energy makes things happen. In a scientific sense, converting fuel into energy enables our work, our leisure activities, and our use of everyday manufactured objects. Failing resources and rising pollution, however, require societies to consider using energy in more sustainable ways. In a humanistic sense, energy defines our lives' actions. High energy people attack life with unstoppable enthusiasm. Nontraditional healers use energy pathways in our bodies to improve well-being. People from distinct religious traditions report drawing strength and guidance from the energy of a higher spirit. Students in this class will study the concept of energy from a wide range of perspectives informed by the disciplines of physics, psychology, anthropology and mathematics. In A Lesson before Dying, we will explore how the social organization of the town can manipulate or cloak the energy of African American residents, both in an individual and collective sense. In their capstone project, students will be asked to use both science and humanistic interpretations as they answer the question, "How does attention to energy enable people to make a difference?"
Section 17: Critical Moments in Human Stories: Critical moments are those turning points where something shifts and the shift can have ripple effects that change the trajectory of a person’s life, their community, their nation and their world. This course explores the question, How can one person make a difference? through the themes of story, context and choice as they relate to critical moments. We will explore critical moments in our own narratives and in the lives of persons and characters in three historic events. This exploration will examine what personal, historic, social, political and artistic forces create turning points in the life of an individual, a community, a country and the world. Using materials from the social sciences, humanities and theatre arts we will explore critical moments through contemporary and historical lenses with specific attention to genocide in Rwanda, the Hurricane Katrina natural disaster and the struggle for social justice and dignity in segregated Louisiana during the 1940’s. An integral part of this FYI will be the Common Book, A Lesson Before Dying, which we will work with both as a novel and as a play based on the book. This will allow us to see the characters, themes and context in two different formats. The capstone portfolio will include telling your own story using biographical objects, narratives, This I Believe essays and group theatrical performances. No previous training or experience in theatre arts is required.
Section 21: Food for Thought…and Action: It’s clear that food plays an integral part in our daily lives, but how much do you know about that burger you just ate? Will a healthy diet help you live longer? Is fast food really that bad for you? How does food bring people together? How is food production and safety regulated by the government? In this course, team taught by a biologist, a social scientist, and a lawyer, we’ll examine food through a variety of perspectives to come to a better understanding of its impact on our world. Using writing, discussion, oral and video presentations, we’ll consider the following question: How can you, either individually or working with others, make a difference by educating yourself and others about where food comes from and how to make informed choices about what you eat? At the end of the semester, students will work in small groups to present a final Capstone Project on a food-related subject to the larger College of Education and Human Development academic community. Resources used in the course will include films such as Super Size Me, articles on current food-related topics, and the books Fast Food Nation and In Defense of Food. Students will also read A Lesson Before Dying, the Common Book for all sections of the First Year Inquiry course, to explore the relationship of food to family and community.