LAMP S104 Freshman Seminar
LAMP FRESHMAN SEMINAR (3 credits)
While the LAMP freshman seminar is not a required course, it provides an excellent entre into the LAMP curriculum. The course fulfills the College of Arts and Sciences TOPICS requirement and also functions as an SH distribution course for purposes of College of Arts and Sciences degree requirements.
Looking for Home in Global Times, Susan Ferentinos
Not Offered During 2010-2011 Academic Year
There is more to life than getting a job. More than two-thirds of our adult lives are spent outside of work, and the communities in which we live play a big part in determining the quality of that experience. In this course, we will explore the factors that contribute to quality of life, as viewed through the lens of community. Topics to be covered include: economic development, environmental sustainability, civic engagement, arts and culture, and city planning. Throughout the exploration of these topics, we will use Bloomington as our laboratory, considering the ways these issues play out on a local scale. In this course, students will have the opportunity to develop their skills in class participation, analytical writing, and reading texts for key ideas. And while there is more to life that getting a job, employment is also important, so along the way, the course will introduce students to some of the career opportunities available in the field of community development.
Course Objectives:
- By the end of the course students should be able to:
- Describe the history and cultural function of communities as a form of social organization.
- Identify the political, social, economic, environmental, and ethical issues that that contribute to the character of a community.
- Speak on the merits and limitations of a variety of careers that contribute to civic life.
- Make effective and reasoned oral arguments.
- Write persuasive analytical essays.
- Read sources critically, with an eye toward the arguments made and the quality of those arguments.
Local Economies and Individual Choices, Dr. Ross Peterson-Veatch
Not Offered During 2010-2011 Academic Year
This course is about making connections—between readings, experiences, prior knowledge, etc.—perhaps the most important result of a liberal education. The course is also a seminar (from the Latin seminarium, meaning a seed plot or nursery)—a particular kind of course in which you read other people’s ideas in the first half (which plants seeds in your mind) and develop and present your own ideas (the fruits of your intellectual labor) in the second half.In order to make connections, you must develop a good understanding of other people’s ideas and how they influence your own. In this course we will be doing what I call “disciplined reading”. You will engage with the reading by keeping a written record of your responses to the readings every time you read. You will do this by filling out a Critical Reading Sheet before every class period and bringing that sheet to class. As you build up a file of these Critical reading Sheets, you should use them as a basis for the short Reading Response Papers. I may ask you for your filed of Critical Reading Sheets at various time throughout the semester, and I may ask you to include it with your response papers. You will also have the opportunity to connect ideas from the reading and from class discussion to experiences like field trips, community research, and our final project—in which you will, along with three or four of your classmates, propose a business or organization that uses little or no financial capital to start, promotes self-reliance in the local economy, and can continue regardless of who happens to be spearheading its initial operation.
Our course will explore these questions in particular:
- What is economics?
- How do people’s assumptions about how the world works affect economic decisions?
- What is the role of the economy in a society in which self-reliance is a deeply-held value?
