In previous seminars, we asked you to read and think about what it means to be a liberally educated person. Given that context, we also asked you to consider what it means to be educated in the mathematical sciences and the physical sciences. We asked you to develop your own account of what it means to be an educated person in your own direction of study, which we asked you to do by producing your own list of learning goals and capacities you want to develop.
This week’s Seminar will be devoted to Academic Statement and Planning.
You will prepare for this week’s Seminar via the assignment below, which you will prepare in advance and have available for Seminar. This will set you up for the in-Seminar workshop activity.
Assemble together the following documents described in 0 and produce answers to the prompts in 1 – 4:
- Assemble together the following: previous drafts of your Academic Statement (or your Orientation Essay); all previous Self-Evaluations; cover letters you’ve written for jobs; essays you’ve written for scholarship applications; previous Seminar writing from this quarter; anything else in this same general category. As you get all of those related types of writing together in one place, start looking for patterns.
- Briefly summarize your science course equivalents including where you got them (e.g., a year of calculus at South Puget Sound Community College [12 credits], 3 quarters of university physics with lab in Matter & Motion [15 credits], 2 quarters of upper-division thermodynamics and statistical mechanics in Atoms, Molecules, and Reactions [8 credits]). For Evergreen programs, write a very brief description since the titles may not convey much to an outside audience (e.g., Matter & Motion was a 3-quarter introductory program that combined calculus, general chemistry with lab, and university physics with lab). Include programs, courses, and contracts/independent study.
- Briefly summarize your work outside the sciences: in the humanities, the arts, the social sciences, etc. In particular, discuss how this work contributed to your broad liberal arts education and/or supported your development as a scientist.
- Briefly describe relevant project work you have done (in programs, contracts, interships/REUs). Discuss associated (science) content and skills (both technical and “soft”) you developed through these projects.
- Briefly describe co-curricular or extra-curricular activities that are important to your education, particularly as a citizen and a scientist (Lab Aide, Instrumentation Aide, QuaSR tutor, lab jobs, etc.; work in student organizations, volunteering, etc.).
- Make sure to have your responses for 1 – 4 accessible in an electronic document for the Week 5 Seminar workshop activity.
- You will add to this document as part of the workshop activities.
- At the end of Seminar, you will submit your responses for prompts 1 – 4, and the results of the in-class activity.
- Note: this week’s Seminar workshop activity (Wednesday 12-1) will be held in the CAL.