Syllabus

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Syllabus
Humanities 100: Creative and Critical Thinking

Creative and critical thinking introduces college students to rational thinking so that they might better engage contemporary issues and problems. The course introduces the characteristics of creative and critical thinking by pursuing the objectives and activities described below. Each of the objectives/activities are worth 10 points and constitute 1/10 of the total points. The specific assignments are listed in the course guide.

1. Students observe, analyze, and describe the characteristics of thinking related to experience and selective perception, social conditioning, and purpose (idealism and the Allegory of the Cave). Student will characterize his/her thinking style.

2. Students study and evaluate the limits of rational thought by studying current problems and obstacles to solving those problems including concepts of overuse of the commons, cooperation and defection, fairness, and evolutionary emotions. Student will offer an opinion regarding overpopulation, resource depletion, and cooperation.

3. Students identify and recognize their talents in the areas of music, spatial reasoning (fine arts/engineering), language, math, social interaction, athletics, self awareness, and understanding nature. Student will describe a personal project to develop a particular talent. Student will identify and practice daily routines for developing and maintaining their talents and identify the conditions under which they waste their talents.

4. Students describe and assess the characteristics of successful relationships among family, friends, and colleagues including, reciprocal altruism, commitment, trust, and honesty. Student will describe the characteristics of a particular successful relationship.

5. Students know how to define problems, state issues, and identify inferences. Student will study and apply the key concepts of identity, representation, reference, figures of speech, attributes of scale, mapping, and standards to a particular and strongly held opinion. Student will describe the conditions under which one of their strongly held personal opinions might err.

6. Students describe and assess the characteristics of evolutionary and popular paradigms (blood is thicker than water) as to their function, role, limits, and the conditions under which they change.

7. Students analyze and assess the functions of myths, animism’s, imagination, things unseen, abstract reasoning, intuition, and story telling.

8. Students identify and prioritize utilitarian, social justice, and property values in terms of personal beliefs and desires and popular opinion.

9. Students review, define, and assess the current popularity and import of historical and current virtues including courage, loyalty, humility, patience, generosity, courtesy, honor, integrity, and kindness in a heterogeneous, capitalistic society with significant provisions for social welfare. Students will prioritize four virtues primary to their personal and social lives.

10. Students develop, write, edit, and submit a world view statement.

Grade Scale

Over the course of the quarter, you can accumulate 104 points (10 points per weekly objective/activity and 4 points site and self assessment). The points will produce a decimal grade like this: 100-97(4.0), 96(3.9), 95(3.8), 94(3.7), 93(3.6), 92(3.5), 91(3.4), 90(3.3), 89(3.2), 88(3.1), 87(3.0), 86(2.9) ...57(0.0).

Students may submit work a few days before but not later than the due dates. I do not accept work that I receive late beginning with Assignment Weeks 4-6. Use standard college English in all of your correspondence and homework. This may entail using a college English handbook. A student can lose as many as 3 points each week for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and usage errors in emails and homework. A student can lose 5 points each assignment (including the initial email) for not reading the notes and not following the email and file submission procedures. To receive credit for a completed assignment, you must submit the assignment as an email attachment saved as a Word .doc or rich text format (.rtf). Students must have their own email account by the time the first set of assignments is due. Plagiarizing (using someone else's work as your own) will result in a complete loss of points for the assignment and may result in a no-pass for the class.

STUDENTS SUBJECT TO PROVISIONS OF AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

If you believe you qualify for course adaptations or special accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act, it is your responsibility to contact the Disabled Students Services Coordinator at Green River Community College and provide the appropriate documentation. If you have already documented a disability or other condition that would qualify you for special accommodations, or if you have emergency medical information or special needs I should know about, please notify me during the first week of the class. You can reach me at rfcasad@msn.com