Welcome to Harry, Garry, and Doug's University
Survival Guide for physical geography students
(frank language used)
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Frequently communicated misconceptions and my responses
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More frequently communicated misconceptions and my responses
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The difference between a C and an A (Bloom's taxonomy of levels thinking)
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Goals of the baccalaureate (104) (178)
Welcome to the future! All class-related communication will be conducted electronically using email or the Web. We often provide information via email messages and sometimes as attached files. We use Microsoft XP Professional (Office Suite). We use IBM-compatible systems and UWEC standard software (current-most versions supported by LTS of Microsoft: Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, Excel, FrontPage, Internet Explorer, and Outlook. Students must be conversant with these software applications.
If you state the following: "I don't know how to use UWEC Standard Software", or "I'm having problems with my computer" the response will always be, "call the LTS help desk at 36-5711". You must learn basic proficiency with the software on the UWEC standard toolbar. There are resources available to help you achieve proficiency with computers and computer software. Examples: BITS (Bringing Instructional Technology to Students) 36-5157, workshops and individual computer tutoring; LTS Help Desk 36-5711, the premier trouble shooters on campus.
Other important technology-related requirements are:
1) You must know your UWEC Student ID# (failure to correctly input this on test scantrons, or failure to correctly and completely fill out test scantrons will incur and immediate 5 point penalty. You must fill in all the little circles on the scantron where required!).
2) You must know your UWEC username (failure to keep informed during the semester by frequently checking your email for updates, schedule changes, study aides, and other course information will cost you).
Frequently communicated misconceptions and our likely responses
C: Why do I have to take this course?
R: it is a Category II, General Education course
C: What is General Education?
R: General Education is...
(the following was largely created by Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. We agree whole-heartedly with Professor Dutch and in most cases we couldn't have said it better ourselves, so mostly we didn't. Asterisks indicate where we did.)
Great Thinkers Comment on the University Experience
- A college professor is a
person who talks in other peoples' sleep
----source unknown - "Next we'll tear down the
dormitories"
"But Professor Wagstaff, where will the students sleep?"
"Where they always slept - in the classroom"
----Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers - Many of you young persons out
there are seriously thinking about going to college. (That is, of course, a
lie. The only things you young persons think seriously about are loud music
and sex. Trust me: these are closely related to college.)
....College is basically a bunch of rooms where you sit for roughly two thousand hours and try to memorize things. The two thousand hours are spread out over four years; you spend the rest of the time sleeping and trying to get dates. Basically you learn two kinds of things in college:
- Things you will need to know in later life (2 hours). These include how to make collect telephone calls and get beer and crepe-paper stains out of your pajamas.
- Things you will not need to know in later life (1,998 hours). These are the things you learn in classes whose names end in -ology, -osophy, -istry, ics, and so on. The idea is, you memorize these things, then write them down in little exam books, then forget them. If you fail to forget them, you become a professor and have to stay in college for the rest of your life.
....After you've been in college for a year or so, you're supposed to choose a major, which is the subject you intend to memorize and forget the most things about.
-----Dave Barry in Dave Barry's Bad Habits
First, let's look at an example of what General Education is not.
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal and mineral
I know the kings of England and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted too with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot of news
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
............
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous
In short, in matters vegetable, animal and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General
.............
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you every detail of Caractacus's uniform
In short, in matters vegetable, animal and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General[But.....]
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy....For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
But still in matters vegetable, animal and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General-----Gilbert and Sullivan, Pirates of Penzance
Give the General his due; he knows mathematics, history, languages and science. He just can't put any of it together or apply it. He collects facts like a pack rat collects tinfoil. As for his specialty, he's woefully uninformed. This is not what General Education is trying to do.
The Purposes of General Education
The roots of university curricula go back through the Middle Ages to about 400 A.D. The Roman Empire was coming unglued, and a Roman proconsul named Martianus Capella confronted the problem of how to cope. With central authority becoming fragmented and invaders sweeping in, there was every likelihood that a person might find himself carried off into captivity a thousand miles from home among people who spoke a completely different language. What did you need to know to survive in such a wildly uncertain world? Capella's answer: everything, or at least as close as you could come to it. Capella's answer is not all that bad in today's uncertain world because a lot of the purposes of General Education haven't changed:
- General Education prepares you for change. Time was, universities could go a century or more without updating their curricula - and sometimes did. We can't do that any more. The problem Capella addressed is with us today. Chances are you won't be carried off by the Visigoths. We call it a "corporate transfer" nowadays. You may find that the foreign language you didn't want to learn in high school or college is spoken by your boss or your best customer tomorrow. What do you need to know to survive in such a wildly uncertain world? Capella's answer still holds: everything, or at least as close as you can get to it.
- General Education gives you an overview of knowledge. Okay, you have to eat, sleep, and get a reasonable amount of recreation. You can't learn everything (which is not an excuse for learning nothing). But you can learn how everything is organized, so that you have a reasonable idea what scientists, social scientists and people in the humanities do. You can also learn enough about these fields to have some idea how they work so that when (these days, it's when and not if) you are thrust into the situation of having to become the group expert on some topic totally alien to you, you'll have a good idea how to go about doing it.
- General Education gives you a basis for making informed decisions. Gilbert and Sullivan's Modern Major General appeared on stage in the late 1800's. At the start of the century, wars were fought with sailing ships, muskets, and neat blocks of soldiers lined up on the battlefield. By the time Gilbert and Sullivan wrote, wars were fought with battleships, repeating rifles, and machine guns. The Major General was amusing in 1890, but in another two decades or so people very much like him would send infantry waves against machine guns. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916 the British and French lost nearly as many men in one day as the U.S. lost in Korea, despite the fact that the U.S. Civil War had shown - fifty years earlier - how futile frontal attacks on trenches were. Still think history is irrelevant? The U.S. Air Force puts the matter bluntly: "What you don't know won't hurt you - it will kill you."
- General Education lets you
know what your options are. I got my first exposure to computers in the
punch-card days of 1964. (For those of you who don't remember, once upon a
time computer data was stored on punched cards. You can always tell someone
who remembers those days if his face turns white when you say "shuffle the
deck." This was just before I got drafted to help Hannibal attack Rome.) When
my neighbors heard I was working with computers, they all said "That's great.
You can get a job as a key-punch operator." Even with my rudimentary knowledge
of computers, I wondered "Why would any rational human being with a choice
decide to be a key-punch operator?" My neighbors didn't have a clue what
computers were for except that they provided a (temporarily) secure, mindless
job. They had no idea that there were any other jobs in computing.
You might make a good biologist, or historian, or psychologist, or something else totally outside your present horizon. You might be very good at something you now think you hate. You'll never know unless you get some exposure to the different branches of learning.
More frequently communicated misconceptions and my responses:
C: This course covers too much material...
R: No it does not. If it does though, great! You got your money's worth! At over $100 a credit, you should complain about not getting a lot of information. If you take a three credit course and get $200 worth of information, you have a right to complain. If you get $500 worth, you got a bargain. Geography courses at UWEC are a bargain.
*C: There is too much math in this course. I thought this was a geography course.
R: Geography 104 and 178 are natural science General Education courses. Physical Geography is a natural science. You are receiving credit for acquiring knowledge of the natural sciences. Mathematics is the language of science. That is the way it is.*
"A person who cannot cope with mathematics is at best a tolerable subhuman who has learned to bathe, wear shoes, and not make messes in the house." Robert Anson Heinlein.
*This doesn't mean you have to like math, or even be good at it. You just have to cope with it. You may have to work harder if mathematics is not one of your native skills.*
*C: This course is too difficult. I thought geography was going to be easier than physics, chemistry, biology, or geology.
R: Well, it isn't. Physical Geography is a science. The same academic rigor you expect from other science courses is to be expected here. The reason the first exam average score is generally lower than others is it takes one profound "shocker" to disabuse students who, despite repeated warnings to the contrary, cling to this faulty assumption.*
C: The expected grade just for coming to class is a B so why didn't I get one?
R: This belief seems to be making the rounds in some college circles. The expected grade for just coming to class and not doing anything else is a D or an F. The average grade is supposed to be C although grade inflation is a perennial problem.
Unlike Lake Wobegon, all the children in the real world are not above average.
C: I disagreed with the Professor's stand on...
R: The time to deal with this issue is when it comes up in class. I have no respect for anyone who complains on the course evaluations.
But the professor might put me down, or the students might laugh at me. Not too likely, but even if it happens, so what? If you don't have courage in the safe setting of a classroom, when exactly are you planning to develop it? When your boss asks you to falsify figures or lie under oath? When someone throws rocks through your minority neighbor's windows? When the local militia group burns the synagogue?
C: Some topics covered in lecture or on the study guides weren't on the exams
R: The point of a class is the material, not the exam. The exam is a check to see whether you learned the material. There are more topics than exam questions. *A study guide you make yourself is better than any study guide I could ever provide.*
*C: Do you curve the test scores when you assign grades?
R: No. Be careful what you wish for. This question is based on the faulty assumption that using a normal distribution curve centered at the mean will somehow improve an individual's grade (yet that individual's test scores will remain the same). Anything is possible I guess but if you understand what a normal distribution curve is (any basic statistics textbook will address this topic thoroughly) you will recognize this assumption is false. The grading scheme for this course is explained on the course homepage. If you have questions about this scheme you have but to ask.*
*C: Will there be extra credit?
R: No. If there is "extra credit" and some people take advantage of it and others don't, then the basis for assigning final grades is not equitable. The same number of points possible is not consistent, rendering the whole grading process untenable. If some people get "extra credit" EVERYBODY has to have it in order to compete on a level playing field. At that point "extra credit" is no longer "extra credit". Extra credit merely amounts to more work for all students and the instructor, with no additional performance expectations.*
C: I studied for hours
R: This statement makes me very sad. There are so many things that are possibly wrong here (faulty assumptions, poor study habits, misaligned priorities).
How many hours? A college credit is defined as three hours' work per week; one in class and two outside. That's why adding a two to four-hour lab to a class only results in one additional credit. This means that 12 credits translates to an average of 36 hours' work a week. That's why 12 credits is considered full time; it's the equivalent of a full-time job. If you have a course that meets three hours a week for 3 credits but doesn't require six hours of outside work a week to keep up, consider yourself lucky (but recognize you're not getting a bargain). Other courses may require more time. Also, individual students require different amounts of study time. It does no good to complain that three hours a week per credit is excessive, any more than it does to complain that 26 miles is too long for a marathon. They are what they are.
The one thing you can count on is that a few hours of cramming before the final will not give good results. I recently heard from a student who lamented that she stayed up until 2 A.M. studying, then got up at 6 A.M. and studied some more, and did poorly. And she was surprised? She'd have been better off getting a decent night's sleep. This is particularly true if you are taking a course in a subject you are not "good at". Contrary to human nature, which drives us to avoid pain, you must spend more time on the classes you're not good at. If you're not "good at science" you will have to work harder to succeed.
"But you don't understand. I have a job." No, you don't understand. This is your job. If you don't believe me, just go out with what you have on your resume now and try to launch a career.
"If you don't think your study efforts are achieving the results you want THERE IS HELP! You may need to take advantage of campus resources to help you learn how to study more effectively. See, University Resources."
C: Students are customers
R: True. Students are customers, and they have every right to complain about poor service, unprofessional behavior, and out-of-date material. They also have a right to complain about low standards that water down their credentials.
Students are also products, and employers outside the University are also our customers. These customers have a right to complain if our graduates are lacking in skills, knowledge, and motivation. They have a right to complain if we certify someone as being a potentially good employee and that person turns out to be unqualified.
Despite the rising share students pay for their college education, students still only pay 40 percent of the total cost. That means the University's responsibility is 40 per cent to students, and 60 per cent to the community. And our customers in the community want people who can communicate, reason, and have a good general stock of knowledge they can call on for unexpected needs. They also want us to provide an assessment that accurately reflects the quality of work students are likely to turn out as employees.
C: Do I need to know this?
R: You can survive without the things you learn in college. People survive scrounging out of dumpsters and sleeping in doorways. If you want to talk about quality of life, we need to be a bit more demanding.
*C: Do I have to know this for the examination?
R: No, this is America. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. You can even be president with a C average, if you come from money. You may not do well on an examination if you don't know the material. But again, the point of the class is the material, not the exam.*
*C: I missed your class last period. Did we do anything important?
R: No, we didn't do anything. We noticed you weren't present and we couldn't go on. We cancelled class. The real response is, of course we did something important! We learned things that you will have to learn on your own because you weren't there, even if you have an excused absence. Attendance is mandatory according to university policy. Attendance and student performance are positively correlated very strongly in this class. Don't panic. There are resources if you missed a class due to illness or some other legitimate reason. You can come to one of us and we will help you. Your neighbors may share their notes (unless they have grown weary of doing your work for you), PowerPoint lectures are posted (they alone are not a substitute for attending lecture, though a long line of lazy students have tried to make them an attendance substitute--and failed), the assigned readings are posted, our office hours are posted. The sooner YOU take the initiative to make up what you missed the better. If you just skipped class because you had a hangover you can anticipate little assistance from us.*
C: This Course Wasn't Relevant
R: What planet do you think you live on? If something as vast as the Earth or mathematics or science or history can pass through your brain without even scraping the sides on the way through, that's a pretty big hole. Are you sure it's the course that doesn't relate to anything?
Our other customers in the community want people who have a good general stock of knowledge they can call on for unexpected needs. Being able to cope with unexpected needs means learning things that may not be immediately needed. You need to stop worrying about whether you need it now and begin worrying about whether your boss might need it later.
*C: The Instructor Was Not Entertaining
R: You are probably right. University faculty are not entertainers. A university instructor's responsibility is to provide students with the tools necessary to understand the topics addressed in the course in a professional manner (fairly, coherently, using up-to-date information, and yes, in as exciting and engaging and enthusiastic a manner as possible). Expecting them to be entertainers is naive, misses the point of a university education, and negates the student's responsibility towards their own learning. You can tell we're not entertainers because we aren't paid like entertainers. A ticket to attend a lecture doesn't cost as much as a ticket to attend a play or a concert (if every student paid $50 a ticket for admission to attend every lecture we'd be rich!). If you want to while away a few hours a week being entertained, stay home and play with your game boy or watch daytime television or engaging in some other diversion. If you want to learn something come to class.*
C: I Paid Good Money for This Course and I Deserve a Good Grade
R: Right on! And ---
- I paid good money to get on this golf course and I have a right to shoot par. Anyone can enter the U.S. Open - that's what "open" means. But if you don't make the cut, you don't play in the tournament. Nor do you get a refund of your entry fee.
- I paid good money for a lawyer and I have a right to win my case.
- I paid good money for a house and I have a right to see it increase in value, even if I haven't lifted a finger to maintain it in ten years.
- I paid good money for this stock and I have a right to see it go up, even if I haven't bothered to watch the stock market. (I just know the XYZ Beta Video and 8-Track Tape Company is poised for growth!)
Almost everything you pay for in life is an entry fee. What happens next is up to you. Buy a Porsche and never change the oil and see what happens. Get a triple bypass and keep on with a diet of Lienies Red, bratwurst and cheese, Camel straights, and Korbel brandy - you'll be back.
C: All I Want is the Diploma
R: The work force is full of people who do the minimum necessary to get by. Give me one reason why I, as a citizen or consumer, should help create more of them?
Call me elitist, but there are a lot more people who want good jobs than there are good jobs to go around. I think society has a perfect right to reserve those positions for people who demonstrate a commitment to excellence.
For people who want to get by on the minimum, there's a reward already established. It's called the minimum wage.
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Subject to change without notice
Created by Don Porschien
Last updated 5 January 06
Send comments to runningl@uwec.edu
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