Short Talk and Film Schedule for Spring 2004: Advanced Composition in the Natural Sciences and Technology

English 302:N12: Monday, 4:30-7:10 pm, Robinson B204
English 302:N13: Monday, 7:20-10:100 pm, Enterprise Hall 275
Dr Ellen Moody

On Feynman, SYJ & WDYC:

Session 1: Mon, Feb 2nd

• The class will watch Ralph Leighton's The Last Journey of a Genius.

Session 3: Mon, Feb 16th

• Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ,
  Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1: Hoaiquan T. Ho/Jennifer Whited
  
• Short talk 2: RFeynman's criticisms of abuses of authority particularly at Los Alamos (i.e., his
  stories about counterproductive uses of secrecy), but you may include stories exemplifying this
  theme from elsewhere in the book thus far (so from SYJ, Parts 2 & 3, especially "Los Alamos from
  Below" and "Safecracker Meets Safecracker" and WDYC Part 1): Nikolai (Nick) Chernyy/Josh Patterson
  
• Short Talk 3: RFeynman's Definition of a Good Experiment (e.g.,"A Map of the Cat",
  "A Different Box Of Tools" "The Amateur Scientist" from SJY and "It's as Simple
  as One, Two Three" from WDYC): Olisa Akpati/_______________________
  

Session 4: Mon, Feb 23rd

• Short Talk 4: RFeynman's ideas on what is real scientific learning: what ought to go
  on in a classroom, be in a book &c (e.g.,"O Americano Outre Vez" and "Judging Books
  by Their Covers" in SYJ and relevant Letters in WDYC, Letters): __________________/Tiffany Mason
  
• Short Talk 5: Mr Feynman Goes to Washington: Why some NASA officials are driven
  to delude themselves and mislead the public ("Mr Feynman Goes to Washington" and
  "Appendix F" in WDYC): Jemima Saint-Hilaire/Jasmah Stewart
  
• Short Talk 6: A World of Pseudo- and Corrupt Science and the Value
  of Science (Feynman's "Cargo Cult Learning" and "The Value of Science": Alex Huerta/Jenny Coe
  

Session 5: Mon, Mar 1st

• Essay #1 Due. The class watches Axelrod's Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.

Session 6: Mon, Mar 15th

• In class open book writing: book review of SYJ and WDYC. Typed answers to take-home test on Trimble due. This is all in lieu of midterm exam.

On Olson Mapping Human History: Genes, Race and Our Common Origins:

Session 7: Mon, Mar 22nd

• Plan for Essay #2 is due.
• Short Talk 7: "The Human Pageant" and "The End of Evolution" (pp. 1-31): Jerome Oliver/Rashad Ramadan
  
• Short Talk 8: "Individuals and Groups" and "The African Diaspora" (pp. 32-69): Yonas Isaac/Hani Attar
  
• Short Talk 9: "Encounters with the Other" and "Agriculture, Civilization and
  the Emergence of Ethnicity" (pp. 73-105): ________________/Hoang Le
  
• The class watches episodes from Part One of the abridged version of Attenborough's Life on Earth

Session 8: Mon, Mar 29th

• Short Talk 10: "The Great Migration and "Sprung from a Common Source" (pp. 123-54): Chris Herring/Elizabeth Helmke
  
• Short Talk 11: "Who Are the Europeans" and "Immigration and the Future" (157-90): ___________________/Hasan Waqas
  
• Short talk 12: "Settlement of the Americas" and "The Burden of Knowledge" (pp. 193-220): Chung-yin Koo/Madina Kamawal
  
• Short Talk 13: "God's People" and "The End of Race" (pp. 106-19, 223-38): Sarah Clatterbuck/Gabriela Espinoza
  
• The class watches episodes from Part Two of the abridged version of Attenborough's Life on Earth

Ondaatje's The English Patient

Session 9: Mon, Apr 5th

• On this day the class will watch the film adaptation by Anthony Mingella of Michael Onjaatje's The English Patient.

Session 10: Mon, Apr 12th

• Short talk 17: Discuss the novel's treatment of the female characters (Hana and Katharine
  Clifton, Miss Morden, Miss Swift) concentrating on the relationship of Hana and Katharine
  to the "English Patient." Do you think this is a sexist book?: Lindsay Kraut/Shamekia Louis
  
• Short Talk 18: Discuss the novel as one where peoples of different race, ethnic and cultural
  group are intermixed? How does it critique nationalism?: Kelly Lamb/Victoria Nelson
  
• Short Talk 18a: Discuss spying, politics and the desert in the novel: __________________/___________________
  
• Short Talk 19: Compare the film to the book: how is the plot-design (story) changed
  significantly? You can use the screenplay: ____________________/Chris Lett
  .

Session 11: Mon, Apr 19th

• Essay #2 is due. The class watches two-third of Mike Nichols' and Emma Thompson's film adaptation of Margaret Edson's play, Wit.

Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Session 12: Mon, Apr 26th

• Short Talk 20: "The Education of the Knife" and "When Doctors Make Mistakes" (pp. 11-74): Memona Tazamal/Quoc Tran
  
• Short Talk 21: "Nine Thousand Surgeons" and "When Good Doctors Go Bad" (pp. 75-105): Deewa Safi/Steve Alabi
  
• Short Talks 22: "Full Moon Friday the Thirteenth," "The Pain Perplex" and "A Queasy Feeling" (pp. 109-45): Olisa Akpati/Megan Hare
  
• We finish seeing Nichols' and Thompson's Wit.

Session 13: Mon, May 3rd

• Plan for Essay #3 is due.
• Short Talk 23: "Crimson Tide" and "The Man Who Couldn't Stop Eating (pp. 146-83): Yonas Isaac/Keith Choi
  
• Short Talk 24: The Mistreatment of Vivien Bearing in Wit: Merriam DiPasquale/Huy Diep
  
• Short talk 25: "Final Cut" and "The Dead Baby Mystery" (pp. 187-207): Ah-rong Moon/Jalpa Vyas
  
• Short Talk 26: "Whose Body It is, Anyway" and "The Case of the Red Leg" (pp. 208-52): ____________________/Jagadeesh Krishna