CHEM 1904 -- Proposed New Course

My Other Car is a Bicycle

My Other Car is a Bicycle

3.0 to 3.0 credit(s)

Bicycling is a viable and sustainable mode of transportation and a vehicle for health and wellness of both individuals and communities. In this seminar, will examine the impact of choosing cars for transportation, research city planning for non-car-based transportation, evaluate safety and risks of using bicycles on different types of infrastructure, and compare bike movements and cultures in cities worldwide, including the twin cities. This seminar will challenge students to evaluate how they use transportation infrastructure, consider social justice issues related to transportation infrastructure, and the role that choosing bicycles and other non-car based transportation can play in improving connectedness between and within communities. We will learn some basic bike repair and practice urban riding skills. Classes will include field trips (by bike, of course), guest lectures, and more. Each student must have access to a bike during class time.

false

OPN

3.0 hours per week

Periodic Fall & Spring

LEC

3.0 credit(s) (Not allowed to bypass limits.)

3.0 credit(s) (Not allowed to bypass limits.)

Repetition not allowed.

<No Text Provided>

<No text provided>

No required consent

No required consent

001475 - Freshman and FRFY

Lee Penn Chemistry Wednesday, 1:25-4:10pm East Bank Prof. Lee Penn is a chemistry professor who uses bikes for transportation, recreation, and competition. Since 2001, Prof. Penn has been commuting by bicycle to and from campus all year round. Prof. Penn supervises a research group of eight graduate students and several undergraduates, all working on topics related to sustainable energy and/or the environment. Finally, Prof. Penn is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Chemistry Department and a member of the UMN?s Academy of Distinguished Teachers

<No text provided>

<No text provided>

Lee Penn

rleepenn@umn.edu

<no text provided>

<no text provided>

<No text provided>

<No text provided>

<No text provided>

<No text provided>

<No text provided>

<No text provided>

<No text provided>

CHEM 1904 Prof. Lee Penn Smith 225 rleepenn@umn.edu My Other Car is a Bicycle Spring 2018, 3 Credits Freshman Seminar: My Other Car is a Bicycle Spring Semester 2018 Draft Syllabus ? updated on 7 November 2017 Instructor: Lee Penn, Chemistry 225 Smith Hall, rleepenn@umn.edu Prerequisite: enthusiasm about bicycle-based transportation, access to a working bicycle for class 3 Credits ? Wednesday afternoons -- 1:25p ? 4:10p, location TBA Lee?s Office Hours: Almost any time by email appointment; drop-in hour will be determined by survey monkey. Required texts: None ? readings will be available through our class website, online resources, library resources, or will be distributed in class. However, please expect to spend approximately $10-20 during the semester on class-related items. Some students may spend more, depending on their own needs related to cycling with the class. The Seminar: Bicycling is a viable and sustainable mode of transportation and a vehicle for health and wellness of both individuals and communities. In this seminar, will examine the impact of choosing cars for transportation, research city planning for non-car-based transportation, evaluate safety and risks of using bicycles on different types of infrastructure, and compare bike movements and cultures in cities worldwide, including the twin cities. We will learn some basic bike repair and practice urban riding skills. Classes will include field trips (by bike, of course), guest lectures, and more. Bicycles: Students enrolled in MOCIAB must have a safe, working bicycle for use during class. We will ride most days ? including cold days! Grading: You will be required to write and make presentations on topics related to bike-based transportation and your own experiences. You will also be required to participate in at least one non-campus based, bike-related event. Grading in this course will be based on your writings, presentations, and class and outside-of-class participation. You will receive a grade on each of the approximately ten writing assignments (some of which will be written DURING class), on each of approximately two presentations, and on each of two or three creative assignments. This course is graded A-F. Thirty per cent of the grade is based on your written assignments, twenty-five percent of the grade is based on your presentations and creative work, twenty-five percent is based on participation in class and group activities, and twenty percent is based on your service work. Grades for late submissions will be reduced by one grade level for each day late (e.g., A- drops to B+ for one day late). Writing: There will be two types of writing assignments ? graded and ungraded. All ungraded writing assignments will be written during class, and completion of the assignments will count towards the participation portion of the grade. Graded assignments will be graded for content, organization, and grammar and will be a mix of in-class and out-of-class assignments. Topics will include, for example, a report based on logging modes of transporation used over several days (I will also complete this assignment), a report on accomplishing an off-campus errand, critiques of readings, essays about the politics of bicycle-based transportation, essays about your personal goals and what you expect to achieve at the university, and critical evaluations of information available through a variety of sources. You will receive detailed feedback on your writing and be expected to revise and resubmit at least one writing assignment. Forty per cent of your class grade will be derived from the graded writings. Check out the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Writing's web site for help with writing <http://cisw.cla.umn.edu>. Service: This course includes a service component. Students are expected to volunteer 5-10 hours of time on bicycle related activities. Examples include volunteering at Mr Michael Recycles Bicycles, cleaning up on city-wide clean up days, volunteering to work with people learning to ride bicycles, and more. No reasonable proposal will be denied! You are welcome to design your own event to fulfill this requirement. Above all else! This course is designed to be FUN! TENATIVE SCHEDULE: 1: Why Bike? ABC safety check 2: The Great Helmet Debate ? review of the literature 3: Chemistry of fuels ? burritos versus gasoline; bike handling 4: Are Winter Bike Commuters Morons? Fix-a-flat 5: Traffic, Infrastructure, and traffic engineering ? GUEST discussion leader 6: City bike/ped count ? GUEST discussion leader 7: Perceived Safety ? literature review 8: RIDE DOWNTOWN! 9: Perceived Safety Presentations and The Great Helmet Debate revisited 10: Bikes as vehicles for social justice 11: St. Paul infrastructure and MMRB 12: U of MN Bike Center 13: Visibility experiment; life-long fitness through biking 14: Cycling in other cities 15: Bike scavenger hunt RIDE!!! We will ride as much as we possibly can! Heavy rain ? no ride. Heavy snow/ice ? no ride. Below freezing? We?ll ride unless it?s icy. Windy? We?ll ride. Raining lightly? We?ll ride. Light snow (by Minnesota standards)? We?ll ride! Come prepared for the weather conditions of the day! Please avoid heavy back packs etc? during rides. Of course, sometimes it?s unavoidable. In such cases, I will happily lock your items in my office for our rides?. Everyone gets one freebie ? i.e., you can miss one bike ride with no explanation. Sometimes, the bike ride will be optional if the conditions are borderline. Students opting out of the bike ride will be required to complete an in-class assignment. The above schedule will be modified as needed. If we have a particularly bad-weather day, then the schedule will be rearranged so that we can stay indoors for that day?s class. On the other hand, if we have a particularly beautiful day, we may change the schedule so that we can spend most of that day?s class time outside! If in doubt, please bring your bicycle to class. If I know in advance that the weather is going to be particularly unfriendly, I will email people before class. In addition, this course addresses four of the seven Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for undergraduates at the University of Minnesota. 1. Can locate and critical evaluate information. We will search for statistics regarding the use of nonmotorized transportation options ? mainly bicycles but also other modes of transportation ? from many cities worldwide. We will evaluate those statistics and attempt to draw meaningful conclusions regarding city planning and bike infrastructure. In addition, we will contribute to such statistic by participating the 3rd annual Bicycle and Pedestrian Count, which is coordinated through Minneapolis Public Works. 2. Can communicate effectively. As described above, you will be writing and presenting throughout the semester. You will receive detailed feedback on your writing and presenting. 3. Understand diverse philosophies and cultures within and across societies. We will study the modes of transportation common in cities worldwide. We will ride as a group to a number of locations near campus and off campus, which will expose class members to a wide range of neighborhoods as well as bike infrastructure in the twin cities. 4. Have acquired skills for effective citizenship and life-long learning. A major part of this course is understanding how your transportation choices can impact your life, the lives of people around you, and the environment. Also, you will plan routes, accomplish errands by bicycle, and get to know the twin cities from both an on-campus and off-campus perspective. Finally, when we ride as a group, we all share responsibility for the group. Important information on scholastic dishonesty: The Board of Regents Student Conduct Code states that, ?Scholastic dishonesty means plagiarizing; cheating on assignments or examinations; engaging in unauthorized collaboration on academic work; taking, acquiring, or using test materials without faculty permission; submitting false or incomplete records of academic achievement; acting alone or in cooperation with another to falsify records or to obtain dishonestly grades, honors, awards, or professional endorsement; altering, forging, or misusing a University academic record; or fabricating or falsifying data, research procedures, or data analysis.? For additional information see the student conduct code?athttp://regents.umn.edu/sites/default/files/policies/Student Conduct Code.pdf The Office for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity has compiled a useful list of Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to scholastic dishonesty: http://www1.umn.edu/oscai/integrity/student/index.html. The policy in this course is zero tolerance. The minimum action taken in a case of scholastic dishonesty in any portion of the work in this course will be a grade of F for the assignment involved in the instance of scholastic dishonesty. Depending on the nature of the scholastic dishonesty, a course grade of F may be assigned. The questions below are often asked by students who seek interpretation of this policy. 1. What is cheating? Cheating is the violation of rules under which an examination is given or homework is assigned. This includes submitting an examination, an essay, a report, or a computer program that is not your own 2. Does this mean that I can never study with another student? No. We encourage students to study together, and in the workplace you will often work as part of a team. The key issue is whether you are being evaluated as an individual on the basis of the work you hand in. Your instructor should make it clear when team work is expected and when you should work alone. If you are not sure, ask! 3. What is plagiarism? An excellent definition of plagiarism is from the Modern Language Association: "In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from an-other." W. S. Achtert and J. Gibaldi, The MLA Style Manual, New York, Modern Language Association of America, 1985, p. 4. See the next page for more specific information on plagiarism. 4. When should I cite sources? There are two issues here. The first is to avoid plagiarism. The second is to make sure that the reader can follow your line of thought, verify the information that you have used, or explore the issue further. Some things are known so widely that they do not need citing: for example, the definition of momentum or solving a linear differential equation with constant coefficients. On the other hand, if you are writing for an audience who might not know how to solve a linear differential equation with constant coefficients, you might want to give a citation so that they could find out how. If you find the solution to a homework problem in a text or journal article, you should give a citation. If you are allowed to utilize previously written computer code, published or unpublished, within your own code, you should clearly identify such code and cite the source. MLA Handbook (Gibaldi, Joseph, and Walter S. Achtert. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 3rd ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1988. 21-25.) The MLA Handbook defines plagiarism as the use of another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without giving proper credit to the source. The word comes from the Latin word plagiarius ("kidnapper"), and Alexander Lindey defines it as "the false assumption of authorship: the wrongful act of taking the product of another person's mind, and presenting it as one's own" (Plagiarism and Originality [New York: Harper, 1952] 2). "In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from someone else." This can include paraphrasing, copying someone else's writing word for word, or using ideas that aren't your own without proper citation. Plagiarism is often unintentional, and bad research habits can form early in elementary school. Unfortunately, these bad habits can continue throughout high school and college and may result in severe consequences, from failure in a course to expulsion. To avoid these consequences, always cite your sources if you are unsure if you are plagiarizing (Gibaldi 21-25). The MLA Handbook also gives good suggestions about when to credit someone else's ideas and when not to: Materials not requiring credit: ? Common knowledge ? If other people like you know the material you are including (e.g., who is President of the U.S., what "capital punishment" means, etc.) you do not need to include a citation. If, on the other hand, you are giving specific data about a President's policies and their impact, or citing the number of people executed in a particular state over a set time period, you should include a citation to document the source where you found this specific information. ? Facts available in a wide variety of sources ? Information that is commonly available in encyclopedias, almanacs, and textbooks does not need a citation. For example, if you wrote that John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 23, 1963 in Texas, you would not need to cite a source. If you went on to discuss a theory about a conspiracy behind the assassination, you would then need to cite your source. ? Your own findings from field research. ? Facts or results from your own research can be credited to yourself. Materials requiring credit: ? Direct quotations. Always credit the source when you directly quote another person. If you are paraphrasing but using a quote in the middle of a sentence, be sure to set the quote off with quotation marks. ? Assertions that are arguable or facts that are not widely known. If other people like you would not know the information, include a citation. In addition, include a citation if you use material that may not be true (e.g., an author asserts that the CIA conspired to kill John F. Kennedy). ? Judgments, opinions, and claims of others. Credit the ideas and opinions of others. Even if you summarize someone else's opinion in your own words, the idea does not belong to you and needs to be cited. ? Statistics, charts, tables, and graphs from any source. Include a citation for all information included in graphs and other statistical material. ? Information or help provided by friends, instructors, or others. Anyone who assists in the development of your ideas or research deserves credit. Instructors and friends can be valuable sources in your research. Don't forget to acknowledge their contribution (Lunsford 566). If you ever have a question related to whether a possible approach to an assignment or related could represent an instance of scholastic dishonesty, please contact me immediately. Let?s talk! In this freshman seminar, I welcome questions related to academic integrity and how to ensure that you are meeting the expectations of academic integrity. There will never be a penalty for asking questions about whether specific approaches could be viewed as scholastic dishonesty. Overlapping & Back-to-Back Courses: Enrolling in overlapping or back-to-back courses that does not allow enough travel time to arrive at our class meetings on time is prohibited. For more information, please see: http://policy.umn.edu/Policies/Education/Education/OVERLAPPINGCLASSES.html Teaching & Learning -- Appropriate Student Use of Class Notes and Course Materials: The materials provided in this course are intended only for the students officially enrolled in this section and are to be used to learn and practice the course material. Disseminating class notes, videos, exams, etc? beyond the classroom community or accepting compensation (in the form of cash or in trade, such as access to a study website) undermines instructor interests in their intellectual property while not substantially furthering instructor and student interests in effective learning. Such actions violate shared norms and standards of the academic community and are not allowed. For additional information, please see: http://policy.umn.edu/Policies/Education/Education/STUDENTRESP.html Student Conduct Code: As a student at the University you are expected to adhere to Board of Regents Policy: Student Conduct Code. To review the Student Conduct Code, please see: http://regents.umn.edu/sites/default/files/policies/Student_Conduct_Code.pdf. ; Incompletes: Students that have an excused absence from the final exam AND are passing the course based on all the work completed prior to the final exam may be eligible to receive a grade of ?I? in the course. If these criteria are met, contact the instructor as soon as circumstances allow to discuss the possibility of an incomplete grade and the associated requirements for completion. Student Mental Health and Stress Management: As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning, such as strained relationships, increased anxiety, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, difficulty concentrating and/or lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events may lead to diminished academic performance or reduce a stu- dent?s ability to participate in daily activities. University of Minnesota services are available to assist you with addressing these and other concerns you may be experiencing. You can learn more about the broad range of confidential mental health services available on campus via http://www.mentalhealth.umn.edu/. Sexual Harassment: The University policy on sexual harassment can be found at:http://regents.umn.edu/sites/default/files/policies/SexHarassment.pdf. Equity, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity: The University policy on equity, diversity, and equal opportunity can be found at:?http://regents.umn.edu/sites/default/files/policies/Equity Diversity EO AA.pdf. Disability Resource Center (DRC): Students with special needs should contact the DRC, https://diversity.umn.edu/disability/. The staff at the DRC will work with me to provide accommodations. If you have a disability, please contact DRC as soon as possible to ensure that your accommodations are in place. Use of Personal Electronic Devices in the Classroom: Using personal electronic devices in the classroom setting can hinder instruction and learning, not only for the student using the device but also for other students in the class. To this end, personal electronic devices are not to be used for non-class related activities during Chem 1071H. For complete information, please reference: http://policy.umn.edu/education/studentresp. Appropriate use of personal electronic devices includes (and is not limited to) taking notes on a personal laptop, looking up chemical information, performing numerical computation using a calculator, etc? Please save texting and social media for before and after class. Academic Freedom and Responsibility: for courses that do not involve students in research Academic freedom is a cornerstone of the University. Within the scope and content of the course as defined by the instructor, it includes the freedom to discuss relevant matters in the classroom. Along with this freedom comes responsibility. Students are encouraged to develop the capacity for critical judgment and to engage in a sustained and independent search for truth. Students are free to take reasoned exception to the views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion, but they are responsible for learning the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled.* Reports of concerns about academic freedom are taken seriously, and there are individuals and offices available for help. Contact the instructor, the Department Chair, your adviser, the associate dean of the college, or the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs in the Office of the Provost. * Language adapted from the American Association of University Professors "Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students". Issues with your Instructor: On occasion you may have a concern or problem regarding this course. You will find your instructor quite willing to discuss this with you. If, however, you wish to discuss it with someone other than your instructor, please contact Prof. Christy Haynes, the associate head of the department of chemistry. You may e-mail to her at chaynes@umn.edu (recommended), call her directly at 612 626 1096, or meet with her in her office (Smith Hall 207). She will serve as a mediator in helping to resolve the issue. Another great resource on campus is Student Conflict Resolution, and detailed contact information is available through: http://www.sos.umn.edu.

Lee Penn

Freshmen Seminar

no

n/a