Contribute Course Description

About You and Your Institution

From the materials that you provide below, we will create an entry in our Goals/Syllabus Data Base. Please complete all fields and upload a syllabus. You may also upload additional files to accompany your example.

You retain all rights to your contributed work. By contributing your work to this web site, you give On the Cutting Edge a license for non-commercial distribution of the material, provided that we attribute the material to you. View our terms of use (opens in a new window) for more details about this kind of Creative Commons (opens in a new window) license. You are responsible for referencing other people's work and for securing permission to use any copyrighted material within your contribution..

This form and the file uploads must be completed in a single session. Leaving the page erases the data. You cannot submit a partially completed form and return to it later.

Please note that, after submission, our support staff must do some preparatory work to catalog and post these resources. We hope to make your contributions "live" within one to two weeks of your submission. Thank you in advance for making this contribution!

Instructor Name:

Instructor Email Address:

Do you want your email address to be displayed with your course information?

I do want it displayed
I do not want it displayed

Institution:

Type of Institution:

About the CourseCourse Title:

Course URL (if not restricted access):

Course TypeEntry Level

or Other Entry Level Subject:

Upper Level

or Other Upper Level Subject:

Brief description of the course.

Course Size:

Course Context:

Please briefly describe the context of this course. For example:

"This is an upper-division required petrology course with prerequisites of introductory geology, mineralogy, and introductory chemistry. The course has a required four-hour laboratory and a required two-day field trip."

OR

"This is an introductory course with no pre-requisites and does not serve as a prerequisite for other courses. Typically, 50% of the students take the course as pre-service elementary teachers, and 50% of the students take the course to satisfy a general education requirement. The course has an optional lab. Students who decide to major in geology must take a subsequent course in physical geology."

OR

"This is a seminar-style, topical introductory course with no prerequisites. The course satisfies the pre-requisite for all intermediate level courses for a geology major. 25-30% of students who take the course go on to major in geology. The course is writing intensive and has a two-hour lab and required field trip."

Goals

In the months and years after having finished a course, a student should be able to DO things in the discipline that he/she couldn't do before taking the course. Careful thought should go into what you want to enable your students to do, what value the course will add to their lives, and how the course will develop their skills and abilities. In this portion of the goals/syllabus submission form, you will have the opportunity to share goals of various types that you have for your students.

Please start by completing the entry for discipline-related goals. The entries for skills and attitudinal goals are optional.

Discipline-related goals

In the box following the instructions below, please describe the discipline-related goals that you want your students to achieve. Please read the guidelines and examples carefully before proceeding.

Please DO:

enter the goals as a list
use the format "Students should be able to..."
focus on the main goals of the course
emphasize higher order thinking skills (analyze, predict, synthesize, interpret, evaluate, formulate), rather than lower order thinking skills (recognize, describe, define, identify, list, explain). A well-constructed goal involving higher order thinking skills has lower order skills embedded in it.

Examples

Students should be able to interpret unfamiliar geologic maps and construct cross sections.
Students should be able to analyze and assess geologic hazards in unfamiliar areas (which is different than recalling those done in class).
Students should be able to formulate new research questions in X.
Students should be able to design computer or analog models of X.
Students should be able to predict the weather given appropriate meteorological data.

Please DO NOT enter a list of content items.

Please DO NOT use vague and difficult-to-assess goals involving phrases such as "appreciate", "understand", "be exposed to", "see the value in", "know about", "learn about". Here are two examples of what we don't want you to do:

"Students will be exposed to X." Such a goal does not focus on enabling students to do something.
"Students will be able to see the value of the scientific method" or "appreciate the complexity of Earth systems". While these are laudable aims, it is difficult to evaluate whether students have achieved such goals.

Following the guidelines above, please enter the discipline-related goals for your course in the box below, in list format.

Statement about achieving goals

Please enter a short statement about how course activities and course structure help students achieve the discipline-related goals that you listed above and how you assess whether students have met the goals.

Skills Goals

You may also have goals related to general skills in the context of your course. These might include goals involving improving skills such as

student writing
quantitative abilities
critical analysis of web sites
peer-teaching
oral communication
accessing and critically reading the geologic literature
working in groups

If your course has a significant focus on improving one or two general skills, please enter those goals in list format in the box below.

Statement about achieving skills goals

Please enter a short statement about how course activities and course structure help students achieve the skills goals that you listed above and how you assess whether students have met the goals.

Attitudinal Goals

You may also have goals related to student attitude. These might include goals such as

building students' confidence in course- or discipline-related abilities
developing students' sense of stewardship of the Earth
improving students' sense of healthy skepticism
increasing student excitement/personal wonder about learning about the Earth
improving students' awareness of the issues of ethics in doing science
changing student attitudes toward science

If your course has a significant focus on changing student attitudes, please enter those goals in list format in the box below.

Statement about achieving attitudinal goals

Please enter a short statement about how course activities and course structure help students achieve the attitudinal goals that you listed above and how you assess whether students have met the goals.

Assessment

Describe how you assess student learning.

Optional MaterialURL for instructor home page:

Course Syllabus

Select a File

All uploaded files are public unless you are in a private workspace

Title: A descriptive, human readable title.

e.g. 'Student Handout for Sauerkraut Assignment'

Select the file: Make sure it has an appropriate suffix (e.g. .doc) or specify the type in the Optional Fields below

Description: A very brief description of the file.

Show Optional Fields

File Type:

The system will attempt to determine the correct file type based on the name of the file you've selected. Choosing the correct file type here will override that.

File Name:

e.g. 'student_handout'
This will be the name of the downloaded file. By default the system will generate this based on the title you specified and the type of file. If you specify a name here it will over-ride the automatically generated name. This is generally only useful when uploading file of a type not recognized by the system (not in the list of file types above). In that situation choose File Type: Unknown Binary and include the appropriate suffix in the file name here. e.g. myfile.m3z Avoid spaces or special characters in the file names.

Authorship/Reuse

Either:
I am the author (copyright holder) of the contents of this file and people are allowed to reuse it for non-commercial purposes as long as they give me attribution as described by this creative commons license.
Or

Choose a different authorship/reuse options

Who is the original creator/copyright holder of the information in this file?

Provenance/Acknowledgements

A short description of where the material came from. Include names and institutions of authors and contributors as well as acknowledgment of any work from which this was derived.

Reuse License

The creator/copyright holder must have agreed to allow distribution of this file through this site.
If you are the creator we strongly encourage you to select the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike option.

If none of the above licenses apply describe the conditions under which this material appears on this site as well as any information about reuse beyond this site.

More Information about reuse and choosing a license

Distributing information on the web generally requires the permission of the copyright holder--usually the original creator. Providing the information we request here will help visitors to this site understand the ways in which they may (legally) use what they find.

If you created this file (and haven't signed away your copyright) then we'd encourage you to select the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike option. You'll retain the copyright to your file and can do as you please with it in the future. Through this choice you are also explicitly allowing others to reuse that file as long as they give you attribution, and don't use it for commercial purposes.

If the file (or content within it) was created by others you'll need their permission. If it predates 1923 or was created by a U.S federal employee (as part of their job) it is likely in the public domain (and we can all do as we choose with it). The original author may also have explicitly stated how it may be reused (e.g. through a creative commons license). You can describe the licensing/reuse situation in the box above.

Without permission you should not upload the file. There are several options in this case:

You can contact the original author to get permission.
You can provide a link to (or a description of how to get) the original material rather than uploading it here.
You can find a substitute that isn't encumbered by copyright.
You can create a substitute yourself. Remember, ideas can't be copyrighted, only particular expressions of those ideas. Of course you'll want to give credit the original author.

The Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center has more good information about copyright as it applies to academic settings.

Additional course materials. Please combine any relevant materials into a single PDF file. Be sure to include a "cover sheet" describing how the assignment/activity illustrates how the course helps students meet the stated goals.

Select a File

All uploaded files are public unless you are in a private workspace

Title: A descriptive, human readable title.

e.g. 'Student Handout for Sauerkraut Assignment'

Select the file: Make sure it has an appropriate suffix (e.g. .doc) or specify the type in the Optional Fields below

Description: A very brief description of the file.

Show Optional Fields

File Type:

The system will attempt to determine the correct file type based on the name of the file you've selected. Choosing the correct file type here will override that.

File Name:

e.g. 'student_handout'
This will be the name of the downloaded file. By default the system will generate this based on the title you specified and the type of file. If you specify a name here it will over-ride the automatically generated name. This is generally only useful when uploading file of a type not recognized by the system (not in the list of file types above). In that situation choose File Type: Unknown Binary and include the appropriate suffix in the file name here. e.g. myfile.m3z Avoid spaces or special characters in the file names.

Authorship/Reuse

Either:
I am the author (copyright holder) of the contents of this file and people are allowed to reuse it for non-commercial purposes as long as they give me attribution as described by this creative commons license.
Or

Choose a different authorship/reuse options

Who is the original creator/copyright holder of the information in this file?

Provenance/Acknowledgements

A short description of where the material came from. Include names and institutions of authors and contributors as well as acknowledgment of any work from which this was derived.

Reuse License

The creator/copyright holder must have agreed to allow distribution of this file through this site.
If you are the creator we strongly encourage you to select the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike option.

If none of the above licenses apply describe the conditions under which this material appears on this site as well as any information about reuse beyond this site.

More Information about reuse and choosing a license

Distributing information on the web generally requires the permission of the copyright holder--usually the original creator. Providing the information we request here will help visitors to this site understand the ways in which they may (legally) use what they find.

If you created this file (and haven't signed away your copyright) then we'd encourage you to select the CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike option. You'll retain the copyright to your file and can do as you please with it in the future. Through this choice you are also explicitly allowing others to reuse that file as long as they give you attribution, and don't use it for commercial purposes.

If the file (or content within it) was created by others you'll need their permission. If it predates 1923 or was created by a U.S federal employee (as part of their job) it is likely in the public domain (and we can all do as we choose with it). The original author may also have explicitly stated how it may be reused (e.g. through a creative commons license). You can describe the licensing/reuse situation in the box above.

Without permission you should not upload the file. There are several options in this case:

You can contact the original author to get permission.
You can provide a link to (or a description of how to get) the original material rather than uploading it here.
You can find a substitute that isn't encumbered by copyright.
You can create a substitute yourself. Remember, ideas can't be copyrighted, only particular expressions of those ideas. Of course you'll want to give credit the original author.

The Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center has more good information about copyright as it applies to academic settings.

Tell us about your Nanotechnology-related course

Course Size:

Course Context:

Discipline-related goals

Statement about achieving goals

Skills Goals

Statement about achieving skills goals

Attitudinal Goals

Statement about achieving attitudinal goals

Assessment