MSE 220 Fall 2014

No Lectures, no exams, and no graded homework - but you will learn much more...

Welcome to MSE 220 for the Fall 2014 term:

There are often a significant number of Seniors and Juniors who will sign up for this section of MSE 220.  I feel that I need to be honest about my expectations and policies before the class starts.   I hope that you signed up because you were genuinely interested in MSE.  This course may be quite a bit of work, but not any more so than the other sections.  We are covering all of the material that the regular MSE 220 sections cover but we are going to do harder homework, intense drilling during class, and three team based projects.  The trade-off will be that there are not any midterms or a final to study for. The focus of this course is to give credit for hard work and reward the genuine enjoyment of learning.  I am also not going to grade the actual homework, just the effort that you put into the homework and the honesty with which you report your performance on the homework.  If you are thinking that this will be an easier section of MSE 220, you are sorely mistaken.  If you are thinking that this may be the first class you ever took that completely engaged you and made you feel that you were getting a learning experience that went far beyond the technical details in the course, then you are the students that I want to be in the class. I promise to do my best to live up to those expectations.  Beyond the course material we will be focussed on several core competencies including:

  • Problem solving using both qualitative as well as quantitative analysis
  • Collaborative relationships
  • Innovative thinking
  • Lifelong learning
  • Design
  • Communication
This course is the result of a 24 year journey for me as I have come to realize that lectures are a very poor way to teach and active learning and peer teaching methods are far superior.  
The details on this website are a work in progress. This course is strongly modeled after an introduction to Applied Physics course that is being taught for the first time this current academic year by Eric Mazur, the Dean of Applied Physics, and a very well know scientist and educator.  I have visited Eric's class three times last year to learn his methods.  Some aspects of this course may change as we get closer to the beginning of the term. I wanted to try and be as transparent about what the course will look like by creating this web site. Whatever small changes may occur, the general features will remain.  

Seniors:

I will NOT excuse anyone for interviews in this class.  Attendance is mandatory and there is group work EVERY session.  Each session you will be working in teams of 4.  If you are absent, your team is going to be hurt.  It is not fair to your team mates if you are planning a term full of interviews.  This class is designed for Sophomores that don't have those constraints.  I don't mind if you are Seniors or Juniors, in fact I hope many of them sign up for the course.   But, since this course is not about the material you learn but the process that you take, it is close to impossible to make up work outside of class.  If you feel that you cannot do this, then you should sign up for a different section.  My policies are listed below for missed class and missed assignments.

Policy on Missed Classes and Assignments:

Because of the emphasis on teamwork, it is important that all team members attend and proactively participate in class. Due to the collaborative nature of the activities, it is not possible to make up any team activities, such as project work, problem set discussions, or RAAs. (The same, incidentally, is true in the professional world.) We understand, however, that certain factors may occasionally interfere with your ability to participate. If that factor is an extenuating circumstance, we will ask you to provide documentation directly issued by the University, and we will try to work out an agreeable solution with you (and your team).
 
In the absence of an extenuating circumstance:
 
If you miss class during which project work occurs, you will have to make arrangements with your team members. Remember that they will evaluate your contributions to the project, so you'll probably want to find a way to make up for your absence.
 
If you miss a class during which we work on an RAA, you will need to make up the individual part of the RAA before being allowed to take another RAA; your team score for that RAA, however, will remain zero.  
 
If you miss class during which we discuss a problem set, you will miss the benefit of the discussion and the opportunity to learn from others. You also will miss being able to accurately assess your own learning. If you fail to hand in the problem set altogether, your problem set score will be zero.
 
With any luck,  I haven't scared you away from the course.  I am very excited to explore what I believe is going to be the future of higher education.  I hope that you are too.
 
Steve