Stony Brook University, Federated Learning Communities Program
(Fall 2002)
Wednesday 6-9 p.m.
Location: SBS-N107 (only 9/4 and 9/11)
CELT-Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, Melville Library W 1515 (starting 9/18)
Instructor: Professor Hermann Kurthen (hkurthen@notes.cc.sunysb.edu, phone: 632-7717)
Office Hours: Wednesday 4-6 p.m. & by appointment at SBS-S443
TA: Melissa Natale (mnatale@ic.sunysb.edu)
TA Office Hours: Tuesday 4-5 p.m. & Thursday 1-2 p.m. at SBS-S443

WHAT IS A FEDERATED LEARNING COMMUNITY-FLC?

The Federated Learning Community (FLC) is a program which focuses on an issue of major societal importance and leads to an academic minor. The program enables students to register for a cluster of courses arranged around a specific issue. The program seminar focuses and integrates the material of the federated classes in a small community setting of about 25-30 students. Students may earn a minor in Globalization (GLS) by completing 24 credits in a sequence of their own choice, including two program seminars FLC 301/302, plus any six of other federated courses with a grade of C or better. The prospective topic for Spring 2003 is Global Economics, Development, and Political Governance.

FORMAT

A goal of the FLC is to engage students in a holistic way that touches their personal lives as well as their academic interests and allows them to gain a hands-on experience combining theory and practice, including a variety of extracurricular activities. The objective is to practice skills, such as writing (class questions, briefing handout, mid-term essay, conference report); group or individual research projects and oral presentations, webpage design, collaboration with and peer mentoring of high school students, preparing a student conference, visiting the U.N. headquarters, participating or organizing public events (rallies, surveys, letter writing), and meetings with scholars.In the FLC program seminar the SBU undergraduate students will
- collaborate in small groups which are organized around topics covered in the program course.
- answer at the beginning of most classes a graded short quiz based on the required reading. No make up possible if late or absent
- each group prepares a 20 minute class briefing (copied handout to all students, including 5 questions) based on the reading for a topic (see for briefing examples‡ http://www.stonybrook.edu/flcglobal).
- a short, task-oriented open-book mid-term essay covering readings/discussions of the first part of the semester.
- during the semester the groups will engage in an extracurricular project related to their topic, such as researching an organization, setting up a web page, conduct a survey/interviews, writing an article for a student paper, etc. The projects have to be agreed upon by the instructor no later than October 15.
- at the end of semester, students are required to prepare and present either individually or as groups a theoretically and empirically informed conference report of about 15 pages (groups) or 7 pages (individuals) which will count as a term paper. Students are required to select and research a country on human rights, terrorism, or immigration. The topics of the reports have to be agreed upon by the instructor no later than October 1. The report counts as a final term paper and is due in its final form on Wednesday, December 18, 2002 at 5 p.m. at the instructor's office.
A typical class will start with a short quiz and a group's class briefing/class discussion. After a short snack break, a guest speaker from a federated course will arrive and give a 30-45 minute lecture, followed by a class discussion.

ACTIVITIES PLANNED:

In the FLC program seminar the SBU undergraduate students will
- collaborate in small groups which are organized around topics covered in the program course.
- answer at the beginning of most classes a graded short quiz based on the required reading. No make up possible if late or absent
- Each group prepares a 20 minute class briefing (copied handout to all students, including 5 questions) based on the reading for a topic (see for briefing examples‡ http://www.stonybrook.edu/flcglobal).
- A short, task-oriented open-book mid-term essay covering readings/discussions of the first part of the semester.
- During the semester the groups will engage in an extracurricular project related to their topic, such as researching an organization, setting up a web page, conduct a survey/interviews, writing an article for a student paper, etc. The projects have to be agreed upon by the instructor no later than October 15.
- At the end of semester, students are required to prepare and present either individually or as groups a theoretically and empirically informed conference report of about 15 pages (groups) or 7 pages (individuals) which will count as a term paper. Students are required to select and research a country on human rights, terrorism, or immigration. The topics of the reports have to be agreed upon by the instructor no later than October 1. The report counts as a final term paper and is due in its final form on Wednesday, December 18, 2002 at 5 p.m. at the instructor's office.
A typical class will start with a short quiz and a group's class briefing/class discussion. After a short snack break, a guest speaker from a federated course will arrive and give a 30-45 minute lecture, followed by a class discussion.

STUDENT EVALUATION

STUDENT EVALUATION
- Individual class participation and class attendance based on the attendance sheet 10%
- A short quiz at the beginning of most classes 20%
- One group briefing handout (3-5 pages) with 5 reading related questions 10%
- One mid-term essay based on all required reading before the mid-term exam 15%
- One extracurricular group project agreed upon by the instructor by October 15 20%
- A conference country report presentation turned into a printed final term paper
The topic needs to be agreed upon by the instructor no later than October 1 25%If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact on your ability to carry out assigned course work, I would urge that you contact the staff in the Disabled Student Services office (DSS), Room 133, Humanities, 632-6748v/TDD. DSS will review your concerns and determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation of disability are confidential.