CISGS Faculty Information Website

I hope the following information will assist you in teaching ISP/ISB. I begin with the Goals of Integrative Studies because I think we all have to ask ourselves how well our courses address these goals. If you feel these goals are not appropriate, I hope you’ll let me know how you think these goals might be amended.

I hope you find the information below helpful. Please let me know if I can help with additional information or clarification.

The Center will pay for one undergraduate teaching aide per lecture section. The student works for 10 hrs/week. For AY 05-06 the pay will be about $1500 per semester. Faculty employ aides in a variety of ways according to the course design. I ask my TA to help administer and grade in-class, active learning exercises. Some faculty ask the aides to help develop and administer on-line homework. Still others ask aides to help with grading essay exams and/or papers or run review sessions.

It is your responsibility to identify the aide. After you’ve identified the student, please email Marsha Walsh with the student's name before you send him/her to our office to fill out the necessary paper work.

The center keeps a file of ISP/ISB exams for two purposes. First, these exams are one of the best records of what actually is covered in our courses. Second, these exams may be helpful to faculty who are new to Integrative Studies. The exams are kept in the office and no copies are made. We appreciate your help in keeping this file up to date.

What do our students learn in ISB/ISP? How well does this learning match our goals? To help us answer these questions, I am requesting all ISP/ISB faculty participate in assessing student learning in ISP/ISB courses. Recognizing that assessment continues to be a new frontier for most faculty members, we’ll proceed slowly and informally in our effort to gauge student knowledge and learning.

One approach to assessing our student learning is to measure students’ responses to a series of question during the first two weeks of class and then again at the end of the semester by including those same questions in the final exam, test, or quiz. I’ve included a sample of a few questions I’ve used. Marsha Walsh has a file in our office of some questions other faculty have used. Feel free to come in and look at the file but please, don’t copy any of the questions.

An easy way to monitor the response is to use computer-graded questions and use item analysis to determine the percent correct answers for each question. I would appreciate it if you would provide me with a copy of the questions you use and the results at the beginning of the semester and then again after you use the same questions at the end of the semester.

You may have a different approach to assessment. I hope you’ll experiment freely. I think we will all be interested in the results of this attempt at assessment. I do not expect this to be definitive. Instead, I think we’ll find preliminary data that may help us design more meaningful assessment strategies in the future.

2.	The axis of the earth’s rotation is inclined with respect to the plane of its orbit around the sun. What would be the effect on the earth’s climate if the axis were perpendicular to the plane of the orbit?
	a.	Summer would be much hotter.
	b.	Winter would be much cooler.
	c.	The days would be longer.
	d.	Overall earth temperature would increase.
	e.	The average temperature in summer and winter would be the same.

Twenty fruit flies are placed in each of four glass tubes. The tubes are sealed. Tubes I and II are partially covered with black paper; Tubes III and IV are not covered. The tubes are placed as shown. Then they are exposed to red light for five minutes. The number of flies in the uncovered part of each tube is shown in the drawing.

This experiment shows that flies respond to (respond means move to or away from):

Assigning and grading meaningful homework exercises can be difficult in large lecture sections. Some faculty have overcome this problem by using CAPA and/or Lecture Online (LOL). Soon CAPA and LOL will be merged into one system, Learning Online. The system offers a web-based interface that helps organize and present your course website, deliver and manage homework problems, and manage student enrollment. The homework capabilities are superior to those available with Blackboard or text supplements. Gerd Kortemeyer, Director of the Lite Lab, has manuals and workshops plus personal attention that can get you up and running quickly. You’ll find a lot of questions designed by other faculty members that may fit your course. For more information contact Duncan Sibley or Gerd at (kortemeyer@nscl.msu.edu or 432-5468).

The Center Web Site (http://www.ns.msu.edu/cisgs/CISGSHOMEPAGE/) provides information about Integrative Studies General Science courses, including syllabi. If you have your syllabus on website, please let Marsha know so she can link our site to your syllabus. If you haven’t posted your syllabus on the web, Marsha will be glad to help you with that as well.

The Center website is a good place to start if you want to see what other faculty teaching ISB/ISP are doing. Many faculty have websites with syllabi, example test questions, review sheets, and other information.

OFFICE ASSISTANCE

The Center office staff consists of Marsha Walsh and student workers. We use Word and WordPerfect 10 for Windows should you wish to bring in a disk for a printout. Materials that are on disk or copy-ready can usually be completed by the next day. A typing job (especially lengthy, handwritten, or multiple form projects) should be brought in four days before the due date. This lead time is essential for good management of the office. If you are preparing class or lab materials, do not leave it with the office staff as you depart for distant places. The variety of subjects and vocabularies involved may make it necessary for them to consult you for clarification during the period of preparation. Do not bring materials in with a request for immediate service; work will be done in chronological order. The small copier in the main office is only to be used for ten copies and under or transparencies. It is not to be used to run off multiple copies for class. The office staff will do only work for the Integrative Studies courses and related materials. The office is open at 7:45 a.m., closed during the lunch hour (12:00-1:00), and closed for the day at 5:00 p.m.

You may order video equipment and films through Marsha in the main office; her direct line is 353-4572. Orders must be in at least 24 hours before needed or we are charged for the service.

Please see Marsha for assistance with enrollment or scheduling questions. Routine needs for class can be ordered through Marsha, with requests for large items approved by me first. If you purchase items through other units on campus, such as Biochemistry Stores, make sure Marsha receives a copy. When charges show up on a ledger sheet without a receipt, much time is lost in tracking down the purchaser and getting a copy of the receipt. The purchaser should also indicate on the receipt which class the materials are for. Marsha will also help you with textbook problems as well as general problems that may occur during the semester. Also see (or call at 353-4572) Marsha for situations related to me; we work closely together, and she handles all the administrative work for the Center.

Lab TA’s are usually able to help proctor exams. Please contact the lab coordinator for your class (for ISB 202 and 204 contact Gabe Ording, coordinator for ISB208L at ordingga@msu.edu or 353-8599) with the schedule for your exams. Gabe will send you a list of the TAs assigned to proctor your exams. It will be your responsibility to then contact the TAs and confirm their duties.

Near the end of the semester the Student Information Rating System (SIRS) website as well as Student Opinion, Courses, and Teaching (SOCT) website will be available to our ISB and ISP students. We will email our instructors as to the time period that students can go online and fill out SIRS and SOCT information. We will also send two emails, a week apart, to our ISB and ISP students to make sure they have the correct website and time frame as well as to encourage them to provide us with feedback. You will not have access to the website until the period for turning in on-line grades is over. At that time you will be able to access the SIRS and SOCTs for your section(s) in the form of a report. We will send a copy of this report to your department, and we will retain a copy in the Center office. The website address is

ISP/ISB courses are a mixture of thematic and disciplinary approaches to knowledge of the physical and biological sciences. Completion of the required curricula will lead to the following four competencies:
1.	Scientific Knowledge: Students will be able to describe some of the major concepts in science and be able to use them to explain important natural phenomena.
2.	Scientific Development: Students will be able to explain the contexts in which these concepts and results were developed and be aware of where these concepts may lead us in the future.
3.	Scientific Practice: Students will be able to discriminate between ideas that do and do not constitute proper subjects for science, give examples of how scientific understanding itself constantly evolves, and be able to use scientific approaches to solving problems in the natural world.
4.	Scientific Appreciation: Students will hopefully learn to value the efforts of physical and biological scientists as they continue to address practical needs and continue research into matters of fundamental and lasting importance.

1.	In an unfamiliar language, if “ply gim rad” means “old flat hat,” “srk ply” means “new hat,” and “rad tro” means “old tire,” how would you say “flat tire”?
	a.	ply srk
	b.	gim tro
	c.	rad ply
	d.	tro ply
	e.	srk tro

3.	The crust of the earth floats on a fluid mantle. If the density of the mantle is 3 grams per cubic centimeter and the density of the crust is 2 grams per cubic centimeter, which crustal block (a, b, c, d, or e) drawing (right) shows the correct configuration of mantle and crust?