- With a focus on pages 2-4 in the Handbook, describe UNE’s model of the liberal arts. Write approximately 200-300 words that explains the conception. Be sure to quote from Scheuer or Ungar AND from the Handbook to develop and support your idea. (This is informal writing, but we do want to explain With evidence.)
The UNE Core Handbook is used for students to understand the ideas and objectives behind each course they take, “Core Curriculum courses take different approaches to model integrative learning. Some facilitate civic engagement, as well as engagements in research, scholarship, and creative work. Together, Core courses enable students to chart courses of self-directed and ongoing learning” (4). UNE’s Core Handbook describes their liberal arts model as this which encompasses interpersonal interactions, critical thinking, and expressive thinking where the classes of interest in each category are chosen by the student to keep them interested in their studies. The required categories of classes to take allow students to become well rounded and not just focus on classes for their major. Sanford Ungar’s beliefs of a liberal arts education also sees students becoming well rounded not just for breaking away from their major, but to also aid in the students readiness for job life, “the “career education” bandwagon seems to suggest that shortcuts are available to students that lead directly to high-paying jobs—leaving out “frills” like learning how to write and speak well, how to understand the nuances of literary texts and scientific concepts, how to collaborate with others on research” (para. 4). Ungar knows that getting a specific degree does not guarantee you a job, so the “frills” of learning how to communicate effectively and think critically must come from a liberal arts education, or in our case the core courses.
- In the Requirements and Implementation Guidelines sections, focus some attention on the ACTUAL classes you’re taking right now. Where do they fit – and why? Based on the Goals section and relevant parts of Appendix A, attempt to explain how at least two of your courses do or do not seem to fit either the Handbook’s description, the conception of the liberal arts underpinning the Core Handbook, or both. Again, work with evidence in supporting your idea. Your response will be approximately 250-400 words.
Neither marine or chemistry labs seem to address any environmental problems in depth, our labs really only enforce the information/formulas/concepts we are learning in lecture. But in Appendix A, the laboratory science courses do not require a student’s learning outcomes to be specific in addressing environmental issues, “After completing this course, students will be able to:/ 1. Demonstrate a functional understanding of the scientific method to make informed decisions based on scientific information./ 2. Demonstrate conceptual and practical knowledge of course topics and describe ethical implications of human interactions with the natural world./ 3. Demonstrate scientific literacy and the ability to communicate science-based information” (14). The laboratory courses prepare us to think and solve problems like professional scientists in our major, not specifically for environmental awareness.
Intro to Environmental Issues was a class with very broad and kind of vague information, which I understand you can learn all of the environmental problems in one semester. But the class seemed to lack in teaching how different environments/animals are struggling. My personal experience in the class was that we mainly talked about the American Chestnut Tree restoration project that our professor was working on, and then the last few weeks of class we discussed the situation of Hawaiian Monk Seals. Only the first week or two of class did we talk about our personal footprint on the earth and how we could try to fix it and then we moved on. We weren’t given the task of trying to meet a sustainability goal by the end of the semester which I thought would have been a great idea because not many people know where to start when they think about sustainability. One of the learning outcomes even says the student will “[d]emonstrate what it means to act responsibly and ethically in relation to the earth at personal, professional and societal levels” (13). Not every student who takes the one required environmental class is going to immediately rethink all of their life choices to become sustainable. That idea sucks but some people still don’t believe that these problems are really happening and therefore decide not to try a hand at becoming sustainable in some way. So if the environmental class cant even teach students in the end to really consider, in their own lives, what is going on with the environment then the class might not be liberal arts. I’m only saying this specifically for the ENV 104 Intro to Environmental Issues course since the information is so broad and we didn’t discuss too much about stuff happening all over the world.
