ANSI
4863
Capstone
for Animal Agriculture
Spring
2007
Professor: Dr. David S. Buchanan
206C Animal Science
744-6070 (office) 624-3510 (home)
WebSite: www.ansi.okstate.edu/course/4863/
Course credit:
3 semester credits
Meeting plan: 2 one hour lecture periods and one two hour
laboratory-discussion period each week.
Prerequisites: senior standing in the
Course
Objectives:
1.
Examine the place of Animal Agriculture in society
2.
Explore researchable questions that pertain to Animal Agriculture
3.
Evaluate competing viewpoints concerning issues where the interests of Animal
Agriculture and society interact
4.
Develop skills that will enable students to assume positions of leadership
Course Outline:
I.
Course introduction.
II.
Knowledge, Science and Research
III.
Society and Animal Agriculture.
IV.
Review of Statistics and introduction to statistical terminology commonly used
in Animal and Food Science.
VI.
Guest speakers on societal issues and other important items
VII.
Individual student research presentations.
VIII.
Group presentations on issues that interest Animal Agriculture and Society
IX.
Putting your education to work in the world
Guest speakers: Students will prepare a one-page (typed,
double-spaced, 3/4 inch margins) report on at least five lectures given by a
guest speaker or from an outside seminar. Each of these will receive a grade of
1 to 10. The grade will be based on the content, the format and the structure
of the essay.
Class lectures from the materials in the textbook: Students
will prepare a one-page (typed, double-spaced, 3/4 inch margins) report on at
least four of the lectures presented from material in the textbook. Each of
these will receive a grade of 1 to 10. The grade will be based on the content,
the format and the structure of the essay.
Group presentations: Each group (3-4 students) will choose a
topic from the list provided or may consult the instructor about choosing their
own topic. The presentations will be during the laboratory-discussion periods
so that no two groups within a laboratory section may choose the same topic.
The group will be expected to present the topic and lead a discussion by the
class. The presentation should clearly show that there are at least two sides
to many of these issues. To accomplish this, it is probably desirable to
identify at least one member of the group that will present a viewpoint that differs
from the view of traditional, mainstream Animal Agriculture. It is also
important to structure the presentation in such a way that all members of the
group participate. The group will also be responsible to preparing a web site
(or a 10 page paper). The Web site should include some information about the
topic, internal links, links to other sites that have pertinent information
about the issue and some images. The Web site should be submitted directly to
the instructor within one week of the presentation. Each member of the group
will receive a grade on the presentation and paper. Part of this grade will be
common among group members: technical merit (30%), clear presentation of
opposing views (20 %) , involvement of the entire
group (10%), quality of the web site (20%), innovation in presentation style (5
%). Each member of the group will also receive a grade component that is
individual: quality of participation in the discussion (10 %) and contribution
to the group (5 %). The contribution to the group will be identified by having
each group member rank the other members of the group. Group presentations
should be 60 minutes in length for groups of 4 or 50 minutes for groups of 3.
There will be a 1 point penalty for each three minute deviation from the
assigned time.
Individual presentations: One of the goals of a Capstone
Course, as defined by
Grading policy:
Laboratory
Assignments 20
%
Papers
from Speakers and lectures on book materials 20
%
Conferences
on presentations
5 %
Discussant
participation
5 %
Individual
Presentation
Oral Report 15
%
Written Report 15
%
Group
Presentation 20
%
Conferences on presentations
Each
student should have at least one "formal" conference with the
instructor concerning each of the two presentations. These conferences do not
need to be long. Less than 15 minutes will suffice in many cases. Numerous
additional "informal" conferences are recommended. Eligible dates for
the formal conferences will be announced in class. The conference for the group
presentation should include at least half of the group members. Half of the
points for the "Conferences on presentations" will be earned for each
formal conference attended.
Discussant participation
Each
student should sign up as a "discussant" for two other student
presentations. There will be a sign-up sheet available at the beginning of each
class period with student presentations. When you sign up as a discussant, you
are responsible for asking at least two good questions during the discussion
period following the presentation. You are also responsible to make certain
that each student presenter (for individual presentations) is asked at least
two questions Of course, students are encouraged to
ask questions during any presentations they attend. Half of the points for
"Discussant participation" will be earned for each period in which
the student serves as an official discussant.
Policy on class attendance:
Roll
will be taken during guest lectures and all student presentations. The
following are minimum attendance requirements for each category of
presentation:
Guest speakers and outside seminars 5 speakers (there will be at least two in-class speakers)
Lectures from material in textbook 4 lectures
Student individual presentations 12 class (50 minute) periods with multiple individual
presentations
Student group presentations 5
lab periods with group presentations
The
number of attendances for these three types of sessions will be summed. There
will be a deduction of 5 points from your overall class average for each
session under the required total. On the other hand, an additional .3 will be
added to your overall class average for each class period attended (when roll
is taken) above these minimum standards.
Unexcused
failure to give the individual presentation on schedule, take part in the group
presentation or to turn in the papers will result in a grade of "F".
Assignments
(including all papers, lab assignments and the web site for the group presentation) that are turned in
late will have a deduction equal to 10% of their value for each day late
(including weekends). This means that anything turned in 10 days late will have
no value at all to your grade.
Policy on class discussion:
Input
from students is a necessary part of this course. You are almost through with
your college career and should be prepared for extensive independent thought
and discussion. With this in mind, the instructor will expect discussion and
questions during all class meetings. The instructor will also refrain from
expressing personal opinions in any situation where students should be
expressing their opinions.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism
is the use of words, information, data or ideas that belong to someone else
without giving them proper credit. You will be writing several papers this
semester. If you use information, data or ideas that come from someone else you
should give a proper citation. If you use someone else's words you should
clearly identify it as a quote and give a proper citation. In any case, a
proper citation means that the author and year of the source is identified in
the text and and a full citation (authors, year,
title, journal, volume, page number) is shown in the reference list. The first
time a student is guilty of plagiarism he/she will be asked to redo that
assignment. The second offense will result in an "F" in the course.
Individual
Presentation paper
As indicated previously,
the paper should not exceed five pages (3/4 in margin, double spaced) plus a
page for a reference list. You must include “text citations” in the narrative
and each text citation should correspond to an item in the reference list. A
text citation should have the author’s name and the year published (eg. (Smith, 1999), (Smith and Jones,
2001) or (Smith et al., 2003). The text citation should be inserted at
the end of the first sentence decribing a piece of
research. Further information should be included with the writing suggesting
that you are still talking about the same paper. Do not repeat the title of the
papers or the additional author names in the text of your paper. You also do
not need to use phrases like “The first study” etc.
The paper should follow
Journal of Animal Science style and form.
When I say that the
paper should not exceed five pages, it should be inferred that it also does not
need to be much shorter than five full pages. There does not need to be a cover
page and I do not care for plastic covers.
If I discover phrases in
your paper which do not seem to come from a student, I will check for the
possibility of plagiarism.
The paper is due by
seven days following your presentation.
Web page
The web page for your
group presentation should include the following:
names of the participants
title of the presentation
a background
an image
link to another web page of
your design
link to another web page
that is already available elsewhere on the internet
the name of the file
containing the web page must be: index.htm
The web page is due by
seven days following your presentation.
Speaker
papers
These papers are due
seven days after the presentation. They are to be one page, double spaced with
¾ inch margins. You will be penalized if they fail to be any of those things.
There will also be a penalty for being late which will escalate rapidly as the
late days accumulate.
The paper should include
a review of some of the speakers thoughts and/or your
commentary on what the speaker said.
Please do not use the
phrase “came and spoke”. The “came and” is entirely superfluous. If the speaker
spoke then it is obvious that he/she came.
Lecture
papers
Lecture papers should
address the questions posed during the presentation.
These papers are due
seven days after the presentation.