January, 2024
Syllabus
SE127/IntlStu122/PH168 – Nuclear Environments
Professor John M. Whiteley
e-mail: whiteley@uci.edu
This Syllabus is organized in the following major categories:
- Approach To Community
- Approach To Power and Control
- Approach To Learning (and Grading)
- Approaches to Student Success and Mastery of Content
APPROACH TO COMMUNITY
An ideal classroom for Nuclear Environments is Anteater Learning Pavilion 2300. The entire class from 7:00 pm to 9:50 pm is digitally recorded and uploaded to Canvas by the next day. The TAs hold office hours later in the week. The teaching team is available before class and at the end of class.
Learning Rationale for the Six Exam Questions
As citizens and future leaders in American society, Nuclear Environments students will confront major challenges in the future over both nuclear weapons and the role of nuclear power. Citizens of the world all live on a dramatically changing global climate because of fossil fuels (80 percent of global energy through 2040). The only three questions on nuclear weapons are on the Midterm. The only three questions on the Final on nuclear power, nuclear waste and on the future sources of energy in a warming Planet. The questions are posted under Essential Course Documents on the Home Page of the class website. The class is organized by Objectives presented by Professor Whiteley to engage students in preparing thoughtful and analytical answers to these six questions.
Collaboration on the Project
The Project assignment may be completed in a team of up to four students or by a student working alone or some combination determined by students. Exemplary Projects are posted under Essential Course Documents. Students choose a topic of their specialized interest, and put together an original lesson of ten minutes with text and a video clip based on research using Google, Google Scholar, and YouTube.
APPROACH TO POWER AND CONTROL
Professor’s Role
Professor Whiteley’s role is to identify the only three questions on nuclear weapons for the Midterm, and the only three questions on the Final on nuclear power and the global energy future in a changing and warming climate, and on nuclear waste disposal.
The Objectives on the Syllabus provide the sources of information by Professor Whiteley for students to use in crafting their answers to questions their generation will confront in the future as citizens, and as leaders of American society. There are no “right” answers. Instead, the readers assign grades based on the details presented in the thoughtful and informed written answers. A critical initial task for students is to create is a conceptual framework for answering each question.
Student’s Role
There are only three assignments: the Midterm (40 percent of the final grade), the Final (40 percent of the final grade), and the Project (20 percent of the final grade). There are no “right” answers to the Midterm and Final questions—they raise challenges students will confront throughout their lives. The Project allows students to collaborate on a topic of their special interests in preparing a ten-minute lesson. Since this is a Category VIII Breadth Class, there have been (so far) students from 17 different academic majors. The point is there are many diverse interests among students.
Outside Sources
The principal outside sources for the Project are Google, Google Scholar, and YouTube.
APPROACH TO LEARNING (AND GRADING)
Grades
There are letter grades assigned for each of the three questions on the Midterm and on the Final.
The Midterm and Final questions are prepared ahead of time by students, and submitted electronically on Canvas.
Feedback Mechanics
Canvas facilitates writing to members of the teaching team individually or collectively.
APPROACHES TO STUDENT SUCCESS
Syllabus
The Syllabus conveys the weekly class schedule, the dates for the Midterm, the Project, and the Final.
Class Schedule
- April 1 – First Class
- April 8
- April 15
- April 22Midterm (40 percent of the Final Grade) submitted through Canvas; open April 22 10:00 am closes April 29th, 10:00 p.m.
- April 29- Class
- May 6
- May 13th-Projects presented in person at scheduled appointment times throughout the week (scheduling done through Canvas) (20 percent of Final Grade)
- May 20
- May 27 – NO CLASS (Memorial Day)
- June 3rd – Last Class, Evaluate the class through EEE Evaluation
- June 10th – Final Exam will open June 3rd after the final class and will be submitted through Canvas before 10:00 p.m. June 10, 2024 (40 percent of Final Grade).
Learning Outcomes
The nuclear age is unforgiving of mistakes. This is revealed by each of the content Objectives. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are adversaries. Nuclear weapons are possessed by the unpredictable leader of North Korea. Iran is disabling surveillance of their enrichment of uranium, building new underground tunnels, and is an avowed enemy of Israel. Israel has a reported 100 nuclear bombs. In 2022 and 2023, the President of Russia threatened the use of the 6,600 nuclear weapons he controls.
The current approach of the world to energy is causing irreversible changes to the Planet.
A central learning outcome for Nuclear Environments is preparing current students to engage influentially in the world they are inheriting, a world which no one wants for succeeding generations.
Approach to Student Success and Mastery of Content
Questions on the Midterm and the Final are on Essential Course Documents of this Syllabus. They are answered electronically on Canvas. The questions pose challenges students will confront as members and leaders of American society in the 21st Century.
If students do not achieve the result they aspire to in their original submission on Canvas, they may redo it based on feedback from the readers of each question and resubmit it.
The first two hours of the class will be devoted to presentations of the content from the Objectives by Professor Whiteley. Following a short break, the focus until 9:50p.m. will be relating content to the known Midterm and Final questions. The intent of the teaching team is to be responsive to inquiries from the class toward assuring Mastery of the Content.
Nuclear Environments students are encouraged to consult the teaching team virtually ahead of both the Midterm and the Final.
There are two parts to each examination question. The first part is the conceptualization. All of the members of the teaching team are available to help formulate the conceptualization. The student staff did outstanding work in the class themselves and are particularly helpful. They may be contacted in person before the lecture or immediately at the end. Each student on the exam is responsible for their own independent answer once the conceptualization is chosen.
Office of Academic Integrity & Student Conduct
https://aisc.uci.edu/students/academic-integrity/index.php
[The instructor reserves the right to make updates/changes to these documents at his discretion]