Sunday, July 28, 2013

Social Justice Movies

The theme this year for SCH 101 is Social Justice.  Over the summer, we asked the students to watch Ghandi and School of Rock.  However,  now we are looking at the whole semester of material.  This is one list of Social Justice movies.  What movies would you put on the list and why?  Use the commentings to add ideas.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Late July

I know it has been quite some time since the last post, but I just returned from 3 weeks at the Park City Math Institute where I learned about the isoperimetric problem and also about General Relativity.  If neither of these make sense to you, just imagine me sitting in a classroom feeling just as lost as the majority of my students in my undergraduate math courses.  It certainly helps renew my sympathy for the students sitting in the back row hoping I don't notice them.

This year we have 29 new first year students from five different states, although none from below the Mason-Dixon line this year.  We have accepted one international student who will be joining us when the finances get worked out.  We have eight gentlemen, so the odds are good for some, but not for others.

This Fall, the first thing these students will do is write the syllabus for their Fall Term course with the theme of Social Justice.  As is typical for this course, students will first be asked to define Social Justice without checking the dictionary.  Although the Catholic Church has a long, specific, list of Social Justice topics, I thought we should focus on those issues which rise to the top of the concerns of college students.  Here are some resources: