Minutes for February 19th by David

- Class began at 9:32a.m. with Girl Scout Cookies® and hand sanitizer
- Cory absent—all others present
- HW for next class – one question and answer from any story in Chapter 4
- Received HW from previous class – cover letter and resume
- Previous class minutes were read and passed with flying colors (ROYGBIV)

Class Discussion on Thinking Like a Mountain pg. 132

• What are your inner thoughts and feelings when you reach the summit of a mountain?
• Why might an aesthetically pleasing view release endorphins?
• Why does one wish to hike up to the top of a mountain or hill?

What is Science?

• A branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws*
• History of Science – Rome, Greece, Aristotle, Darwin

Religion vs. Science

• Science got lifted out of the Qur'an
• Claim that the Qur'an is predicting modern scientific discoveries.
• Used by many Muslims as a major proof for the divine origin of the Qur'an.**

Word To Know: Weltanschauung – World View

What are the basic elements of Science?

• Darwin vs. Christianity
• Is it a rabbit or bird!?
• All laws and rules may never be true and are limited by things like scope/range

What does it mean to think like a mountain?

• Thoughts about the future and how many generations after us will we affect?


Class closed at 10:48a.m.

* - Borrowed from www.merriam-webster.com
** - Borrowed from answering-islam.org

Minutes for February 17, 2009 by Seth

• Class began at 9:36
• 18 students present
Cover Letter Evaluation
• The primary goal of a cover letter is to get the interviewer to flip the page and set up an interview.
• Make sure you put in your qualifications
• Make sure you request an interview
• Make sure you say where you heard about the position from
• Spaces between each paragraph is recommended
How do we calm our nervousness?
• Prepare and practice!
• Meditation
• Talk to yourself
• Imagine the interviewer in their underwear
• Glass of cold water and food
What do you bring to an interview?
• Copy of resume and cover letter
• References
• Smile and good eye contact
• Match voice volume
Review Eco-Interview System (Class Handout)
• Review interview questions
• Conflict resolution

Class Minutes for 2/12/2009

Class Minutes for 2/12/2009
Class Began at 9:31 a.m.

• 17 class members present
• Previously:
o Read and passed previous minutes pass
• Today:
o Quorum- 1) a select group
2) the number (as a majority) of officers or members of a body that when duly assembled is legally competent to transact business (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)
o Each student performed their thirty second elevator pitch
• It was decided that each student would give their pitch sitting down
• A pitch can be seen as a hustle
• Important to always have a few hustles in your back pocket
• Be concise and enthusiastic
• Practice, practice, practice
• Leave out the “umm’s” and pauses
• Drop names when possible
o Discussed model for cover letters
• Items to include in a cover letter (according to the Technical Handbook)
• Application letter
• Heading
• Inside Address
• Salutation
• Introduction
• Experience
• Newspaper, magazine, and book titles
• Education
• Additional Support
• Wrap-up
• Due Monday (after waking)
o Cover letter, annotated job description, revised resume
Class Ended at 10:46 a.m.

Minutes for February 11, 2009 by Katie

Preliminaries:
• Class began at 9:34am, eighteen students present.
• Kelly read the class minutes
-Motion was made and passed to discard class structure in minutes
• Motion was made and passed to move class to Nifkin Lounge to fulfill student’s need for food at the Morning Munch
-quorum: the number (as a majority) of officers or members of a body that when duly assembled is legally competent to transact business.1
-quorum is obtained when two thirds of the total body is present.2
Job Seekers:
• Learn about target employers
• Obtain and maintain inside contacts
• Manage time well
• Have a thirty second elevator pitch
• Take job site into consideration
Key information on resume:
• Duties performed that are relevant to the job or internship
• Descriptive headings such as Independent Research as opposed to Work Experience
• Thematic resume is better for showing skills, and is more likely to catch attention
Thirty Second Sales Pitch:
• State your name first
• Make appropriate eye contact and obtain visual acknowledgement
-aplomb: complete and confident composure or self assurance; poise 3
• Firm handshake
• State your contact name or school name
• Get quickly to the heart of the matter
• State qualifications
• Give your contact information and thank them for their time
Assignments due for next class:
• Have Chapter Four read
• Read Cover Letter article from the class website
• Revise Resumes
• Prepare a thirty second elevator pitch
Citations:
1) "Quorum." Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary
.
2) "I.13 Quorum and Parlimentary Procedural Rules." College of Letters and Science. University of Wisconsin-Madison College .
3) "Aplomb." Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary
.

Minutes for February 5, 2009 by Jake

9:45a.m. Class begins.
• 18 Students present
• Lights off, Desks in a circle
• Darren read the minutes from last class
o “Community” changed to “Communication”
o Read section from blog link on cover letters, don’t actually write one
o Parallelism is important in “all” writing, and “can” be ambiguous

“Resumes and Job Stuff”
• 25% of people in the high-tech industry look at resumes, it is still important to have one.
• Dr. Wagner is a “Headhunter” making big bucks
• What does a successful job seeker do?
o Knows the job
o Networks
o Closes the gaps in the desired qualifications

Exercise: I spy for 30 seconds.
• 30 second focus time
• Conversations/Visualizations become boring after 30 seconds
• Point of the Exercise:
o 30 seconds to grab an employer’s attention through creating a network, cover letter, or resume (series).

Resume Drafts:
• Get rid of preconceived structure
• What are some of the tools we will need
o Ink cartridge
o Stamps
• Decrease white space and compact to a single page (if possible)
• Start with some that will distinguish you as qualified for the position
• Average time spent looking at a resume is 7-15 seconds
• Use key words that will attract an electronic search
• “You are not necessarily looking for a job/career you are looking at a way to connect to colleagues”

Assignments:
• Due Tuesday: Read Cover Letter and Resume sections from Online Technical Writing.
• Due Tuesday: 30 second sales pitch
o Name drop
o Research experiences
o “Checked out the damn zoo”

10:45a.m. Class ends.

Additional Notes:
• Hellbenders cannot vocalize

Minutes for February 3, 2009 by Maria

• 18 students present
• Professor Wagner passed around the book At Work in the Fields of the Bomb, written and photographed by Robert Del Tradici
• Lights off, and chairs in circle before class

Class began at 9:34 a.m.
• Read previous class minutes
• Etymology: an account of the history of a particular word or element of a word
• Etymology of etymology: Greek: etumologiā and Latin: etymologia. (dictionary.com)

Summaries from Science and Society, chapter one, were handed back
• Class did well overall; sophisticated sentence structures with a few stylistic and punctuation errors
• Variety of writing styles, but summaries all had similar formats

Discussed Parallelism
• The Technical Community Handbook, pg 493: “use the same grammatical form for elements that are part of a series or a compound construction.”
• Series: three or more items, separated by commas, in a compound/complex sentence
• Compound Construction: two elements joined by a conjunction
• In series and compound constructions, balance kinds of words (noun, adverb, adjective, etc.) and number of words in order to avoid faulty parallelism
• Use conjunctions, articles, and punctuation to balance sentences
• Proper use of parallelism yields clear sentences and ideas
• Parallelism is important in scientific writing: sentences that aren’t parallel are ambiguous. What is the actual meaning, and what is implied?
• Longer sentences are more difficult to balance and read.

Discussed Resumes
• Check Online Technical Writing link on course blog
• Under Applications heading, choose “Business correspondence and resumes” link; read article about resumes
• Proactive Career Resume
• Focused on determining personal strengths and deficiencies in the context of one’s desired career path
• Deficiencies are addressed and replaced with experience and skills
• Resume is built towards career specific level as individual gains experience and skills
• Proactive and dynamic; resume should change to reflect changes in the individual
• Addresses the “half-lives” of certain careers by constantly developing skills
Discussed two handouts
• Personal Inventory: addresses career specific questions on an individual level
• Questions 6,7,10, and 12
• Look at a person you respect: what traits, skills, and abilities do they have that you admire, and for which you strive?
• Thematic Resume Assessment
• Include educational summary (degree usually implied), key skills, volunteer and professional work, and strengths
• Keep narrative condensed
• Should be neat, legible, well organized, and well designed

Assignments
• Read about resumes and cover letters on Online Technical Writing website (linked in blog)
• Draft of thematic resume due in class Thursday, February 5
• Bring relevant job descriptions to class
• Cover letter due in class next Tuesday, February 10
• Read chapter four in Science and Society by class on Tuesday, February 10


Class ended at 10:40 a.m.

Class Minutes for 1/29/09 by Darren

Due Monday February 2, 2009 @ 12:00p.m.: 1-page summary of article from first chapter of textbook
Class began @ 9:38a.m.

• Sarah and Alex absent—all others present
• Desks arranged in a circle, lights were off, blinds were up
• Graded learning contracts passed back
• Minutes were read and passed
• Time amended, pathological science added
• New task for minute-taker: attendance

Class discussion: morality, pseudoscience, validity, ethics
Plagiarism*:
• Copying ideas or taking exact wording from published sources without using quotation marks and indicating where the words came from.
• Paraphrasing from sources without citation.
• Copying someone else’s work and submitting it as your own.
• Buying a paper or having someone else write it for you.
Where does exact science become pathological science?
• i.e.: peanut butter, cigarettes
Group activity: Discuss the thesis, supporting information, opposing information, definitions, unanswered questions, and a summary of an assigned article from first chapter of Science and Society.
• Thesis: a statement or theory declaring a premise that is to be maintained or proved
• Dialectical reasoning**: critical thinking about problems and evaluating conflicting viewpoints.
• Two (dia) propositions/ logistics (lectical)

Class ended @ 10:47a.m.

*Plagiarism definition borrowed from ESF Academic Integrity Handbook (2008).
**Dialectical reasoning definition borrowed from Saskatchewan Psychology Dept.

Class Minutes for January 22, 2009 by Kelly

(9:32 am- 10:45am)

Preliminaries:
• Lights turned off & desks arranged in a circle
• Prof. Wagner passed around a fortune cookie: “It is always good karma to practice random acts of kindness.”
• Minutes were read by Andy: It’s important to slow down, observe, critique, make changes
• Debated the correct use of “affect” and “effect”
Affect: to act on; produce an effect or change in
Effect: something that is produced by an agency or cause; result; consequence; power to produce results; efficacy; force; validity; influence
• Motion passed to accept the minutes with “affectively” changed to “effectively”

Due Sunday night by 12am: Revised Grade Contracts
Due next class: 1 random act of kindness-without them knowing it or for someone you dislike!

Question of the Day:
• Class debated whether it is a fact that the richer you are, the more sustainable you are :
- if you have money, it’s easier to follow through with sustainable technology
- sustainable practices are more ingrained into a less privileged lifestyle (composting, hand me downs, leftovers, old tires!)
- Prof Wagner suggests reading “Tragedy of the Commons,”
- Encourages rest of class to bring in discussion topics/questions

Class Discussion:
• Poem “Creating the World,” by Ceslwa Milwos, a polish poet, handed out
• Statistic: 1 out of 2 Americans will contract an STD by 25 years of age-Whose responsibility is it?
• Logos: arguments, Ethos: character, values, Pathos: emotions, empathy
- In science, ethos and pathos are erased but science is just a little part of the universe and these aspects of humanity should be considered
• Finished up Grade Contracts:
- want to write more quickly, more efficiently
- want to put more personality into scientific writing
- want to learn how to formulate good research questions-little delay is normal
- learn how to write scientifically and creatively: scientific poetry?
- Learn how to do other forms of scientific forms of communication-PowerPoint, website
- Merge foolishness with writing: Scientists are fools!


Word of the Day:
• heuristic: encouraging a person to learn, discover, understand, or solve problems on his or her own, as by experimenting, evaluating possible answers or solutions, or by trial and error
Grading Scheme:
√+ “publishable”
√+ minor corrections necessary
√ went there, got to get to other place
√- didn’t engage

Learning Goals:
• individualized involvement
• teacher refrains from excessive direction
• differential learning styles-be conscious of your own style
• competition with your self rather than with others
• thread of failure-feel sense of freedom
• learning task-falls within learner’s range of challenge
• you are your own physician
• ask how you like to be rewarded

➢ Make sure to back up all revised assignment for end of semester portfolio!

Closing Remarks:
Intrinsic: built in, “inside happiness”
-enlightened human beings-shed baggage!
After enlightenment, laundry!

BE HERE NOW!