The late Nobel Prize Winner Professor Richard “Rick” Smalley and Dr. Emmanuelle Schuler developed the syllabus described here for University 116: Issues in Energy, a first-year seminar that confronted head-on the consequences of technology choices. It was taught twice, and its unusual structure built on the principle of repetition with increasing complexity. It also put in the foreground of class experience the need to improve communication performances and team interaction. Its approach is suitable for any seminar devoted to a complex topic or system.

The syllabus declared: “Energy lies at the heart of this century’s humanitarian problems: energy is central to improved quality of life, economic, social, geopolitical, and environmental development. Prospects of forward looking and long-term solutions to abundant, cheap, efficient, safe and clean energy will require major scientific and technological leaps.” Because all the they encountered energy proposals had multiple facets–resource development, distribution, depletion–as well as consequences to other infrastructure, students needed to understand the scientific issues as well as the contextual significance of any energy choice.

The seminar was not a chance for students to sit back and let professors present the answers; Professor Smalley declared students had to take responsibility: “Using critical analysis and creative thinking, students will be asked to address real world energy problems using chemistry, physics, and engineering concepts as basis of their reflection. Moreover, the course will examine the social, political, and economic nature of energy problems in the context of a sustainable environment. The course will emphasize active participation of students to address ill-structured problems that mirror real-world problems in energy.” For example, a new fuel might not work in existing cars, might require replacing pipelines, filling stations, and safety systems. Necessary investments might drain away funds needed for other purposes.

Smalley and Shuler chose an unusual communication-intensive strategy, of interest to other first-year seminar instructors, to pursue their seven ambitious goals:

Their strategy depended on a recursive exploration of five energy issues students selected from a list of 16 possible choices. The same five topics were discussed in each round. As each round went by, students drilled deeper into the literature to find answers to the questions posed by other class members and the faculty, and they worked to present their arguments more clearly and convincingly. Each team’s final reports summarized the entire semester’s work on the team’s issue, taking into account the questions raised by others and the arguments presented by other teams that impinged on the team’s own claims.

Divided into teams of four persons, students

Each class member also wrote a one-page critique of every other team’s paper.

Coaching sessions with Cain Project staff speeded up improvements. Each time, the class discussions became more complex and rigorous as students applied their knowledge about costs, markets, regulation, security, and other aspects of their own issue to the arguments of other teams. And with each round, students’ sophistication in handling graphics, fielding questions, and phrasing points increased. Three high-ranking guest speakers and two field trips, one to the South Texas Nuclear Plant, emphasized the seriousness of the issues teams were exploring.

Students had a chance to apply their now well-honed questioning skills during the field trip to the nuclear plant South Texas Project Electric Generating Station in Wadsworth, Texas (http://www.stpnoc.com) as the STNP staff delivered their presentations about the nuclear facility. Student teams also demonstrated their own presentation skills by summarizing their key findings in 5-minute presentations to the STNP staff.

The syllabus outline below illustrates the recursive pattern of talks, questioning, and response.

Professor Smalley was well known as a winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Chemistry along with Rice colleague Professor Robert Curl and Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. Dr. Shuler is recognized for her innovations in science communication as well as for her expertise in nanoscience policy: She originated the monthly Science Café sessions that take place at Salento, the coffee house in the Rice Village. She is presently associated with the University of Houston.

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Last edited by The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication on Jun 10, 2008 12:32 pm -0500.