Purpose: To enable the student to gain an understanding of how the hydrogen bomb came into existence in both the United States and the Soviet Union; its role in causing the post-World-War-II era to be one of both unimaginable danger and, happily, relative peace; and the ways in which, despite the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons remain a threat to world stability and peace. The points of focus will be the following:
Mechanics: Careful mastery of assigned readings (underlining key passages and writing in journals), participation in group and class discussions to develop and refine feelings and opinions about the issues under consideration (20%), listening to the instructor's clarification and elaboration of key points, and actually doing history--writing two hour exams (20%), take-home final exam or journal submissions (20%), a research project (30%), and group participation/presentation (10%).
Class Discussions: For class discussion, students will participate both as individuals and as members of discussion/research groups. Student discussion groups and the instructor will determine questions to guide the reading and be answered in class discussion. These also will be the basis for the hour and final exams.
Exams: The exams will be a combination of essay and short-answer. The essays should contain a topic paragraph with a thesis statement. The paragraphs that follow should contain evidence from the reading and class discussion (notebooks) that supports the thesis.
Journals and Take-home Finals: Students are invited to keep a journal for answers to both information terms (IT's) and discussion questions (KQ's), reflections on how the past relates to their current knowledge, and the quality of the learning experience. The instructor will grade the journals in the first half of the course and again, if the student elects this option, at the end. It is acceptable for a student, in lieu of a journal, to elect to take a take-home final exam for the same credit (20%). A student may also, for extra credit (10%), take both a journal and a take-home final.
Research Papers: The research paper is the most important part of the course. It allows the student to perform the activities of the historian--collecting, sifting, analyzing, and synthesizing of evidence. Each student will select a research topic and submit it to the instructor on Monday, December 6. It should be in the form of a question and contain a three-item preliminary bibliography and an example of the kind of evidence that will be used (an artifact) with a one-paragraph explanation. In carrying out these tasks each student should first consult the bibliographies and notes of the assigned books and then check LUIS and other sources in the library. Preliminary bibliographies should not contain the books assigned on this syllabus. A second research artifact and one-paragraph explanation is due at the beginning of the sixth week.
On Monday of the seventh week (January 24) as the first in a two-step revision process each student will submit his or her paper (doublespaced, 2,000-3,000 words) to be read, evaluated, and graded using a critique sheet by a classmate in his or her SDR group (see below). The student reviewers will complete their work by Thursday and return the paper (along with the critique) to the author so he or she can make any required changes.
The author then on Tuesday of the eighth week (February 10) will submit his or her revised paper and critique to the instructor. The instructor will mark and grade the paper and the critiques, returning them as soon as possible but no later than Thursday, November 5. This will count 10% of the course grade. Each student, after making any additional revisions, will hand-in the final paper along with the one with the instructor's marks, on the last day of class, for final grading (10% of course grade -- see below). Critique grades will be part of the class discussion grade.
Study, Discussion, Research Groups (SDR groups): During the first day of class the instructor will divide the class into discussion groups in which students will participate during the first three weeks. During the third week the instructor will organize the class into study, discussion, research groups based on similarity of research topics. The original discussion groups will then disband, each student participating from that time onward as a member of his or her SDR group for both class discussion and research. During the tenth week, SDR groups will present a group project giving the group thesis, bibliography, and five point outline using multimedia computer display. Each group member also will present his or her individual research thesis, showing an artifact, telling how it relates to the group project, and answering questions about it.
Grading Distribution for Group Participation: As mentioned above, each student will receive 20% of his or her total grade based on his or her participation in discussion as part of a group and as an individual. (Each student's participation as part of a group will count 10% and his participation as an individual will count 10%.) In addition, each student also will receive a grade based on his or her research (30%) as part of a group and as an individual as follows: 10% for contribution to the group research project and final oral presentation (including developing the group's thesis, bibliography, and five point outline), 10% on first submittal of his or her research paper, and 10% on final submittal of the research paper. Final grades for group participation will derive from a written peer critique by fellow group members administered on the last day of class as well as from an evaluation by the instructor.
Readings:
Rhodes, Richard. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. New York: Simon S. Schuster, 1995.
Outline of Topics
Grades: For computation purposes written work will receive numerical equivalents for letter grades as follows: 5 = A, 4 = B, 3 = C, 2 = D, 1 = F.
Note: While students are encouraged to discuss among themselves the issues raised by the course to solidify and refine their grasp of the material, it is assumed each student knows that any instance of plagiarism will bring an automatic "F" on the assignment where it is found, that work done in fulfillment of requirements for another course may not be submitted for this one and each student will meet on time all deadlines. The grade "I" will not as a rule be awarded. The definition of plagiarism and the style for both footnotes and bibliographic citations are found in Neil R. Stout Getting the Most Out of Your History Course: The History Student's Vade Mecum. Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath and Company, 1993, on sale in the Rose-Hulman bookstore. Failure to heed the guide or the instructor in matters of style will detract from the quality of written work.
Students, especially those having difficulty with any aspect of the course, are invited to see the instructor to talk over the problem after class or in room A 204 7th hour MTRF (or by appointment). Feel free to contact the instructor by telephone at home 234-8462 or in his office 8303. Feel free also to leave voice mail or e-mail messages (see HSS department homepage) There is nothing more important to him than the progress of the students in his class.