Faculty:
M. Darby Dyar
217 Kendade Hall, Mount Holyoke College
538-3073 or 538-3220
mdyar@mtholyoke.edu or mddyar@amherst.edu

In case of bad weather on Mondays, chek this website. Modifications to the course schedule will also be made here; be sure to check it frequently for changes.

Class meets 7-9:30, Monday nights at Mount Holyoke, room 107 Kendade Hall.

Click here for a list of students in the class.

What I expect of you in this class:
Be professional and participate actively in the course.
Do the reading.
Keep up with the work.
Do the reading.
Know the syllabus and be aware of important dates.
Do the reading.
Get help promptly if you need it.
Do the reading.
Seek me out if we can help you with problems of any kind, or if you just want to talk!
Do the reading.

Attendance:

You do not want to miss this class! If you have to be absent, please contact Darby via e-mail or telephone before the class to let her know where you are. Assignments will be due at 7 pm on the date of class; late assignments will be accepted only under special circumstances. Remember that your grade in this class will be based largely on your participation in class on exercises and discussions, so it's absolutely necessary for you to attend every class.

Weekly Assignments:
Weekly readings will be posted below as we progress through the year. Many of them will involve writing (this is a seminar, after all).

Texts:
The Odyssey Bookstore is stocking two books for this course:
The Case for Mars, by Robert Zubrin
The Planet Mars, by William Sheehan

The latter book is also available to read online, but it's a lot of paper to print out and it's probably not worth it.

The main text of this class will be a book that has just come out (and so I didn't make you buy it) called "Mars: An Introduction to its interior, surface, and atmosphere"by Nadine Barlow (Cambridge, 2008). It's $72 to buy. So I have scanned in relevant chapters, and you will find links below. I will tell you in class the password you'll need to access them.

Assessment:
There will be 11 class meetings. Every week, there will be a written assigment due at the beginning of class; each of these will be graded and assigned a numerical grade. The written assignments (in the 4th column of the table below) should be a 1-2 page, single-spaced, 12 pt. font, critical summary of some aspect of that week's reading. Criteria for good presentations are given here; cirteria for grading written assignments are given here.

There will also be assigned readings, and in many cases, short presentations. At the end of each class, I will assign you a number gade based on your participation and, if applicable, your presentation. At the end of the semester, I will convert each of these 22 scores to a percentage out of 100%, drop the two lowest of these grades, and add the rest together. These will constitute 80% of your final grade.

There will also be a more in-depth critical writing assignment. This will be worth 80% of your grade. See info on student projects, below.

Student projects:

Guidelines for the paper will be given here. For ideas, check out the Mars articles on this website:
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/PSRdiscoveries/Archive/Contents.html
I've also compiled a bibliography of some recent articles about Mars.
Other resources for science fiction and fictional accounts of Mars:
http://www.spaceref.com/redirect.html?id=0&url=www.scifan.com/science/mars/

Some examples of term papers from previous years can be found here (but note that these papers were in a different format from what we are doing this year)...
Kay Achenbach 2002
Eunha Jin 2002
Amanda Getsinger 2002
Solomon Granor 2002
Elizabeth Fenstermacher 2002
Click here for a list of past student presentations.

Ever-Changing Schedule:

Requisites of a Good Discussion
Remember that everyone in the class will get a discussion grade EVERY week. So you need to learn to be a good class participant. I really care about teaching you to interact with colleagues in scientific discussions.

The single most important fact to remember is that the class discussion is a cooperative effort--a collective good. Good discussions are not at the expense of someone else, and are susceptible to the problems of free riders. It is important to treat all comments with respect. If there is a point of disagreement, you have an obligation to raise it--but its purpose should be to assist the discussion, not to score points. This is an extraordinarily important point. Any other attitude will lead to the disintegration of the class. A few other points:

First, to have a good discussion, the participants must listen carefully to each other. Your colleagues have much to say, they generally are insightful, and their point of view deserves careful attention. You should respond directly to their comments.

Second, be precise in what you say. If there is ambiguity in the discussion, ask that it stop in order to clarify a muddled point. Definitions are important, and you should expect to be able to give them when necessary.

Third, be concise in your statements. This does not mean that you should necessarily limit your comments to one or two sentences. It does, however, mean that you should not ramble or develop peripheral points at great length. There is one outstanding characteristic of oral discussion: people begin to think about what you have said in your first or second sentences, which means that they are listening less attentively to any subsequent sentences. If you do not make your point early, it will not have the force or impact that you desire. You should therefore always try to have your conclusion up front--working inductively to a conclusion very rarely works.

Fourth, do not be intimidated by the prospect of having to speak in a class of twenty people. There is plenty of time for everyone to say what she thinks. Moreover, your evaluations will be based on what you say, not on how much you say. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that to do well in the course you need to hold the floor for a very long period of time.

Fifth, and this is most important, you should be prepared to make an argument and not just drop comments where they seem appropriate. Essentially reactive statements serve a useful clarifying purpose, but they do not constitute an argument. The best way to build an oral argument is to have one prepared before class that can be presented very quickly, and then to use the discussion as a foil for amplifying your basic argument. Do not think that you can "build" an argument while the class is running. The conversation is too fast, too complex, and too unorganized for you to figure out what you want to say while you are saying it. The class is extremely demanding in this respect, but its difficulty is matched by its rewards: having made a solid argument in a group discussion, with helpful and constructive criticisms from others is one of the most exhilarating experiences you can have in a classroom.

Finally, do not attempt to intimidate or dominate. This is not an exercise in debate or public speaking. Extended monologues, orations, and harangues are to be avoided, and will be negatively evaluated. Remember, however, that the primary responsibility for preventing such misfortunes remains in your hands--either to not do them yourself, or to gently remind others to avoid them.