Unit Problems ( UPs)

CRITICAL THINKING PROJECT

8^th semester

A PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING APPROACH to ENGLISH for SCIENCE &TECHNOLOGY COURSE

Course logistics:

Coordinator:Rossikhina Olga, Ph.D.

Email:rossog@rambler.ru; mob. 8-916-687-28-73

Course duration:13 weeks

End of course:1^st May

Office hours:twice a week

Assessment: Pass/Fail. Final mark is comprised of IELTS results on condition of getting

a “Pass” for the semester project work.

Required materials:Provided either in this booklet or at www.dropbox.com.

rossog@rambler.ru (Password ESP2015.)

Course description:

English for Science and Technology was first developed bySharon Hannigan, PhD,for New Economic School students).

It isan advanced level integrated skills course, aims to provide you with the academic and language skills needed for successful study or professional work in a scientific context where English is the working language.

Consisting of Three units organized around a current problem in science or technology, the course challenges students to collectively arrive at solutions through critical and creative thinking. The solutions are to be expressed in three modalities: verbal (speaking on panel discussions), graphic (writing ‘ scientific’ reports) and visual-spatial ( e.g. graphs, diagrams).

The goals of the course are achieved through a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach to language learning set into motion by a critical thinking framework ( SPRE, i.e. Situation- Problem-Response-Evaluation), requiring teams of students to closely examine the module problems (MPs) with the goal of attempting to solve them. In what follows, the MPs, PBL, and SPRE are described, in turn, in light of the aims of this course.

Unit Problems ( UPs)

Three Unit Problems selected for this course were suggested by subject professors as the main directions of MISiS research. Each of the UPs will serve as its module’s unifying theme around which all language skills, exercises, tasks, panel discussions, assignments, presentations, and projects revolve.

They are the following:

Unit 1. Biocompatible material

Unit 2. Electric cars

Unit 3. Artificial Intelligence

Each Unit is tailored for three weeks strictly so that students know that on week1, for instance, they watch videos and read articles, and on week3 the whole group has a panel discussion, and the next week they submit their individual written assignments.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1066