Week One Reflection

Takeaways from TIME articles:

This week, the most eye opening thing to me in the TIME articles was animals intelligence levels, and the discussion of whether they have minds or not. I already knew that animals had brains that function to keep them alive, but I never thought about the fact that animals can have minds as well. More specifically, the "Intelligence" article was very eye opening to me because it revealed how much humans undervalue animal society, as animal society can also be complex and rich.

Syllabus and grade contract summaries:

This class focuses on researching and writing about animal science through online platforms. Throughout the course, we will be assigned many weekly research and peer review assignments, along with 3 major ones: a Scicomm article, Advocacy Project, and final Portfolio.

Our class is graded through a grade contract, to ensure that students will focus on practicing and reflecting on their work instead of focusing on the actual grade itself. Everyone starts off the class with an 84, and can improve their grade to an A by attaining 11's on assignments once or twice a week. A student achieves an 11 on an assignment if it goes beyond the minimum requirements to show a deeper understanding of the content. On the other hand, a student's grade will drop by -1 if they attain three 9's on assignments when they don't meet the minimum requirements.

And finally, you can only turn in late work for 2 weeks from the original due date, but for a grade of 9. After 2 weeks, late work will not be accepted.