STS 1500

Majority of the course was (Fall 2020) asynchronous with alternating lectures from Laugelli and Carlson, and a lot of various reading material. Synchronous component is working on a patent application with Westin leading "lab" sessions where we discuss various technicalities about the project. Westin is very average as an instructor, expects full attention, and doesn't leave you with any impact. He's just a vessel to convey information about STS projects.

Lecture with Carlson and Laugelli was usually pretty interesting but always felt completely unrelated with regards to what was going on in discussion with Westin. Reading quizzes and discussions were no problem and the two main individual projects, the technical description and the design notebook were not very hard but were a bit time consuming. I saved the design notebook until the last minute which I wouldn't recommend but I ended up getting an A+ on it so just follow the instructions.

The most important thing is to get a good group! You will come into the first discussion and need to select a group out of people that you probably don't know. Everyone in my group was very nice but they were also little help on the final PPA assignment which is a massive pain and took me 10+ hours over 2 days to complete. Westin was actually pretty helpful about this so if you do have an issue talk to him. STS 1500 is just one of those classes you need to get through.

I loved Westin as my lab teacher, he was super chill (but he doesn’t hand out As on the written stuff) and funny. The lab is pretty easy as long as you have a decent group. Make sure you keep chipping away at the semester project throughout otherwise you will have A LOT of writing to do. The readings are easy, but a little long. The quizzes will ask you about things directly from the readings and key points from the lectures (but the answers can usually be found on the class slides on Collab). The lectures pretty much just repeat the readings so a lot of people skip them, I wouldn’t though, it makes your life easier on the quizzes.

I signed up for Henderson, but I got Westin. I would strongly recommend signing up for a Henderson section. I learned nothing in this class. Would not recommend.

Don't listen to the other reviews. Is Westin on the more difficult side? Yes. Is he impossible? Absolutely not. I left this class with an A so it is entirely possible and with minimal effort required.

You can get an A too if you make sure you follow the provided rubrics to a literal T. That is all he grades off of. He is not ambiguous or confusing. He is straight as an arrow. Do everything the rubric says and you will get an A.

Don't wait around on the design notebook. Yeah sure its possible to do last minute but you won't have fun. Again follow the rubric. It doesn't matter how silly or stupid your idea is. If you can make it work and follow the rubric he'll take it.

Do the readings or at least skim them as he does sometimes cold call. He didn't as much later in the semester but still, you need to for the weekly quizzes anyway.

After the design notebook is due, you switch to doing group related work. Try to get a good group (I know this can be difficult but it is possible). Again, follow the rubrics, practice your presentation beforehand. Know how to answer basic questions about your idea and you'll get an A on the presentation.

For the paper, I know I'm being redundant, follow the rubric. If you have to go through and edit the entire paper yourself to follow it, do it. I did it and I knew the content of our paper was crap but we hit every rubric point and got like a 96 on the paper.

The class is relatively low stress and low work but requires group communication and doing stuff without a strict schedule.

The class is mainly around the lab which Westin was my Prof. Ben is the lecture instructor and one of the others is your lab instructor.