STS 4500

GENERAL INFO: This course ended up pretty much how I expected. We had a big, scary Prospectus due in early November which was very stressful (I took the class for a grade), and everything else was incredibly boring and, in my opinion, pointless. That said, I cannot really fault Professor Berne for that. There is little she can do to really make the course more interesting, especially since the course is in a sort of socratic seminar style. A normal week would consist of reading 30-40 pages from, most of the time, a very dry book (There were some exceptions -- The Alchemy of Us was a very fun and easy read), watching some sort of interesting movie/video (ranging from 30 minutes to full movie length), coming to class, listening to a 20-30 minute lecture learning about how to write a paper (stuff you should already know to be honest), taking a difficult reading quiz (more on these later), then spending the remaining 90 minutes just talking about the reading/film. The class just seems to drag on and on, especially when you get to the conversation portion. But, again, there really is just no way around it; I don't blame Professor Berne for that.

PROFESSOR: Berne is very kind and willing to listen/help her students. No complaints there. She genuinely cares, which I very much appreciate. However, there are a few caveats to note, but these might not even be a big deal to you:
- Disorganized at times: Berne is constantly updating the syllabus and emailing you a new one -- like literally every two weeks. She had some outdated information in places around the syllabus and assignment pages, but nothing major. There was also one week we had 60 pages of reading... only to be told right before the quiz that only 30 pages would be tested. Glad I wasted 2.5 hours of my life for nothing. Basically, just stay on your toes, because she is not afraid of making last second changes.
- Berne seems to have a left-political lean, as evidenced by some of the films/readings we had to do. She's very fair during discussions in class, so it wasn't really a big deal to me, but keep that in mind if that is an issue for you.

GRADING:
30% Prospectus: This is exactly what it sounds like. This is your big project for the semester that you will have to do no matter who you take STS 4500 with. In it, you essentially write an introduction section for your technical project and your STS project. Ours was limited to 2000 words, which is only like 7-8 pages. So, it wasn't too bad, especially once your initial literature review is done. I would argue that the literature review we had due before the prospectus was more stressful since you are basically starting from zero. I probably spent around 40 hours on it over the course of 4 weeks; however, I know others who finished the whole thing in 20 hours of total work. Depends how throrough you are and how much you care about your grade.
20% Literature Review: This is essentially the groundwork for the STS section of your prospectus. Much of this can be copy-pasted directly into the prospectus, so take this seriously. This was due 2 weeks before the prospectus for us. All you do is basically search for sources for your chosen STS topic, and write about what they did that is pertinant to your project.
25% Reading Quizzes: I've mentioned these before, but it is exactly what they sound like. As I have already mentioned, take notes/highlight any important looking words/phrases in the readings, because you can bet you will get some sort of fill-in-the-blank question asking for a very specific word from a very specific line. If you do not make note of it while you are reading, you will not do well.
15% Team-Lead Discussion Leadership: This is a minor project that you will have to do at some point in the semester. Essentially, you will work with a group of 4-5 students to lead class discussion on a given week's readings/film. It is typically very simple, in that you create a short powerpoint summarizing the main points, and generate a few thought-provoking discussion questions. That's it. Super simple and easy 15% of your grade.
10% Participation: You fill out a participation self-assessment form at the end of the semester. Be honest with it, because she keeps track of attendance. But all in all, super simple stuff.

OVERALL: This course is an annoyance due to the dry, unnecessary material. But it is certainly bearable, and having a solid instructor like Berne who does her best to make it interesting helps. It is also not necessarily the easiest A, but as long as you give a reasonable effort, it would be hard to score lower than a B or B+. I definitely would not recommend taking the course at all if you have the choice... oh who am I kidding... no one takes STS 4500 by choice lol. Since you probably have to take it anyway, I would say you could do worse than Berne. She's not perfect, but she is a solid option for taking 4500.

Like most other STS teachers, Prof. Berne thinks that what she does is actually important despite having no real knowledge to share. She will arbitrarily take off points on assignments and give extremely subjective feedback. Avoid her like the plague. It's a shame that STS is even required of engineers. What an utter waste of time!

Rosalyn is a really nice person, and is in general a knowledgeable professor. However, she does not really do any of the teaching. The whole course is based on discussions on assigned readings that are student-led and she'll pitch in on these discussions. In general, the discussions are pretty interesting if you like talking about social and technological issues. Bernes is a pretty reasonable grader, and if you're not sure on something you can go and talk to her during OH and that'll usually give you an idea on what she thinks. Overall, not a lot of work besides the required STS papers and the two student-led discussions you and your group are responsible for.