General Education Capstone Course
Event/Experience Details and Guideline Form

Discipline covered in General Education: English, History, Political Science, Global Studies

Gen. Ed. Category Event should be listed under: Humanities

SCC Competency addressed by event: Describe the historical, cultural and social contexts of philosophy, literature or language

Event experience Title:  Fall 2009 – DEMOCRACY DAYS

Anticipated Learning Outcome.  Enriched understanding of the role democracy plays in the U.S. political system and the world at large. 

Guidelines for accomplishment of event:

• Go to the SCC Web site listed below, where you’ll find the agenda and descriptions for Democracy Days 2009 [September 14 – 17], and pick a session to attend.  Location for all presentations is the SSB Auditorium.

• When you attend, be alert to a) the thesis of the presentation, particularly as it relates to what the speaker is saying about the quality, health or functioning of democracy, and b) how the thesis is supported (i.e. evidence, examples). 

Since there will be time allotted in each session for questions and comments from people in attendance, feel free to ask the speaker to clarify his or her thesis.  (Note: A thesis statement is a one- to three-sentence statement indicating the topic, purpose and focus of a text or, in this case, a speech.  A speaker may not say, “This is my thesis” in explicit terms, so you would need to draw out the thesis from the presentation.  Keep in mind that each of the presentations has to do in some way with the quality, health or functioning of democracy.

• Find at least one competing point of view or a line of reasoning in an article or editorial, or perhaps one that enlarges your understanding of the subject of the presentation, and write about it.  You will in other words write a synthesis-based mini-essay on the material of the Democracy Days presentation and this other source.  Your mini-essay can be informative or persuasive.

Event Contact Web site URL: http://www.stchas.edu/events/democracydays.shtml

SCC Event Creator: Michael Kuelker [He will be in attendance at each Democracy Days presentation, so feel free to contact him there or at mkuelker@stchas.edu.]

Estimated Time for full completion: Approximately 3.5 hours