UNDERGRADUATE SEMINAR AT OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY – “GRABBING THEM EARLY”

From the introduction to Freshman Seminar Program at Ohio State University 2006-2007: “In small, discussion-based seminars, first-year students explore topical and cutting-edge research areas from a wide variety of disciplines. . . Freshman Seminars provide the opportunity (for students) to work closely with eminent teachers and researchers in a dynamic and collaborative environment.” Topics range from Your Brain on Fiction and Secrets of the Mad Scientists' Club, to Religion, Philosophy, and Science – Conflict and Accommodation. The focus of our seminar was to develop an algorithm that encompasses resources that have been determined to be “absolutely essential” for the survival of individuals, and, by extension, groups of individuals (societies). We began by comparing life as a “South Sea Islander” versus a “Citizen of the U.S.” Wherever they live, individuals must have water, food, and a roof over their heads. Everything else is a means to an end – sources and volumes of potable water; fertilizers and moisture for food production; metals, energy, and construction materials for shelter. For the first half of the 21st Century, U.S. citizens will be OK with regard to water, food, construction materials, and a fairly large number of energy and metal commodities. Beyond 2050, however, U.S. citizens will be forced more and more to rely on outside sources of a number of critical metal resources, as well as oil and natural gas. The resource requirements of any complex society such as the U.S. provide challenges that were immediately recognized and effectively addressed in this seminar. It also was recognized by the class that technological advances could dramatically affect our algorithm, but that modifications would be positive, at home and throughout the world. The algorithm will be refined in a second seminar that will be offered this coming Spring.