Post #87 9 January 2016

Gentlefolk,

This post describes my Western Culture course and exam.

Culture course

Although the course is called “British & American Culture” you will see from the exam questions (below) that my focus was on the USA.  The course was only 17 weeks and I preferred to describe the US in detail rather than talk superficially about two countries; also the USA is, realistically, of much greater importance to China.

The following table shows the structure of the course this semester.  I covered the "building blocks" of culture first (geography, economy, history, political system, religion), and then described many day-to-day aspects under Way of life. 

Table 1: Structure of Western Culture course

Week	Topic
Week 1	Introduction & course outline
Week 2	Geography of the USA
Week 3	Economy of the USA
Week 4	History of the USA #1 (to 1799)
Week 5	National Day holiday
Week 6	History of the USA #2 (1800 – 1899)
Week 7	History of the USA #3 (1900 – 2014)
Week 8	Review #1
Week 9	Political system of the USA #1 (Constitution)
Week 10	Political System #2 (Parties, voting, elections)
Week 11	Religion
Week 12	Review  #2
Week 13	Way of life #1 (Sport, pets, cars, guns, crime)
Week 14	Way of life #2 (Inventors, stock market, etc)
Week 15	Way of life #3 (Education, food, housing, etc)
Week 16	Review #3
Week 17	Final exam

 Attendance was very good - over 90% - which usually indicates that the students liked the course.

In the last lecture I asked the students what topic they had found most interesting. Here are some of their replies:

Table 2: What did you find most interesting?

Name	Topic	Name	Topic	Name	Topic
Stallion	Economy	Tim	Guns	Theresa	College
Sunny	Checks & balances	Ian	War of Independence	Carlos	3 branches of govt
Snow	Guns	Emma	Food	Alice	Food
Tom	Civil War	Thea	Religion	Zero	Religion
Lucky	Thanksgiving	Monkey	Civil War	Katherine	Sport
Octopus	Sport	Dora	Religion	Candice	Pets

The exam

The final exam on Western Culture for DM1401 was held 7 – 9pm on Sunday 3 January 2016.  Yes, you read right: SUNDAY night.  Chinese students (especially Double Major students) don’t consider weekends special – they are just normal work days.

PART 1 comprised 20 Multiple Choice questions; PART 2 comprised 20 True/False questions; PART 3 comprised 30 fill-in-the-blank questions; and PART 4 was 3 written essays (6 questions to choose from). 

To give you a feel for the types of questions, here are the first 5 questions in Parts 1, 2 & 3.  Part 4 shows three of the essay questions (they had to answer 3 out of 6 options).

PART 1: Multiple Choice

1.  Who is known as the “Father of the Auto Industry”?

A. Thomas Edison; B. John D Rockefeller; C. Warren Buffett; D. Henry Ford

2.  How many children does Kobe Bryant have?

A.  1; B.  2; C.  3; D.  4

3.  Which team won the NFL Super Bowl in February 2015?

A. New England Patriots; B. Seattle Seahawks; C. Denver Broncos; D. New York Giants

4.  From which country was President Obama’s father?

A. Kenya; B. USA; C. South Africa; D. Indonesia

5.  How many delegates attended the 1787 Constitutional Convention?

A. 35; B. 45; C. 55; D. 65

PART 2: True / False?

1. Amendment #13 to the US Constitution in 1865 abolished slavery.

2. Kobe Bryant has scored the most points of any player in NBA history.

3. Thomas Edison and Mark Zuckerberg were friends.

4. The Mississippi is the longest river in the world.

5. In 2014 the USA produced more crude oil than China.

PART 3: Fill-in-the-blank

1. Elephant is the symbol of the __________  (name) Party.

2. President Obama was first elected President in ______________ (year).

3. Tom Brady’s NFL nick-name is ___________.

4. The Berlin Wall was pulled down (opened up) in  _______ (year).

5. Osama bin Laden was the leader of the __________ (name) terrorist group which attacked America in 2001.

PART 4: The following were 3 of the essay questions. Students had to choose three of six options and write at least 100 words on each topic.

A.  Benjamin Franklin was the signatory of 4 important documents in early USA history.  What were they, and what was the significance of each? Provide some details of his life.

B.  Explain what caused the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), and what happened to the American economy.  Why didn’t China suffer as much as the USA?

C.  Describe voting in the USA.  Who can vote?  When are elections held? What were the turn-out rates in the 2012 and 2014 US elections?  In your opinion, why don’t more Americans vote in elections?

…

How did you go with these sample questions?  Would you have passed?

The answers are:

PART 1: 1 D; 2 C; 3 A; 4 A; 5 C.

PART 2: 1 T; 2 F; 3 F; 4 F; 5 T.

PART 3: 1 Republican Party; 2 2008; 3 Tom Terrific; 4 1989; 5 Al Queda.

PART 4: A - Benjamin Franklin was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence (1776); the Treaty of Friendship with France (1778); the Treaty of Paris (1783); the new Constitution (1787). B – the bursting of the property bubble caused by the sub prime crisis, etc; C - the turnout rate in the 2012 election was 58.2% and 2014 was 36.4%.

It was an “open book” exam – students could take in any paper materials, including copies of my lectures (ppts). Perhaps a bit generous, but I didn’t want the students to spend hours and hours memorizing all the dates and names and facts; it was more important that they developed a general understanding of the subject.

A total of 68 students sat the Culture exam.  Three got all the Multiple Choice answers right; two got all the True / False answers right; although none got all the Fill-in-the-blank answers right, three got 29 out of 30 right.

Seven students failed the exam (10%). It always surprises me when students fail an open book exam – but you still have to know where to find the information quickly -  I guess they just didn’t take it very seriously.

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So ends another semester,  Next week Vera & I will "head south" for the winter break.  We'll return in time for the beginning of the second semester on 29 February 2016. That will be our final semester, as we will finish our teaching careers in July 2016.

Best wishes, keep well and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah

English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao

www.upc.edu.cn

Saturday, 9 January 2016

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