Course: Introduction to Political Science (POLS 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Halloran
Module: Week 1 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objectives covered: Objective 1 — describe the subfields and methods of political science and analyze political artifacts (concept application, argument analysis, evidence evaluation, the comparative method; empirical vs. normative).

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 1 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday pattern with Week 1 meeting Tue Sep 1 and Thu Sep 3, with end-of-week work due Sunday Sep 6, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 1 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 1: What Is Political Science?

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

This week is the foundation the whole course is built on. Politics is not something that happens only in capitals — it's your tuition bill, the speed limit on your street, who's allowed to vote, and how your campus decides anything. Political science is the discipline that studies all of it systematically, and this week you get the whole map: the field's five subfields — political theory, comparative politics, international relations, American government, and political methodology — and the toolkit you'll use every single week: applying concepts to cases, analyzing arguments, evaluating evidence, comparing systems, and the distinction that does more work than any other in this course — empirical claims (what is) vs. normative claims (what ought to be).

The week's big question

"What does it mean to study politics scientifically — and what can that kind of study tell us (and not tell us) about how we ought to be governed?"

By Friday you'll be able to name the five subfields and what each asks, sort empirical from normative claims on sight, and take a real founding document — the Declaration of Independence — apart the way a political scientist does: claim by claim.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Define politics and political science — including the discipline's classic shorthand (Lasswell's "who gets what, when, how") — and explain what makes the study systematic.
• [ ] Name the five subfields — political theory/philosophy, comparative politics, international relations, American government, and political methodology — and match a question to its subfield.
• [ ] Distinguish empirical from normative claims, and explain why a rigorous discipline needs both — and must never confuse them.
• [ ] Run a basic political analysis on a real text — identify the claim, the premises, and whether each claim is empirical or normative — using the Declaration of Independence's second paragraph.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI tools: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, and then you judge its work against the texts and the record. Chatbots routinely invent quotations, misattribute ideas to the wrong thinker, and slant contested questions. Catching the model is the point — in the tutorial, the assignment, and the workshop.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early.

How to succeed this week

• Lead with the question, not the jargon. Every term this week is a plain-English idea first: politics is how groups decide who gets what; empirical just means "checkable against evidence"; normative just means "a claim about what ought to be."
• Memorize one tiny hook. "Is or ought?" Ask it of every political claim you meet — on the news, in this course, in your group chat. That one question is half the discipline.
• Read the document twice. Once for what it says, once for what kind of claim each sentence makes. The second read is where political science happens.
• Treat the chatbot as a confident intern, not an oracle. It will hand you a "quotation" that sounds perfect and never existed — this week you'll catch it blurring the Declaration with John Locke. Your job all term is to check it against the source.
• Expect fairness, practice fairness. This course never tells you which ideology or party is right. When we hit a contested question — and we hit one this very week — you'll get the strongest case for each side, and you'll be asked to state the side you disagree with fairly before you argue. That's the discipline's standard, and it's this course's standard.

You don't need any background for this week — just curiosity and a willingness to ask, of every political claim, is that a fact about the world, or a judgment about it? Come to class ready to argue about whether politics can be studied like a science. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 1

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Sep 1, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Sep 1."

Subject: Welcome to Political Science — who gets what, when, and how? 🏛️

Hi everyone, and welcome to Introduction to Political Science!

Quick warm-up before we start: think of the last thing you did before opening this page. Whatever it was, politics shaped it — the device you're reading on (trade policy, spectrum licenses), the room you're sitting in (zoning, building codes, tuition set by a board), even the time on your clock (a law). Political science is the discipline that studies how groups of human beings decide who gets what — and this week you get the whole map of it.

This week — What Is Political Science? — we tackle the big question: What does it mean to study politics systematically — and what can that study tell us, and not tell us, about how we ought to be governed? By Friday you'll know the field's five subfields, you'll sort empirical claims from normative ones on sight, and you'll have taken apart a real founding document — the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence — claim by claim, the way political scientists do.

Three things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 1 — work through the week's ideas with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. You'll catch the model's mistakes, not just trust it. Due Sun Sep 6.
2. Political Analysis Workshop 1 (the Declaration, ¶2), Quiz 1, Discussion 1, and Assignment 1 also close Sun Sep 6 — the workshop is the heart of the course, so start early.
3. Open the Start Here page first — it lays out everything in order with due dates.

One promise, right up front: this course studies the most argued-about subjects there are, and it will never tell you what to conclude. Ideologies get defined fairly, contested questions get the strongest case for every side, and your grade never depends on which side you take — only on your evidence and reasoning. By Friday, the next time someone states a political "fact" at you, you'll know exactly what to ask: is that an empirical claim or a normative one — and what's the evidence?

Bring your curiosity (and one political opinion you're willing to have challenged) to class on Tuesday.

See you soon,
Prof. Halloran