On this first day of his seminar, Geoffrey Smith hands his students packs of baseball cards. They discuss the classic stats on the back—home runs, RBIs, wins and losses. Over the course of the semester, the class dives much deeper into newer, more advanced statistics.
FAST FACTS ON FIRST-YEAR ODYSSEY • More than 400 seminars are available, representing each of UGA’s colleges and schools. Tenure-track faculty teach them all. Students can register for any of them regardless of intended major. • Class size is capped at 18, but most seminars are smaller than that. • Seminars meet for one hour a week, and students receive letter grades for their work and participation.
Baseball by the Numbers
CHAMBERLAIN SMITH
Geoffrey Smith Professor of Chemistry Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Sometimes a First-Year Odyssey course is an opportunity for instructors to explore subjects that personally interest them while inviting students along for the ride. Like his colleague Gregory Robinson, Geoffrey Smith is a professor in the Department of Chemistry. But as far as their courses are concerned, the similarities end there. Through his course, Baseball by the Numbers, Smith discusses one of his life’s passions in an educational setting. “This way, I get to see business, sports science, psychology, biology majors—just a real cross-section of freshmen,” he says. “And they all like baseball. It’s a lot of fun.” Smith divides meeting times into innings, and the three periods of individual presentations that end the course are the World Series. On day one, Smith hands out packs of baseball cards, and the class goes over the basic stats of home runs, RBIs, and wins and losses on the back. From there, they dive into content that would warm the
heart of Brad Pitt’s hero in Moneyball. While baseball’s advanced statistics may resemble chemical formulas (BABIP, wOBA, WAR, ERA+), Smith admits there isn’t a lot of crossover between this course and his typical subject matter. There is, however, detailed study of the math behind those stats and exploration of topics like machine learning, which is part of Smith’s chemistry curriculum. Smith grew up in Atlanta and is a lifelong Braves fan. Since his family hailed from Massachusetts, he adopted the Boston Red Sox as his favorite American League team and Ted Williams as his favorite player. Smith never saw Williams play in person, of course, but the advanced statistics he goes over with his class allow him to compare modern players to classic counterparts. “We have the stats to help us appreciate how good of a player he was,” Smith says. “It links you to the whole of baseball history.” GM
• As part of their seminar, all first-year students are required to attend three on-campus events. Options include musical performances, films, lectures, visiting speakers, and events like the Study Away Fair and Student Affairs’ Involvement Fair. • Some of the university’s most senior leaders teach seminars, including Grady College Dean Charles Davis MA ’89, who taught “From TikTok to the Times: Journalism in a Changing World” last fall, and UGA President Jere W. Morehead JD ’80, whose “Exploring Current Issues in Law” seminar with Dean of Students Eric Atkinson MEd '99, PhD '10 has been a staple of the program since its inception. • In fall 2023, UGA launched the First-Year Odyssey Global Citizenship Seminar Cluster of 10 global education courses, with sessions about scholarship support for experiences abroad and questions related to international study. The program has contributed to an increase in scholarship applications for study away coming from first-year students.
GEORGIA MAGAZINE
|
SUMMER 2024
33