Schedule of Assignments (For Now)

SYLLABUS
The Ecological Conscience
First Year Seminar (CORE 101, Section 21)
Fall 2009
Professor: Kathryn J. Norlock,
Office: Anne Arundel Hall 110D
Mailbox: Anne Arundel Hall 108
Office Hours: W, 1-3 p.m. and by appointment
Phone: 240–895–4471
Class Hours: MWF, 12 p.m. to 1:10 in AA107
Peer Mentor: Patrick Gilbert, (phone: 240-895-4126; residence: WC23)
Librarian: Celia Rabinowitz,
Writing Center Liaison: Laura Swann ( )
Course description from the web:
“No important change in ethics was ever accomplished without an internal change in our intellectual emphasis, loyalties, affections, and convictions.” Aldo Leopold said this sixty years ago in A Sand County Almanac, but at the same time he rather testily ordered his readers to quit thinking of nature solely in economic terms and instead see themselves as plain members and citizens of a biotic community. What moves people to an ecological conscience, and how do we accomplish these internal changes to be environmentally ethical? In this seminar, we read classic and contemporary texts including the Sand County Almanac and the summer reading, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, in order to evaluate the perspectives of scientists, literary figures, religious leaders, philosophers and historians who believe humans can accomplish what Leopold calls “thinking like a mountain.” Ultimately, each student must decide if it is possible or likely that people can change the way they think about their relationships to environmental communities in time to prevent future environmental problems.
Required Texts:
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac [SCA in Schedule]
Epictetus, The Handbook [EH]
Roger Gottlieb, A Greener Faith [GF]
Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology [DEM]
Field Notes from a Catastrophe [FNC]
Roderick Nash, Wilderness in the American Mind [WAM]
Jack Turner, The Abstract Wild [AW]
Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments [RA]
Attendance and response to film (details to follow)
Note: Handouts and readings online are required unless otherwise designated
Please be sure you buy the editions I’ve ordered for our class. Since we all need to get to the same page at the same time during class discussion, substitutions should not be made, such as editions you find in the library or on a friend’s shelf. Also, please make sure to buy all of the books at the beginning of the term; the bookstore will send extra copies back to the publisher after the fourth week of the semester.
Other Required Resources:
(1) Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, or access to them (available in every computer lab on campus)
(2) A 1.5” to 2” three-ring binder with six tabbed dividers
(3) Internet access, for online discussions at the wiki site and email
(4) “Composition” book or other bound blank book suitable for your intellectual journal
(5) Uninterrupted Time
Recommended resources: The personal wherewithal to talk in class (not equally easy for all, but try)
Not at all recommended: Emailing during class, online chatting during class, or any communication with the outside world during class, since it distracts the rest of us, and by the rest of us, I mean me, in particular. Students perceived to do any of these receive an automatic F for the participation grade.
WARNING OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS: The purpose of this course is to gain facility with researching, reading, speaking, and writing critically and carefully, about a topic which I have deliberately chosen for its personal, moral and political weight. This inevitably requires articulating personal beliefs and evaluating your positions and others. Not only must you read texts and watch films that may offend you, but you and your classmates will be expected to represent these texts and films sympathetically and accurately in homework and discussion. If you would prefer not to be in a class that confronts issues offensive to you, seriously consider dropping this course. I am always available to talk about any difficulties you have with the class, but don’t wait until you have a problem to drop by during office hours. Come talk to me.
Requirements, Grading, and Policies
Your final grade for this course will be based on my assessment of your attendance, class
participation, and hard work during the term, and on an oral presentation, an intellectual journal, and a portfolio of all formal written work. The final portfolio will be handed in during the meeting for the final exam, but drafts of the individual documents that make up your portfolio will be collected throughout the semester for review. The weighting of each is as follows:
Participation, Hard Work, and Homework ...... 20%
Intellectual Journal ...... 10%
Presentation in class...... 10%
Final Portfolio of Written Work (3 papers and drafts + 10 best journal entries) . . 60%
Total ...... 100%
Attendance and Tardies: College policy allows two unexcused absences. I am giving you one more. These three absences—equivalent to missing a week of class—are the ONLY excused absences you will have for the semester. They are to be used if you are sick, out of town, stuck in traffic, unable to wake up to your alarm, etc. I don’t need to hear from you about your absence unless you’re scheduled to present your work that day. Please consider these no-questions-asked absences. If you are absent more than three times, your final course grade drops a third of a grade (e.g., from B minus to C plus) for each absence over three. Additionally, three recorded tardies will be counted as one absence. You are tardy if you arrive in class more than ten minutes late.
Participation: The success of this class depends upon your active participation. By active participation, I mean coming to every class on time with your materials, reading all assigned texts carefully so you are prepared for discussion, listening attentively to your peers, taking notes, and contributing to class and group activities. The bulk of the Participation grade is based on the homework assignments due online, which are entirely for the purposes of raising questions and generating discussion, and your responses to the student presentations. Most importantly, active participation means focusing on class in class. Texting, surfing the web, updating your status on Facebook, and emailing your friends is a colossal waste of my time and your own, and I have been known to give students an F for this portion of their grade for the whole semester if I find them communicating with the outside world just once in four months. I’m a total hardass about this and someone’s going to hate me for it when I give them an F for one day’s foolishness. I hope none of you ever do it.
Intellectual Journal. In a “composition” book or other suitable bound blank book, you will need to keep an intellectual journal in which you record your thoughts and questions about readings, experiences, class discussions and lectures, and “fifth hour” (see the “fifth hour” section below) events associated with your work in this course. Keep your journal nearby as you read your assignments, jot down fragmented thought as they occur to you, and, when inspiration hits you, write more lengthy entries. The same is true of your in-class experiences. To the extent that you take notes in class, keep them in your journal, and use the journal to reflect on ideas you have while in class and afterwards. In general, you should have no less than one one-page entry per class meeting, reflecting on readings or what we did in class. The idea with an intellectual journal is to capture your fleeting thoughts onto paper as they occur to you, before they disappear into the ether, perhaps forever. In addition to daily entries (by daily, I mean each of our class meetings), you should also have an entry for each of your fifth hour experiences. At the end of the semester, you will type up ten of your entries, correcting for spelling and other formal writing conventions that you won’t have worried about as your were journaling. Five of these entries should be from your fifth hour experiences, and the other five can be any others you choose, hopefully ones that you feel represent especially interesting brainstorms you’ve had during the semester. These ten entries will be included in your final course portfolio, but you are free to type them up throughout the semester.
Presentation in class. Every student will prepare and present a ten-minute PowerPoint presentation to the class on one of the issues raised in the summer reading, Field Notes from a Catastrophe. Details on the PowerPoint presentation will be available as the presentation season gets closer, but note the following for now: Presentations include some data verifying the existence of the problem/ topic you’ve chosen, a possible constructive solution to the problem Kolbert raises, and identification of at least one particular person who exhibits awareness and knowledge about the problem. The aim of the presentation is twofold, to outline why at least one actual person exhibits an ecological conscience with respect to the issue, and to explore what one might need to know to develop some minimal consciousness as well.
Formal Written Papers and Final Portfolio. The bulk of your grade will be based on formal out- of-class paper projects. Together, these will be submitted in a final portfolio that includes typed entries from your journal, and that collection of writing will be worth 70 percent of your course grade (50% for the paper projects and 10% for the journal entries). The first two major papers are tutorial papers, each worth 20 percent of the total course grade which will be submitted the first day of a “tutorial week” (twice in the semester), and all students have the option to rewrite tutorial papers (the final grade will be the average of the first paper and the rewrite). The last paper does not allow for rewrites, having the structure of a short take-home exam, and is worth 10% of the grade; it is my aim to see that the tutorials and rewrites have equipped you with the know-how sufficient to being completely on your own for the final.
We will discuss the specific parameters of these assignments throughout the semester, but, generally speaking, the formal written assignments should be typed, double-spaced, written only on one side, and proofread (and spell-checked). Please note thatlate papers will receive an automatic F. All papers and the final portfolio must be submitted to pass the course. Finally, note further that portfolios will be docked a grade if submitted late, plus an additional grade penalty for each hour they are late.
Portfolios should include not only the final revised versions, but also any drafts, reviews, and commentary that were used in the process of revision (print out electronic drafts with any comments I provide, and include those, too). In addition to comments I provide on the initial drafts of your papers, at midterm I will let you know if your work is falling below a C average. Students who attend class, arrive on time, turn in their drafts and revisions, and work hard in and out of class generally receive a final grade of a B or better.
Note on Plagiarism. Plagiarism means using someone else’s writing or idea and passing it off as one’s own. It is a violation of academic norms, and it is a violation of College policy. It is possible, of course, to borrow ideas and passages of writing all the time, and there are ways of doing this honestly, typically by simply giving credit to the original thinker and documenting the source. Those who use writing and ideas from others without giving credit, so as to deceive the reader, however, are guilty of plagiarism. Those caught in the act of plagiary will fail this course and be reported to College officials. Plagiarizers do not deserve college degrees, let alone passing grades.
Note on The Writing Center. The College Writing Center, located in the Library Annex, has peer tutors trained to discuss your writing with you. No matter where you are in the writing process (brainstorming ideas, understanding assignments, or revising drafts), the tutors in the Writing Center can assist you. These tutors are your peers—they do not grade you or proofread your paper, but instead offer an opportunity to work with others toward the goal of becoming a stronger writer. I encourage you to take advantage of this valuable resource. You can make an appointment with the Center by visiting their web site at and clicking "Schedule an Appointment." At the same web site, you can find helpful resources on many writing-related topics.

Schedule of assignments (for now)

Readings are to be completed by the day they are listed on the schedule.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE ALERT: Schedules change. Snow falls, classes get behind, who knows what can happen. Check the wiki regularly for updates. The PM or I will always try to email students with schedule changes.
Week 1, 8/31-9/4
Monday: Introduction to the course. For Wednesday, read SCA, Part IV, and RA, pp.1-9. HW1 due Friday by the end of your library session; see wiki page for assignment.
Week 2, 9/7-9/11
NO CLASS Mon., 9/7, Labor Day.
SCA, Part III, then Part II.
RA, pp. 19-23. HW2 due Friday.
Week 3, 9/14-9/18
WAM, Chapters 1, 2, 3
RA, pp. 32-38. HW3 due Friday.
Week 4, 9/21-9/25
WAM, Chapters 4, 5, 11
RA, pp. 53-85. HW4 due Wednesday. CDC presentation and discussion, “Exploring majors and occupations,” Friday, 9/25.
Week 5, 9/28-10/2
All papers are due on Monday by the beginning of regular class time; tutorials meet in my office Monday through Wednesday. Friday, noon, Peer Mentor meeting in our class room.
Week 6, 10/5-10/9
DEM, selections1,3,5,7,9,12
HW5 due Friday.
Week 7, 10/12-10/16
Mon., Oct 12: Fall Reading Days: NO CLASSES
For Wed. and Fri., DEM, selections15,17,18
HW6 due Friday.
Week 8, 10/19-10/23
Wednesday Oct. 21, 8pm in the ARC: Address by Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe.
Readings this week: Begin Greener Faith [GF], Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2
Wed., Fri.: Presentations #1, 2
HW7 due Friday.
Week 9, 10/26-10/30
GF, chapters 5, 6, 8
Wednesday, 10/28: meeting in St. Mary's Hall. All first-year students will attend one 1-hour programmatic event during their FYS time slot in October to introduce them to information they will need about the Experiencing the Liberal Arts in the World requirement of the Core Curriculum.
Presentations #3, 4
HW8 due Friday.
Week 10, 11/2-11/6
Epictetus, Handbook, pp. 11-20 for Monday; Wednesday pp. 20-29 of Handbook and Abstract Wild [AW], chapter 1. Friday, AW, chapter 2.
Presentations #5, 6, 7, 8
HW9 due Friday.
Week 11, 11/9-11/13
All papers are due on Monday by the beginning of regular class time; tutorials meet in my office.
Week 12, 11/16-11/20
AW, chapters 6, 7, 8
Presentations #9, 10, 11
HW10 due Friday.
Week 13, 11/23
FNC
(Thanksgiving recess begins Tuesday evening.)
Week 14, 11/30-12/4
FNC. HW11 due Friday.
Presentations #12, 13, 14
Rewritten papers are due on Friday; rewrites are not accepted unless graded rough draft with my comments is attached.
Week 15, 12/7-12/11
FNC
Presentations #15, 16
The Fall Festival will take place on Friday, December 11, 2:30-4:00 in DPC (the last day of classes in the fall).
Final Portfolio Due at Final Exam Meeting: Monday, December 15, 2:00–4:15. Final paper due in hard copy, as the last entry in the portfolio.