Current Choices: Biography of a River ELA 100L (Fall 2002) Course themes: · Healthy habitats · Individual actions & collective impacts · Diversity & tolerance
Why follow a river? The Poultney River harbors a stunning array of diverse ecosystems that you now call home, and it provides a thread for you to follow in exploring your new home. Furthermore, you and the Poultney River share a metaphorical experience: · you both have beginnings far beyond Green Mountain College, · you both move through the GMC campus with alternating moments of quiet movement and surging drama · and you will both leave the GMC campus with increasing power and significant changes in your shape and path. Finally, a river is a vivid reminder of the downstream impacts of our individual and collective choices, providing us with the opportunity to explore the fascinating intersection of natural environments and social environments. What are our goals for engaging you in this course? · to engage you in reflection upon the “downstream impact” of individual actions and how these actions manifest and often magnify themselves in a collective culture such as that of a campus or local community · to foster your critical analysis of your role as a citizen and a steward in campus and regional environments (“environments” being portrayed as both natural and social) · to encourage you and your classmates to generate creative community responses to the environmental issues and their campus-based complements that you encounter along your journey downriver · to promote your awareness of and rootedness in the natural and social environments that comprise your new home · to provide you with an experiential component for Images of Nature by encouraging close observation of natural phenomena, familiarity with the natural environment and detail, and understanding ecological issues in context Why are natural environments important to this course? We Americans live an extraordinarily nomadic life. Few of us can trace our ancestry to the North American continent, and most of us move from place to place throughout our lives. In this culture of mobility, we all too rarely take the time to learn the natural and cultural history of the regions in which we live, and the velocity of our daily habits seldom allows us to explore the habitats surrounding us. As the leading pioneer in the “environmental liberal arts,” Green Mountain College is committed to
ensuring that you come to know the region in which you live. We designed Current Choices: The Biography of a River with that purpose in mind. In learning about the natural environments surrounding us, you will in essence be learning about the mission of the college. Your home for the next four years is in the Poultney River watershed, and we will guide you from the elusive headwaters of the river to the stunningly diverse ecosystems where the river flows into Lake Champlain. Part of our intent in engaging you in this course is summarized in the words of Gary Snyder, from his book The Practice of the Wild: “Without a complex knowledge of one’s place and without the faithfulness to one’s place on which such knowledge depends, it is inevitable that the place will be used carelessly.” The first half of this course will be devoted primarily to introducing you to the natural environments in this region. Why are social environments important to this course? During the last half of this course, we will be exploring social environments, using your college and town community as a living laboratory for how we can best come to live and grow together in a “commons.” Garrett Hardin’s essay “Tragedy of the Commons” will serve as a central component in our transition from focusing on natural environments to social environments. We expect that by the course’s end, you will see that the study of natural and social environments can share many themes, including: · Healthy habitats · Individual actions & collective impacts · Diversity & tolerance Your college experience is a time when you can readily explore many forms of and approaches to community, and you have the opportunity to experiment with various means of fostering relationships and building healthy communities and habitats. You have the opportunity to shape not only your student community but also the town in which you have become a citizen. In sum, much of your education at GMC is ultimately about living with others in social and natural environments. We will, therefore, spend the last half of the course analyzing methods for implementing positive change within the GMC community and within the Poultney area. We will explore the so-called “town-gown” (college-town) relationship and utilize a grant competition approach to explore concrete solutions to issues shared by GMC and Poultney. What will be the course schedule and structure? You will be assigned to a section of Current Choices, generally along with many of your classmates from your Images of Nature section. The GMC fall semester is fourteen weeks in length, the first half of which will be focused upon natural environments, and the last half upon social environments. All Current Choices sections will be assigned to one of four days for the field experiences. Your section will be either Tuesday A, Thursday A, Tuesday B, Thursday B. Your Current Choices section leader will provide you with a schedule of your field experiences and your on-campus experiences. Your field experiences will run from 8:00-11:00 on your assigned day,
while all on-campus experiences will typically run from for one hour. You will generally meet at 10:00 for your on-campus experiences, unless you are notified otherwise. In order to help link your observations and ideas from Current Choices and Images of Nature, most (but not all) Images of Nature classes will meet at 11:00 each Tuesday and Thursday, the time slot following your Current Choices class. What should you expect of the field experiences? At GMC, we are committed to providing you with quality field-based education opportunities. Field-based education involves a significant commitment of GMC staff and finances, but we want to encourage you to explore this spectacular region, in hopes that your sense of rootedness to this place will translate into four years of active engagement with the region—including both the natural and the human communities of the region. You are required to attend each of the field experiences. The foundation of this course is the field experience. We take field-based education seriously, and we expect you to do the same. If you fail to participate in the field experience, then you will miss the field-based group/individual exercise, the accompanying field journal assignment and the discussion of the assigned reading(s), and you cannot adequately participate in the follow-up classroom session. If you are late for the departure of the busses, then you will miss the field experience and be penalized accordingly. In order to maintain a sense a fairness for all, students will be allowed to attend field experiences with other class sections only in extraordinary cases. Participation in a field experience with another section must be approved in advance by one of the co-coordinators of Current Choices, Bryan McGrath (ext. 8371, mcgrathb@greenmtn.edu) or Philip Ackerman-Leist (ext. 8254, ackermanleistp@greenmtn.edu). Exceptions will be granted only in the most extraordinary cases, in order to ensure fairness to all (especially those students in Th B sections) and to reduce logistical planning difficulties for instructors. Due to the impossibility of changing the field experience schedule or bus reservations, field experiences will occur as scheduled, regardless of weather. You should bring warm clothes, appropriate hiking gear (BOOTS!), and rain gear to all sites! Some of the terrain is rugged, and teamwork may be required, so be prepared!! How will I be graded in this class? First of all, you have the option of taking this course for a letter grade or as “pass/fail.” You must inform your instructor of your decision during the second week of class. In either case, you will, in essence, “build your grade” throughout the semester. The point system is as follows: Attendance 3 pts/session x 14 weeks =42 Participation 2 pts/session x 14 weeks =28 Reflection assignments 4 pts/assignment x 5 assmts =20 Town-gown grant proposal 10 pts =10 Highest possible score= 100 Minimum possible score to receive a passing grade=70
Below 70 70-77 77-84 85-92 93-100
=F =D range =C range =B range =A range
Please bear in mind that reflection assignments are dependent upon and linked to both attendance and active engagement in class and field sessions.
Current Choices: Biography of a River
Fall 2002 Schedule of Field Trips and Classes For Natural Environments Section (Social Environments Section schedule for the last half of the
semester will be handed out to you prior to midterm)
Instructor Philip Ackerman-Leist Cari McDonald Philip Ackerman-Leist Paul Millette Cari McDonald Bryan McGrath Kate Sojka Bryan McGrath Ben Wesley Tuesdays
9/3 9/10 9/17 9/24 10/1 10/8 10/15 10/22 10/29 Tu A-Middletown/Deep Rock Bus 8am Tu B-In class at GMC 10 am Tu A-In class at GMC 10 am Tu B-Middletown/Deep Rock Bus 8am Tu A-Wastewater Treatment (Walk) 8am Tu B- In class 10 am Tu A-In class 10 am Tu B-Wastewater Treatment (Walk) 8am Tu A-Deane Preserve Bus 8am Tu B-In class 10 am Tu A- In class 10 am Tu B-Deane Preserve Bus 8am NO CLASS Tu A-Galick Preserve/Carver’s Falls Bus 8am Tu B-In class 10 am Tu A-In class 10 am Tu B- Galick Preserve/Carver’s Falls Bus 8am 9/5 9/12 9/19 9/26 10/3 10/10 10/17 10/24 10/31
Section # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Class Meeting Day Tu A Tu A Th A Th A Th A Tu B Tu B Th B Th B Thursdays
Th A-Middletown/Deep Rock-Bus 8am Th B-In class at GMC 10 am Th A-In class at GMC 10 am Th B-Middletown/Deep Rock Bus 8am Th A-Wastewater Treatment (Walk) 8am Tu B- In class 10 am Th A- In class 10 am Th B- Wastewater Treatment (Walk) 8am Th A- Deane Preserve Bus 8am Th B-In class 10 am Th A-In class 10 am Th B-Deane Preserve Bus 8am NO CLASS Th A-Galick Preserve/Carver’s Falls Bus 8am Th B-In class 10 am Th A-In class 10 am Th B- Galick Preserve/Carver’s Falls Bus 8am
(Note:
Social Environments Section schedule for remainder of semester will be handed out to you prior to midterm)
Semester Outline of Activities
Natural Environments
Important Note: A sections will be taking a field trip during the first week of classes (Sept 3 and 5), whereas B sections will be meeting in their classrooms during the first week of classes. See schedule at the end of this syllabus for details.
Week
1
2
3 4
Activity Site Location Introduction Source of Poultney to course and near Middletown Springs/Tinmouth each other (bus) In class at GMC Sharing of “My Life as a River” posters North of GMC Poultney Wastewater campus-a 10 min. walk (Poultney) Treatment Wastewater In class at GMC debriefing
Theme New Beginnings New Beginnings Downstream impacts Downstream impacts; individual actions & collective impacts Habitats Habitats
Reading “The Place, the Region, & the Commons”
5 6
7
Deane Preserve Mapping & Evaluating Habitats at GMC a)Carver’s Falls Dam b)Galick Preserve
Endless Brook Rd (Poultney) (Bus) In class at GMC
West Haven, VT; Whitehall, NY (bus)
a) actions & impacts b) diversity & tolerance
“GMC Shows Its True Color”
Social Environments
(Note: All classes will begin meeting at 10am at this time in the semester, with the exception of the plenary session, which will begin at 9am!! In addition, the weekly alternation of A and B sections will come to an end, and all course sections will be on the same schedule from this point on.) This five-week component will utilize Garrett Hardin’s essay, “Tragedy of the Commons,” to translate the discussion of natural environments and associated themes (habitats, individual actions & collective impacts, diversity & tolerance) into a discussion of the GMC and Poultney social environments. The objective of this course component is to have students: 1) assess community history and needs 2) understand strategies to implement change on campus and in the community 3) formally propose solutions to address community needs. The schedule for this last half of the course will be provided to you prior to midterm.