ILS 2213: Integrative Learning (The Earth in Peril, From Transcendence to Obsolence: Earth as Paradise and Prison)
Tentative Course Schedule
Winter 2019-2020
NOTE: This schedule may change as needed. Your presence in class ensures correct assignments
WEEK 1
M 12/2 Course Introduction; Video: Planet Earth: The Future; Discuss Presentations
Sign up for presentation
Homework (Due 12/4):
- Complete Syllabus Quiz in Ulearn; See Quizzes link
- Set Up Blog; email the Web address to your page (http://wordpress)
to Professor Harmon: kenny.harmon@jwu.edu by class time.
- Read "What if We Stopped Pretending" by Jonathan Franzen
- Read Thoreau's "Huckleberries" (See handouts in Ulearn)
- Study for Quiz
W 12/4 Discuss Franzen & Thoreau; Quiz 1 & Blog Post 1; Watch Anthropocene: How Humans Have Impacted the Planet (89 min.)
Homework (Due 12/9):
- Read "Knowing Our Place" by Barbara Kingsolver
- Read Rinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative" by Carolyn Merchant (Handouts)
- Do Reader Response 1: What do you see as a significant connection between this text and either Franzen, Kingsolver, or Thoreau? Your answer should be a minimum of 300 words, and your response must be posted no later than class time
- You will post your completed response in the essays folder in Ulearn (submit essays/assignments>reader responses
WEEK 2
M 12/9 Discuss Kinsolver, Merchant and American Beliefs about Nature;
PRESENTATION (Allen, Myers, Clay, & Moore)
Homework (Due 12/11):
- Read "Planet of Weeds" by David Quammen (See Handouts/Readings
link in Ulearn)
- Read Silent Spring (Foreward and A Fable for Tomorrow) in Course Readings
- Do Reader Response 2: What do you see as a significant connection between one of these texts (Quammen and Carson) and an earlier text that we read. Your answer should be a minimum of 300 words, and your response must be posted to Ulearn no later than class time in the essays folder (submit essays/assigments
> reader responses)
W 12/11 Discuss Quammen; PRESENTATION (Hill, Worley, & Smith)
Homework (Due 12/16):
- Read "Rappacini's" Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Do Reader Response 3: What do you see as the central theme (central idea) of this work? How does the author communicate this ideas through the story's symbols? Explain. Provide at leastone quote from the text. Your response must be a minimum of 300 words and posted to Ulearn by class time.
- Be prepared for quiz
WEEK 3
M 12/16 Review fiction terms; Two Quizzes & Blog Post 4; Discuss Hawthorne
Homework (Due 12/18)::
- 1st Version of Essay 1 Due (Upload to Ulearn as MS Word file
- Submit Essay 1 to SmartThinking Tutor (see instructions in Ulearn)
W 12/18 1st Version of Essay 1 Due; Why Peer Critique?; Watch Avatar
Homework (Due 1/6):
- Do Reader Response 4 : What connections do you see between Avatar and another course reading so far this term? Your answer should be a minimum of 300 words and your response must be posted to Ulearn no later than class time
- Upload Smarthinking report and revision plan as one MS Word file; Go to SUBMIT ESSAYS/ASSIGNMENTS <SMARTHINKING REPORTS & REVISION PLANS
- Revise Essay 1 draft
- Work on Revisions: See Revision Checklist
- Complete Peer Critique of your partner's Essay 1 and post to
- Ulearn: SUBMIT ESSAYS/ASSIGMENTS > PEER CRITIQUES
WEEK 4
M 1/6 Discuss peer critique of Essay 1 with partner; Discuss What is Due with Final Draft;
Complete Avatar; Discuss Avatar;
Homework (Due 1/8):
- Read “The Devil in Our DNA: A Brief History of Eugenics in Science Fiction Films” by David Kirby;
- be prepared for quiz
W 1/8 Discuss Kirby and watch “A Decade of the Human Genome” (BBC Documentary, 2012)
Homework (Due M 1/13):
- Final Draft of Essay 1 due with Reflection
- Read "The Evening, The Morning, & The Night" by Octavia Butler (see handouts in Ulearn)
- Do Reader Response 5: What do you see as an emerging theme in Butler's story and how is that connected to something you saw in the BBC documentary in class? Express this theme as a single word/idea. Support your assertions with evidence from the text and the film. Your answer should be a minimum of 300 words, and your response must be posted no later than class time
WEEK 5
M 1/13 Final Draft of Essay 1 Due with Reflection; Discuss Butler; Quiz
Discuss Essay 2
Homework (Due 1/15)
- Read The Sixth Extinction: Prologue and Chapter 1 (See Course Readings)
- Do Reader Response 6: What do you see as a significant connection between this text and another text we have examined thus far this term. Your answer should be a minimum of
300 words, and your response must be posted no later than class time on R 4/7
W 1/15 Review Film Terms; Analyze Scene using blogs; PRESENTATION (Quinn & Ford)
Homework (see due dates below)
- Complete Midterm Evaluation; Bring written comments to class (due 1/22)
- Read "Fooling with Mother Nature" by William Gaylin(due 1/22)
- Read "Plants Can See, Hear Smell, and Respond" by Josh Gabbatiss (due 1/17)
- Read "Plants Talk to Each Other Using an Internet of Fungus" by Nic Fleming (due 1/17)
- Complete initial discussion board post of 300 words by 1:45pm on Friday (1/17)
- Respond to the posts of two other students by 1:45pm on Sunday (1/19) in a minimum of 200 words total explaning how their comments created a new way of seeing the readings for you.
- Watch film for Essay 2; See link for suggestions. (due 1/22)
WEEK 6
M 1/20 NO CLASS, MLK JR DAY
W 1/22 Gattaca Discussion & Gaylin article; PRESENTATION (Maier, Moore, Pincay, Stanfield)
Homework (Due 1/27):
- Watch RoboBee X-Wing
F 1/24 LAST DAY TO WITHDRAW FROM AN ACADEMIC COURSE
WEEK 7
M 1/27 Film: Most Hated in the Nation (Season 3, Episode 6 of The Black Mirror), 89 min.
Homework (Due 1/29):
- Read Oryx & Crake, pp. 1-43
- First Draft of Essay 2 due; Submit to Ulearn and Submit to SmartThinking Tutor.
W 1/29 Quiz 4; First Draft of Essay 2 due; Exchange for Critique; Discuss Atwood;
Homework (Due 2/3):
- Complete Peer Critique of Essay 2; Submit to Ulearn
- Upload Smarthinking report and revision plan as one MS Word file; Go to SUBMIT
ESSAYS/ASSIGNMENTS <SMARTHINKING REPORTS & REVISION PLANS
- Read Oryx & Crake, pp. 44-87
WEEK 8
M 2/3 Quiz 5; Discuss Atwood; Peer Critique, Essay 2; PRESENTATION (Krystapanis, Hussey,
Simmons, Moore, & Rorie)
Homework (Due 2/5):
- Read Oryx & Crake, pp. 88-131
- Do Reader Response 7: Connect the content of this section to one of the other readings we have completed this term. Your response must be a minimum of 300 words and posted to Ulearn by class time
W 2/5 Quiz 6; Watch The Biggest Little Farm (91 min.)
Homework (Due 2/10):
- Final Draft of Essay 2 due with Reflection
- Read Oryx & Crake, pp. 132-177
WEEK 9
Homework (Due 2/12):
- Read Oryx & Crake, pp. 178-218
- Do Reader Response 8: Connect the content of this section of the novel to one of the other readings we have examined this term. Your response must be a minimum of 300 words and posted to Ulearn by class time.
W 2/12 Quiz 8; Discuss Atwood; PRESENTATION (Tackow, Holland, Perez, and Harris)
Homework (Due 2/17):
- Read Oryx & Crake, pp. 221-261
- Complete Quiz in Ulearn
WEEK 10
M 2/17 Quiz 9; Discuss Atwood; Final Exam Essay Questions Available
Homework (Due 11/13):
- Read Oryx & Crake, pp. 265-306
- Complete Quiz in Ulearn
W 2/19 Quiz 10; Discuss Atwood; PRESENTATION (McDaniel, Isaac, Dornbush, and Lake);
Discuss organization for exam
WEEK 11
M 2/24 Reading Day (no class meeting)
W 2/26 Final Exam due by 3:40 pm; Upload part 1 & part 2 to two separate folders
