HIST 124 - Environmental History
Spring 2010
Catalog Description: An
introduction to environmental
history, in the United States and globally, with an emphasis on
changing attitudes toward the environment and the interaction
between
science and public policy.
Professor: Dr.
Pamela
Mack
Office: Hardin B-06, phone
656-5356, e-mail:
pammack@clemson.edu
Office Hours: MWF 10-11, 12:15-12:30 and by appointment
class meetings: MWF 11:15-12:05, Hardin
100
Graduate Assistants:
Laptop Help: http://laptop.clemson.edu/
Objectives:
Students who
successfully complete this
course will be able to:
- Show how attitudes toward the
environment
have changed
over time
- Explain the historical background of
environmental
issues
- Analyze the philosophical assumptions
held
by the
participants in
environment controversies
- Argue effectively for their own
position
on a recent
environmental
issue
Evaluation:
two in-class
exams
30%
quizzes
10%
discussion
board
10%
participation
credits
10%
argument paper
25%
final
exam
25%
This adds up to 110 points. I will automatically drop the
quizzes, the discussion board, or the participation credits,
whichever
is lowest. You must take the quizzes (though you can then
drop
your
results if you wish), but you may if you wish simply skip either
the
discussion board or the participation credits. However,
your
grade will benefit if you do all the types of assignments and
drop the
group you
did worst on. If you do all the assignments another
alternative
is that you may, by request, count all three 10 point
assignments
and reduce the value of some other assignment by 10 points, for
example, your argument paper could count 15% instead of 25%.
Attendance policy: 5
absences
allowed without penalty, 3 points off the final grade for the
course
for each additional absence. Excuses will be accepted only
for
major
problems; students are expected to use their allowed absences
wisely to
cover special activities, minor illnesses, and car problems. When
an
excused absence is requested the absence must be documented and
beyond
the student's control. Note that filling out the online
student
notification of absence form is not enough to get an absence
excused;
you must also bring documentation to class. Please speak to
the
professor if you have
special circumstances affecting your attendance. Lateness
will be
dealt with in the following way: no penalty for up to five
minutes, one
half absence after 5 minutes. Students who converse or use
computers or cell phones inappropriately (see below) during class
will
receive emailed warnings--every two warnings will be counted as
one
absence. There will also be a one-half
absence penalty for leaving early, unless you. speak to the
professor
in advance and have a good reason. If the professor or a
substitute does
not
arrive within 10 minutes of the scheduled starting time of the
class
students may leave.
Fairly detailed lecture notes for this class will be posted on the
web
(you will access them when they are posted by clicking on the
lecture
title in the schedule
below).
Hopefully, you will find that this allows you to listen and think
about
the material presented in class rather than struggling to write
down
the details. However, think about whether you are a person
who
doesn't
remember something unless you write it down; you may decide that
you
need to take detailed notes yourself rather than simply annotate
the
notes posted on the web. When you are listening to
lectures
concentrate on the ideas and connections presented; this course is
not
about learning a set of facts but about learning how to analyze
the
relationship between the environment and society.
Blackboard discussion questions
will be posted on the Blackboard learning system most weeks, but
you
only need to respond to five (worth two points on your final grade
each). You must
go
to the discussion board for your group to find the questions
(you will be assigned to one of four groups during the first full
week
of classes). This is a required assignment for the course,
rather
like
the journals some other courses assign, and your responses will be
graded. The goal of the
Blackboard
discussion is to allow more discussion of the reading and the
lectures
than is possible in class. You can read comments left by others
and add
your own for everyone to read. You will have two weeks to respond
to
post to
each topic; messages posted after the closing deadline for that
topic
will get a zero.
Your participation in this system will be graded on the basis both
of
quality and quantity. Contributions to the internet discussion
should
be thoughtful comments on the reading and/or the professor's
notes and/or the comments of other students, at least 300
words
(we will not grade ones that are shorter). They must be your
own
work--cutting and pasting from other sources is cheating. To
get
an A you need to say
something new and worthwhile about the question (not just repeat
what
other students have said). Your response should be organized
and
clearly written and should bring new information to the
discussion. Some of that new information can be personal
experience, but some should be from outside sources, which should
be
listed. Blackboard discussion grades will available on
Blackboard
before the middle of the term so that you can see how you are
doing.
Your grade for the Blackboard discussion board will be the average
of
your 5 highest grades for individual topics (there will be at
least 10
topics). You will get only one grade per topic. Posts
after
the deadline
for that topic will receive no credit.
Quizzes will
mostly be multiple choice tests
based
on the reading. They will be posted on Blackboard Wed.
at the end
of class and are
due by 11 am on Friday. Quizzes
are
found
by
going
into
Blackboard
and
clicking
on
assignments
and
then
on
quizzes.
Multiple
choice
quizzes will
be 10 questions each. I want you to have plenty of time
but I do
want people to do the reading before taking the quiz, so you
have one
hour to do the quiz (which should take most people about 10
minutes).
Your
grade
will
be
lowered
if
you
go
over
one
hour.
Your
lowest
quiz
grade
will be
dropped if you do all 11.
Participation credits: You can earn these
credits in several
different ways, all of which will be listed in the assignments
section
of Blackboard under participation credits. You can
attend a
lecture approved by the
professor (these will be listed in the syllabus as the
semester goes
along), turn in a write-up of the lecture, and get up to 2
points
credit for
each lecture write-up. You can
rent and view up a film listed under participation credits on
Blackboard, write a critique of the film, and get
up to 2
points credit for each one. You may participate
particularly actively in class discussion on a regular
basis. You can
do a reading project, as assigned by
the professor, and turn in a write up for up to two
points. These
assignments will all be graded good/poor/no credit for 2, 1 or
0
points. You may earn up to a total
of 10 points from any combination of these activities.
Two in-class tests will be
administered Feb. 10 and Mar. 24. The final exam is
scheduled for
April 27 at 8 am. Both the
in-class
tests and the final will be essay tests and open books and notes
will
be permitted. They may be written either on your laptop or
on
paper.
On the in-class tests you will write one essay of 600 to 1000
words
from a choice of two questions. There is advice on taking
this
kind of
test at:
http://pammack.sites.clemson.edu/essayexams.html
and also here.
Makeup
exams
will
be
available
only
for
students
who
have
excused
absences.
In
other
cases
there
will
be
a mechanism to get partial credit.
The argument paper will
consist
of a paper of about 4-6 pages that will take a stand on a
controversial
issue. Topic assignments will be posted at Argument
paper
assignment.
The higher grades will go to papers that exhibit logical thinking,
an
analytical framework, specific evidence, the ability to inform and
communicate, sound organization, and a concise and coherent
argument.
In this paper the premium will go to those that make a persuasive
argument. This paper is due April 7. Papers must be both
handed
in as a
paper
copy and also submitted via Blackboard to the Turnitin plagiarism
detection system. (This system does keep a copy of your
paper--if
you
have a problem with that please speak to the professor.)
Late
papers
will be penalized two points if turned in after the end of class
on the
day due and an additional two points for each calendar day
late.
Very
late
papers will be penalized no lower than a 65 if the paper merits at
least a 75.
Academic
Integrity: As
members
of the Clemson University community, we have inherited Thomas
Green
Clemson's
vision of this
institution as a "high
seminary of
learning."
Fundamental to this vision is a mutual commitment to truthfulness,
honor, and responsibility, without which we cannot earn the trust
and
respect of others. Furthermore, we recognize that academic
dishonesty
detracts from the value of a Clemson degree. Therefore, we
shall
not
tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing in any form. This
includes
representing someone else's work as your own or handing in the
same
paper to two different courses without permission of the
instructors. Be careful to avoid plagiarism--text you take
from a
web site, from a book, or from the online class notes must be
either
quoted with the source given or restated almost
entirely in your own words, with the source given.
Laptops and other technology:
Turn off
sound in class or group situations. The fundamental rule for
laptops in this course is that you may use your laptop in
class
only for tasks directly related to this course. In
addition to
tasks the professor asks you to do on your laptop you may use it
to
take notes, to view the course notes, or to browse to web sites
related
to the material being discussed in class. Do not email,
instant
message, chat, do homework, download music, look at Facebook, or
play
games
during class. Students using their computers for non-class
related
purposes will receive a warning by email after class. Every
two
warnings will count as one absence. The same penalty will be
applied to students who carry on conversations with other
students,
who text, or who listen to headphones. Cell
phones should be turned off during class--it is not appropriate to
leave the room in the middle of class to answer a phone call
except in
an emergency.
Portfolio: This course
meets
the Social Science and STS general education requirements, and so
you
should be putting essays that you write for this course in your
general
education portfolio. Please put the following documents in
the
following sections of your portfolio:
Social and Cross-Cultural Awareness:
Section
1--methodologies: write a
reflection here about the different approaches of the three
different
books (one of the discussion board assignments will probably
cover this)
Section 2--causes and
consequences:
put your argument paper here
Mathematical, Scientific, and Technological Literacy
Section
5--sci.
and
tech.
in
society: put here one of your exam essays that you feel
best
reflects
your understanding of the role of science and technology in
society.
Textbooks:
Ecological Imperialism: The
Biological
Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, by Alfred W. Crosby (1993)
Wilderness and the American Mind,
by
Roderick
Nash
(4th
edition
2001)
The Greening of a Nation?
Environmentalism in the United States since 1945, by Hal
K. Rothman.
Course
Schedule:
Jan.
6
course
introduction
8 environmental
history, definitions
11 History
and
ecology, read Crosby ch. 1 (prologue)
11
PC: film showing: "A
Crude
Awakening:
The
Oil
Crash" McKissick Theater, Hendrix Student
Center, 6-8 pm
13 Original
nature, read Crosby ch. 2
15
Expansion
begins, read Crosby ch. 3, quiz 1 (survey)
due by 11 am
18 Martin
Luther
King
holiday
20 Atlantic
islands, read Crosby ch. 4
21
PC: film showing: "Blood and
Oil,"
McKissick Theater, Hendrix
Student Center, 6-8 pm
22 Out
to
Sea, Crosby ch.
5, quiz
2
(Crosby 1-4) due by 11 am
25
Failed
colonies, Crosby ch. 6, bb 1 & 2
due by
11 am
27 Weeds,
Crosby
ch.
7,
quiz
3
posted
after
class
28 PC: lecture
by Ms. Jennifer Luray on
"Breast Cancer Advocacy: Now and in the Future," Brooks Theater,
7:30-9
pm
29
Animals,
Crosby
ch.
8, quiz
3 (Crosby 5-7) due by
11 am
Feb.
1 disease,
Crosby
ch.
9, bb3 due by 11 am
1 PC:
lecture
by Marilee Utter on "Transit Oriented Development" Strom
Thurmond Inst.
Auditorium, 5:30-7 pm
3 New
Zealand, Crosby ch. 10, quiz 4 posted after
class
5 Explanations,
Crosby
ch.
11,
quiz
4
(Crosby
8-10)
due
by
11
am
8 Conclusions,
Crosby
ch.
12, bb4 due by 11 am
8 PC: film showing
"Food,
Inc." McKissick Theater, Hendrix Student Center, 6-8 pm
10 In-class exam
11
PC:
Teach-in
on
climate
change,
11
am-4:30
pm.
12
Ideas
about
wilderness, Nash Introduction and prologue
15 Old
world
ideas, Nash chs. 1
and 2, bb5 due by 11 am
16 PC: Lecture by
John de
Graaf
on "From Material Affluence to Time Affluence," Strom Thurmond
Inst.
Auditorium, 3:00-4:30 pm.
17
Romantics,
Nash
ch.
3, first set
of pcs due
19 Discovery
of
American
Scenery, Nash ch.
4, quiz 5 (Nash introduction-3) due by
11 am
22 Thoreau,
Nash
ch.
5, bb6 due by 11 am
24 Early
Preservation, Nash ch. 6; Wilderness
Preserved, Nash ch. 7, optional
rewrite
due
25 PC: Film showing: HOME,
McKissick Theater, Hendrix Student Center, 6-8 pm (or watch it here)
26
Muir,
Nash
ch.
8 , quiz 6 (Nash 4-6) due by 11 am
Mar.
1
Wilderness
as
a
Fad, Hetch
Hetchy, Nash ch. 9-10, bb7
due
by 11 am
3
Aldo
Leopold, Nash ch. 11
4 PC:
lecture
by Mr. Jay Smith on the future of newspapers, Brooks Theater,
7:30-9 pm
5
Permanent
Preservation,
Nash ch. 12, quiz 7 (Nash 7-11) by 11 am
8 Philosophies,
Nash
ch.
13, bb8 due by 11 am
10
Alaska,
Nash
ch.
14, Irony
of
Victory, Nash
ch. 15, second set of
pcs due
12
International
issues, Nash ch. 16
15-19 Spring
Break
22 Review,
Nash
epilogue
24 in-class
exam
26
read
Rothman
introduction
29 read
Rothman
ch.
1, bb9 due by 11 am
31
Rothman
ch.
2 and U.S.
Government
structure pages 3-33
Apr. 2
Forest
management
case
study,
quiz
8 (Rothman intro-2) by 11 am
2
PC: lecture by Prof. Allen
Burton on
"Assessing Aquatic Ecosystems," Strom Thurmond Inst Auditorium,
2:30
pm
5 Rothman
ch.
3,
bb10 due by 11 am
7 Rothman
ch.
4, argument
paper due
7 PC: panel
on
assisted
reproductive technologies, Tillman Hall Auditorium, 7 pm
9 Rothman
ch.
5, quiz 9 (Rothman 3-4) due by 11 am
12 Rothman
ch.
6, Oconee
Nuclear
case
study
14 Rothman
ch.
7
16
Rothman
ch.
8, quiz 10 (Rothman 5-7)
due by
11 am
19 Conclusion:
Environmental
Politics, bb11 due by 11 am, last
day to hand in all pcs not due earlier
21
Review
23 optional
review session (bring questions), quiz
11
(survey)
due
Apr. 27 Final Exam
:
8:00
am - 10:30 am, Hardin 100