HIST 124 - Environmental History
Fall 2009
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 11:15-12:05, 1:15-1:45 pm, and by appointment
class meetings: MWF 12:20-1:10, 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 groups
of 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 three 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 weekly on the Blackboard learning system. 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. I
will place a new discussion topic on the system each week. 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, usually
one or two paragraphs long (150-400 words). If you use
outside sources please put the idea in your own words and provide
a link--cutting and pasting is cheating (except for short quotes
in quote marks with the source given). To get an A you need
to say something new and worthwhile about the question (not just
repeat what other students have said). Personal experience
is appropriate and grammar and spelling are not important so long
as your point is clear. 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 10 highest grades for
individual topics (there will be at least 12 topics). You
will get only one grade per topic, but if you write more than one
post on a topic all your posts will be taken into account in
deciding your grade for the 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 Sept. 21 and Oct. 28. The final exam is
scheduled for Monday Dec. 7 from 8:00 to 10:30 am. Please
keep this date in mind when you make your travel plans for
Christmas vacation. 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 500 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.
Makeup
exams will be available only for students who can document that
they missed the test for reasons beyond their control. In
other cases there will be a mechanism to get partial credit.
The argument paper will
consist of a paper of about 4 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
Nov. 11 . 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
three warnings will count as one absence. The same penalty
will be applied to students who carry on conversations with other
students, who text on their cell phones, 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:
Aug. 19 course introduction
21 environmental
history, definitions
24 History
and
ecology, read Crosby ch. 1 (prologue)
26 film,
read
Crosby ch. 2
28 Original
nature, Expansion
begins, read Crosby ch. 3, quiz 1 (survey) due by 12:15 pm
31
Atlantic
islands, read Crosby ch. 4
Sept.
2
Out
to Sea, Crosby ch. 5
4 Failed
colonies, Crosby ch. 6, quiz 2 (Crosby
1-4) due by 12:15 pm
7
Weeds,
Crosby ch. 7, bb 1 & 2 due by
12:15 pm
9
Animals,
Crosby ch. 8 , quiz 3 posted after class
11 disease,
Crosby ch. 9 quiz 3 (Crosby 5-7) due by 12:15
pm
14 New
Zealand, Crosby ch. 10, bb3 due by 12:15
pm
16 Explanations,
Crosby ch. 11
18 Conclusions,
Crosby ch. 12, quiz 4 (Crosby 8-11) 12:15
pm
18 Participation
credit: optional lecture "Balancing Human Food
Needs with Environmental Concerns" 2 pm Strom Thurmond Institute Auditorium.
21 In-class exam
General
test
instructions
23 Ideas
about wilderness, Nash Introduction and prologue;
bb4 due by 12:15 pm
25 Old
world ideas, Nash chs. 1 and 2
25 Participation credit:
"Reflections on Technology and the World Around Us" by two
artists, 5-6 pm, Lee Hall Auditorium
28 Romantics,
Nash ch. 3; bb5 due by 12:15 pm
30 Discovery
of
American Scenery, Nash ch. 4
Oct. 2 Thoreau,
Nash ch. 5, quiz 5 (Nash introduction-3)
due by 12:15 pm
5
Early
Preservation, Nash ch. 6, bb6 due by
12:15 pm. Optional rewrite
due.
7 Wilderness
Preserved, Nash ch. 7, Muir,
Nash ch. 8
9 Wilderness
as
a Fad, Hetch
Hetchy, Nash ch. 9-10, quiz 6 (Nash
4-6) due by 12:15 pm
12
fall break
14 Aldo
Leopold, Nash ch. 11, bb7 due
by 12:15 pm
16 Permanent
Preservation, Nash ch. 12, quiz 7 (Nash
7-10) by 12:15 pm
19 Philosophies,
Nash ch. 13, bb8 due by 12:15
pm
20
PC: Ted Abernathy lecture on challenges facing South Carolina,
7:30-8:30 pm Brooks Theater
21
Alaska,
Nash ch. 14, Irony
of Victory, Nash ch. 15
23
International
issues, Nash ch. 16, pcs group 1 due by 10 pm
25 PC: Ken Burns America's Best Idea "Going Home" episode shown on
PBS TV
26 Review,
Nash epilogue,
bb9 due by 12:15 pm
28 in-class exam
30 read Rothman
introduction
Nov. 2 Rothman
ch.
1, bb 10 due by 12:15 pm
4 Rothman
ch. 2 and U.S.
Government
structure pages 3-33
6 film; quiz
8 (Rothman intro-2) due by 12:15 pm
9 Rothman
ch.
3, bb11 due by 12:15 pm
11 Rothman
ch.
4,
11 PC: Hartzog lecture, 2
pm, Strom Thurmond Institute Auditorium
13 Forest
management
case
study, quiz 9 (Rothman 3-4) due
by 12:15 pm
16 Rothman
ch. 5, Oconee
Nuclear
case study
18 Rothman
ch.
6, bb 12 due by 12:15 pm
18 PC: Ben Sill, "Clemson
Experimental Forest: Plans and Projects," 3-4 pm, Strom Thurmond
Institute Auditorium
20
Rothman
ch. 7 quiz 10 (Rothman 5-7)
by 12:15 pm
23 Envisioning
the Future exercise (in class), argument paper
due at 12:20 pm
25-27
Thanksgiving
30 Rothman
ch. 8; last day to hand in all pcs not due
earlier
Dec.
2 Conclusion:
Environmental
Politics
4 Review,
quiz 11 (survey) due
Dec. 7 Final Exam :
8:00-10:30 am, Hardin 100