Rubrics for each assignment are available in Pilot.
Click the button below for a link to the library resource guide for this course, where you will find databases, archives and special collections, historical maps and land surveys, and website links for local history.
Click the button below for a link to the library resource guide for this course, where you will find databases, archives and special collections, historical maps and land surveys, and website links for local history.
Woods Journal (10%)
At least one entry per unit, due 9/18, 10/6, 10/30, 11/22
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Your Woods Journal will include informal reflections recounting walks in the campus woods. I recommend exploring as many parts of the woods as possible, including various features such as the prairie, cemetery, bird blind, and Burly. Your journal entries should document sections of the woods visited and observations of wildlife. You might include personal reactions, thoughts, or questions that came up for you during or after your walk, as well as any insights in connection to class readings and discussions.
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Mainly, the journal entries should demonstrate continuing interaction with the woods throughout the semester. This is an opportunity to explore and immerse yourself in the space while building familiarity and curiosity through close observation of the woods and its wildlife (flora and fauna). I recommend downloading a nature app to your phone, such as Seek, which can help identify unfamiliar species that you encounter. You can even include as part of your journal entry a list of identified species accompanied by an image and/or brief description for each one. Keeping a log of this kind should be immensely helpful when you write your Place History and Eco-Narrative, and your journal observations of the woods terrain, accessibility of trails, and various interesting features will be useful when your create your Recreation Materials promoting the woods. Overall, think of the Woods Journal as exploratory field research that will help inform the research and writing that you will do for the other assignments.
As part of each journal entry, you should create and post media connected to your walk, such as photographs, illustrations, short video/audio files, or maps (hand-drawn or digital). You are required to write at least one journal entry (min. 300 words) for each unit, for a total of four entries worth 25 pts/each. Your journal entries can be based on scheduled walks that we take during class visits and/or individual visits on your own time. You are encouraged to create additional journal entries for extra credit, though limited to a maximum of 100 bonus points (in other words, up to 10 extra journal entries worth 10 pts/each). There is no rubric for this assignment and journal entries are assessed according to the same criteria as your participation grade: Full Credit, Partial Credit, and No Credit. You can keep track of your assessment in the Attendance section of Pilot.
As part of each journal entry, you should create and post media connected to your walk, such as photographs, illustrations, short video/audio files, or maps (hand-drawn or digital). You are required to write at least one journal entry (min. 300 words) for each unit, for a total of four entries worth 25 pts/each. Your journal entries can be based on scheduled walks that we take during class visits and/or individual visits on your own time. You are encouraged to create additional journal entries for extra credit, though limited to a maximum of 100 bonus points (in other words, up to 10 extra journal entries worth 10 pts/each). There is no rubric for this assignment and journal entries are assessed according to the same criteria as your participation grade: Full Credit, Partial Credit, and No Credit. You can keep track of your assessment in the Attendance section of Pilot.
Wilderness Reflection (15%)
Due Sunday, Sep 18
In this assignment, you will write a public-facing essay reflecting on wilderness concepts, as explored in class readings and discussions, and integrating your understanding of these concepts with your personal perspectives and/or experiences in relationship to wilderness spaces. Public-facing is meant in a very general sense here as a piece of writing that might reach a broad audience, presenting timely information, and in a style that is accessible and less formal than academic writing while incorporating a personal perspective. The essay should be clearly structured and focused on a key idea or issue that is of public or current interest. For this specific essay, the key idea is "wilderness"--as cultural or mythic concept, historical construction, environmental concern, or ecological place/habitat--and one example of an issue is how wilderness is framed within current responses to climate change and/or why it's necessary to engage with wilderness in the face of habitat loss and species extinction. Beyond that, there are many possible approaches that you might take in discussing the key idea/issues, but here are some general prompts.
Why is wilderness important ecologically and culturally? How is wilderness both a real (natural) and imagined (cultural) place? How has wilderness been defined and shaped throughout American history? Who has access to wilderness spaces and who doesn't have access? Why is wilderness preservation important, both historically and in contemporary contexts? How have definitions or views of wilderness been destructive? What is your definition or view of wilderness? How is it similar to or different from popular notions of it as remote, pristine, or untouched by humans? Is wilderness something you have long valued or something you haven't thought much about? Why? What are some wilderness spaces that you've visited? Or are there specific places you would like to visit? Are there any wilderness narratives that you've read and how did these influence your perceptions of wilderness? What kinds of emotions does wilderness evoke for you? How did the readings and class discussions influence your view of wilderness? What are some ways that you believe might be effective in protecting wilderness spaces from the anthropogenic effects of climate change?
These are just a number of questions you might address in your essay and you might have others that come up for you that you'd like to explore. You should not try to cover all of the possible topics but focus on a few that you find compelling and interrelated under a specific theme. Your essay should strive to describe your various impressions while providing critical reflection on the key idea of wilderness. For example, your reflection should include one or more of the following:
The paper must be a minimum 1,000 words with a copy of all written text uploaded to the Pilot dropbox in a Word document or your work will not be graded. Remember to cite all sources, include relevant digital media on your website (images, video, etc.), and format your essay in a clear and visually appealing design.
Why is wilderness important ecologically and culturally? How is wilderness both a real (natural) and imagined (cultural) place? How has wilderness been defined and shaped throughout American history? Who has access to wilderness spaces and who doesn't have access? Why is wilderness preservation important, both historically and in contemporary contexts? How have definitions or views of wilderness been destructive? What is your definition or view of wilderness? How is it similar to or different from popular notions of it as remote, pristine, or untouched by humans? Is wilderness something you have long valued or something you haven't thought much about? Why? What are some wilderness spaces that you've visited? Or are there specific places you would like to visit? Are there any wilderness narratives that you've read and how did these influence your perceptions of wilderness? What kinds of emotions does wilderness evoke for you? How did the readings and class discussions influence your view of wilderness? What are some ways that you believe might be effective in protecting wilderness spaces from the anthropogenic effects of climate change?
These are just a number of questions you might address in your essay and you might have others that come up for you that you'd like to explore. You should not try to cover all of the possible topics but focus on a few that you find compelling and interrelated under a specific theme. Your essay should strive to describe your various impressions while providing critical reflection on the key idea of wilderness. For example, your reflection should include one or more of the following:
- Exploration and critique of assumptions, values, beliefs, and/or biases about wilderness (either your own or others)
- Multiple or conflicting perspectives about the wilderness (historically and/or currently)
- Alternative ways of thinking about wilderness (your own proposal for alternatives and/or ones you have researched and find compelling)
- Consequences of human actions in relation to wilderness (i.e. settler conquest/theft, preservation and conservation, resource extraction, tourism, pollution)
- Discussion of how behaviors or viewpoints may change based on new insights about wilderness
The paper must be a minimum 1,000 words with a copy of all written text uploaded to the Pilot dropbox in a Word document or your work will not be graded. Remember to cite all sources, include relevant digital media on your website (images, video, etc.), and format your essay in a clear and visually appealing design.
Place History (15%)
Due Sunday, Oct 16
Using the Campus Woods archive (in Pilot), as well as other resources, you will research and write about a specific aspect of the historical significance of the Campus Woods. Your essay should include discussion of the Woods in relation to environmental history and/or land development, and provide a narrative of the Woods that illustrates changes to the land's features and its inhabitants through a specific passage of time. In other words, you don't have to provide a complete history of the place but should focus on a significant or interesting segment of time that is part of the land's history.
For instance, you could research and reflect on the campus woods as part of the broader area of the Miami Valley through the lens of deep time and pre-contact history. What were some notable features of the land in earlier geological epochs, including extinct inhabitants? Who were its indigenous inhabitants and how did they interact with the land? In other words, you might tell a story about what this place was like when it was a "wilderness" to show how we interact with and exist in a place that is part of a much longer history that predates colonial settlement and military/urban/campus development.
Or you could write a narrative about the woods in more recent history. You might focus on the Woods and its immediate environs by researching its colonial settler families (who were they? how did they interact with the land? what were some key features of the land?) and then conclude with some discussion of how this particular place changed from a "wilderness" to a military base and university campus. Or you could explore the Woods in relation to campus history by researching the land use and development around and within the Woods. What role has the Woods played throughout the different changes to the campus and various building developments? How and why were the Woods preserved from development? What environmental features of the Woods make it special, such as the forest age or its nonhuman inhabitants?
Regardless of your approach, you should keep in mind that the audience for this essay is not academic but a broader public. Think of your narrative as an informational story that educates readers about an aspect of the Woods' history. However, you still need to cite sources and ensure the accuracy of the information you are providing. Depending on your approach you may need to include research into natural and indigenous history and/or public/county records. You will also find resources and historical information in Pilot and the Dunbar Library. I encourage you to contact the English department librarian, Ran Raider, for assistance in finding archival material and local/campus history resources. You can also look for information by visiting the WSU Core Scholar page for the Runkle Woods Symposia where you will find presentations about the Woods' natural and cultural history. I've also included some video presentations from the Symposia here.
The Place History must be a minimum 1,000 words with a copy of all written text uploaded to the Pilot dropbox in a Word document or your work will not be graded. Remember to include relevant digital media on your website (images, video, etc.) and to format your essay in a clear and visually appealing design.
For instance, you could research and reflect on the campus woods as part of the broader area of the Miami Valley through the lens of deep time and pre-contact history. What were some notable features of the land in earlier geological epochs, including extinct inhabitants? Who were its indigenous inhabitants and how did they interact with the land? In other words, you might tell a story about what this place was like when it was a "wilderness" to show how we interact with and exist in a place that is part of a much longer history that predates colonial settlement and military/urban/campus development.
Or you could write a narrative about the woods in more recent history. You might focus on the Woods and its immediate environs by researching its colonial settler families (who were they? how did they interact with the land? what were some key features of the land?) and then conclude with some discussion of how this particular place changed from a "wilderness" to a military base and university campus. Or you could explore the Woods in relation to campus history by researching the land use and development around and within the Woods. What role has the Woods played throughout the different changes to the campus and various building developments? How and why were the Woods preserved from development? What environmental features of the Woods make it special, such as the forest age or its nonhuman inhabitants?
Regardless of your approach, you should keep in mind that the audience for this essay is not academic but a broader public. Think of your narrative as an informational story that educates readers about an aspect of the Woods' history. However, you still need to cite sources and ensure the accuracy of the information you are providing. Depending on your approach you may need to include research into natural and indigenous history and/or public/county records. You will also find resources and historical information in Pilot and the Dunbar Library. I encourage you to contact the English department librarian, Ran Raider, for assistance in finding archival material and local/campus history resources. You can also look for information by visiting the WSU Core Scholar page for the Runkle Woods Symposia where you will find presentations about the Woods' natural and cultural history. I've also included some video presentations from the Symposia here.
The Place History must be a minimum 1,000 words with a copy of all written text uploaded to the Pilot dropbox in a Word document or your work will not be graded. Remember to include relevant digital media on your website (images, video, etc.) and to format your essay in a clear and visually appealing design.
Eco-Narrative (15%)
Due Sunday, Nov 6
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For this assignment, you will research about 2-3 nonhuman species within the Campus Woods to write a narrative that explores relations between these species through ecological concepts of entanglement, biodiversity, and mutualism. The species can be any combination of lifeforms that inhabit the woods, including different plants, trees, birds, mammals, insects. This is where your Woods Journal might come in handy as a reference for possible nonhuman subjects.
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When selecting species, it might also help to think about setting: either the Woods on a larger scale or smaller, more specific locations within the woods where these species interact. The more specific and focused, the better. Your story will also need to incorporate research into the species' biological features, life cycles, and interrelations; however, this piece should not read like a research paper but as a dynamic narrative that combines fictional and factual/scientific elements.
As always, think about audience, which will help you determine a genre for the story you're trying to tell. Are you writing a story for children or adults? Is your story intended to promote the Campus Woods by educating readers about various species of flora and/or fauna they might find there? Are you writing for an audience interested in ecology and/or conservation? Regardless of audience or genre, your narrative should be aimed at illustrating interrelations between species as a model for eco-ethical views of the natural world, as we've been exploring throughout the readings from Units 2 and 3. Refer back to pieces that discuss or demonstrate ethical modes of ecological storytelling, in which humans are not the main characters, but rather various nonhumans.
Thus, a major emphasis for this assignment is perspective. You can tell the story in the third-person or first-person; however, the narrative viewpoint should not be human but imagined through one or more nonhuman perspectives of your selected animals, insects, trees, or plants. In this sense, your story should attempt to extend readers’ imaginations to an understanding of how your nonhuman narrator(s) perceives and responds to the world as a biological character. Your story should strive to avoid an anthropomorphic or patronizing sympathy but attempt to represent nonhuman lifeforms through their own agency and not as inert objects or props for humans. Think about telling your story in terms of how your nonhuman biological characters experience their own morphology/physiology and the space/place they inhabit, their living role enmeshed or entangled with other lifeforms and environmental factors. Narratives might follow the life-cycle of your species, their encounters with other species, or their sense of emplacement in a specific habitat or environment.
Your Eco-Narrative must be a minimum 1,000 words with a copy of all written text uploaded to the Pilot dropbox in a Word document or your work will not be graded. Remember to cite all sources, include relevant digital media on your website (images, video, etc.), and format your essay in a clear and visually appealing design.
As always, think about audience, which will help you determine a genre for the story you're trying to tell. Are you writing a story for children or adults? Is your story intended to promote the Campus Woods by educating readers about various species of flora and/or fauna they might find there? Are you writing for an audience interested in ecology and/or conservation? Regardless of audience or genre, your narrative should be aimed at illustrating interrelations between species as a model for eco-ethical views of the natural world, as we've been exploring throughout the readings from Units 2 and 3. Refer back to pieces that discuss or demonstrate ethical modes of ecological storytelling, in which humans are not the main characters, but rather various nonhumans.
Thus, a major emphasis for this assignment is perspective. You can tell the story in the third-person or first-person; however, the narrative viewpoint should not be human but imagined through one or more nonhuman perspectives of your selected animals, insects, trees, or plants. In this sense, your story should attempt to extend readers’ imaginations to an understanding of how your nonhuman narrator(s) perceives and responds to the world as a biological character. Your story should strive to avoid an anthropomorphic or patronizing sympathy but attempt to represent nonhuman lifeforms through their own agency and not as inert objects or props for humans. Think about telling your story in terms of how your nonhuman biological characters experience their own morphology/physiology and the space/place they inhabit, their living role enmeshed or entangled with other lifeforms and environmental factors. Narratives might follow the life-cycle of your species, their encounters with other species, or their sense of emplacement in a specific habitat or environment.
Your Eco-Narrative must be a minimum 1,000 words with a copy of all written text uploaded to the Pilot dropbox in a Word document or your work will not be graded. Remember to cite all sources, include relevant digital media on your website (images, video, etc.), and format your essay in a clear and visually appealing design.
Recreation Materials (20%)
Due Thursday, Dec 8
Working individually or collaboratively, you will create a variety of digital materials (for example, maps, brochures, infographs, videos, podcasts) promoting the Campus Woods and its recreational/public health benefits for the community. Materials should also incorporate or address issues of accessibility, inclusion, diversity, and equity. Your materials can target a variety of different audiences: the general public, campus community members, prospective students, or even more specifically, a certain demographic of people who might visit the woods (people with disabilities, students, staff, and faculty of color, student parents, etc.).
Think of this assignment as your final project; as such, it cannot be put together at the last minute but should demonstrate effort and thought in the creation of materials. In other words, you should think of these materials as professional media aimed at promoting the Campus Woods. They should demonstrate grounded familiarity with the woods and its various features, and they should show a clear engagement with or synthesis of topics and themes we've explored throughout the semester.
You are required to make at least 3 promotional materials informing potential visitors about interesting features of the Woods. Some examples: a video walk through the woods; a podcast series interviewing students, faculty, and staff about their love of the woods; an interactive trail map highlighting different sections of the woods, its historical areas of interest, trail difficulty or accessibility, or ecological features; a brochure of different recreational activities in the woods; an infographic of various species that inhabit the woods. I encourage you to be creative and collaborative, working with one or more partners to generate materials, or even just brainstorm different ideas.
All materials must be posted to your website with clear design and formatting, and any video, audio, or interactive features should be working and ideally embedded on your website. There is no need to upload anything to Pilot. I will be grading this final assignment the day after the deadline, so you must ensure everything is available before the morning of Dec 9 or it will not be assessed. If you are working with partners, all materials must be included on each website with a note identifying where and how each of you contributed to the project. Be sure to communicate any questions about the creation of your materials well in advance of the deadline. There is no final exam; instead you will have exam week to work on completing this project; you will also have dedicated class time to work on the project.
Think of this assignment as your final project; as such, it cannot be put together at the last minute but should demonstrate effort and thought in the creation of materials. In other words, you should think of these materials as professional media aimed at promoting the Campus Woods. They should demonstrate grounded familiarity with the woods and its various features, and they should show a clear engagement with or synthesis of topics and themes we've explored throughout the semester.
You are required to make at least 3 promotional materials informing potential visitors about interesting features of the Woods. Some examples: a video walk through the woods; a podcast series interviewing students, faculty, and staff about their love of the woods; an interactive trail map highlighting different sections of the woods, its historical areas of interest, trail difficulty or accessibility, or ecological features; a brochure of different recreational activities in the woods; an infographic of various species that inhabit the woods. I encourage you to be creative and collaborative, working with one or more partners to generate materials, or even just brainstorm different ideas.
All materials must be posted to your website with clear design and formatting, and any video, audio, or interactive features should be working and ideally embedded on your website. There is no need to upload anything to Pilot. I will be grading this final assignment the day after the deadline, so you must ensure everything is available before the morning of Dec 9 or it will not be assessed. If you are working with partners, all materials must be included on each website with a note identifying where and how each of you contributed to the project. Be sure to communicate any questions about the creation of your materials well in advance of the deadline. There is no final exam; instead you will have exam week to work on completing this project; you will also have dedicated class time to work on the project.
Presentations (10%)
Tuesday, Nov 29 and Thursday, Dec 1 (9:30-10:50 AM)
In the last week of the semester, all students will present their websites while offering a reflection on their experiences of this class, answering the following prompts (in no particular order):
- What did you learn in this class that was unexpected, especially interesting, or inspiring?
- Which topics/readings did you enjoy most about the class? Which did you find the most challenging?
- How did you approach the different assignments? Which of these do you think represent your best work? Which ones did you find the most difficult?
- What skills, knowledge, or experience did you develop and how might you use these in a professional setting or your intended career?
- What would you recommend most about this class and what do you think could be improved?
