Treks and Texts: Journeys into Nature
HCOL 40023
Wednesday, 2:00 PM to 4:40 PM
Scharbauer 3003
In wildness is the preservation of the world. --Thoreau, "Walking"
This interdisciplinary colloquium will involve both classroom and outdoor experiences. There will be assignments, discussions, and activities in several areas. From the Humanities, students will closely read and respond to a variety of relevant texts in the genre of Nature and Environmental Writing. In the Sciences, they will be introduced to current issues of Environmental Studies, particularly those that relate to local natural habitats. On the Co-Curricular side, they will also be introduced to the methods and practices of Outdoors Leadership. In the arts they will be introduced to landscape painting, particularly nineteen-century American landscapes. This course intends to immerse students into both natural and textual environments in order to enhance student experiences by offering rich, reciprocal connections between the two.
Much of the colloquium will take place outdoors. Six times during the semester students will travel to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge for volunteer work, helping to maintain the trail system and various exhibits. Twice during the semester, students will take short field trips to parks and natural habitats near TCU (Overton Park and Fort Worth Botanic Garden), and at least once during the semester students will also travel to the Amon Carter Museum to view its landscape collection. Additionally, for one class students will be required to take part in an evening canoe trip on the Trinity River. As an extra-credit option, students will have the opportunity to participate in one of the twoFall Break excursions (Guadalupe Peak and Matagorda Island). Also, throughout the semester students will receive extra credit activities that take place outside.
Outcomes:
--an introduction to environmental issues and how these issues have been reflected in literature, film, and popular media
--a familiarity with the genre development of Nature and Environmental Writing from early exploration accounts to the present
--a familiarity with several major texts and writers of the Nature and Environmental Writing genre and their various cultural contexts
--a familiarity with the characteristic techniques, themes, styles, conventions, and tropes of the Nature and Environmental Writing genre
--an ability to reflect on personal observations and experiences in natural environments
--a general knowledge of a specific natural environment
--a general understanding of the basic issues and practices in Environmental Studies
--a general understanding of Outdoors Leadership skills
--a general understanding of how Nature is depicted in art and film
--a writing portfolio of the student’s own nature writings, including a final Nature Essay
--a general understanding of literature as it reflects and impacts society and the individual
--an ability to use writing to gain and express an understanding of discipline-specific content
Week One, 08/22
--Introduction, an overview of the course, its schedule, its requirements, and its outcomes
Week Two, 08/29
--popular songs, Woody Guthrie, Joni Mitchell, and Marvin Gaye, 258-259, 489-492
--Nature poems (handout)
--After the Flood(video)
Week Three, 09/05
--Henry David Thoreau selections, 2-25 and 971-974 in American Earthplus handout
--Nature observation
Week Four, 09/12
--Loren Eiseley, 337-347; Rachel Carson, 366-376; Paul Ehrlich,434-437
--Nature Observation
Week Five, 09/19
--P. T. Barnum, 81-83; Edward Abbey, 413-433
--Outdoor Leadership skills
--canoe trip
Week Six, 09/26
--excursion to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refugefor volunteer work
Week Seven, 10/03
--excursion to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refugefor volunteer work
Week Eight, 10/10
--excursion to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refugefor volunteer work
Week Nine, 10/17
--excursion to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refugefor volunteer work
Week Ten, 10/24
--excursion to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refugefor volunteer work
Week Eleven, 10/31 (Halloween)
--excursion to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refugefor volunteer work
Week Twelve, 11/07
--Annie Dillard, 531-549; Linda Hogan, 809-814; Janisse Ray, 898-906
--Excursion to the Amon Carter
Week Thirteen, 11/14
--Wendell Barry, 505-530
--Nature Observation
Week Fourteen, 11/21
--Thanksgiving Break
Week Fifteen, 11/28
--N. Scott Momaday, 570-581; John McPhee, 493-499; Bill McKibben, 718-724
--instructor and peer review of final Nature Essays
Week Sixteen, 12/05
--final presentations
Course Requirements:
1) Attendance and Participation. You are required to take an active part in the colloquium and to contribute to its success. Outside excursions are required. Also, in many classes there will be some sort of class activity (brief writing assignments, group work, excursions), and anyone absent will not receive credit for these activities. Missing more than three classes during the term will result in failure.
2) Familiarity with the Texts. A reading knowledge of the texts is essential and expected. Please read.
3) Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge Excursions: For six classes during the semester (September 26-October 31), students will meet at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge for volunteer work. Students will be divided into 2 teams, and each team—accompanied by a FWNCR staff person—will experience different parts of the Nature Center (woods, prairie, and water/shoreline habitats), sharing various assignments and tasks. Also, each team will take responsibility for a specific stretch of a Nature Center trail, not only to do trail maintenance but also to learn specific environmental information about that stretch of trail.
4) Lead Respondent Assignment:Throughout the semester students will be asked to help lead discussions concerning the assigned reading texts, and these assignments will be done as group work (teams of 2 or 3). Each group will choose a text or group of texts that are assigned on specific class days, and it will be expected to make a presentation to the class that will encourage insight and discussion. These presentations may include biographical or historical information about the author, the text’s composition, summaries of the text’s print history and reception, and an analysis of its themes and issues. More importantly, these presentations should also include a discussion of what the group thinks is relevant in the text and a list of questions for discussion. These presentations should be informative, creative, and engaging. A brief handoutsummarizing key points and pertinent information and listing the discussion questions is required.
5) Nature Observations:Three times during the semester students will be sent outside to closely observe something specific item or entity in the natural environment. The assignment is to carefully describe something they see outside—an animal (bird, squirrel), an insect (beetle, ant), a plant (flower, weed), such luminous things as clouds or sunshine, or even a rock. How an item or entity is described is more important than what is described. These observations must be added to the Nature Journals.
6) Nature Journals: Nature writers often keep meticulous journals, and for this field-intensive colloquium, students will be asked to keep a blog to post their observations and thoughts. Nature journals not only describe specific physical settings, including flora and fauna, but also how individuals react to the environments. Entries should be a minimum of 1-2 pages in length, and by the end of the semester students will be expected to have written and uploaded a minimum of 14 journal entries(in addition to the three Nature Observation assignments). These entries should comment on class activities, class readings, field trips, and individual outside activities. For the readings, students should honestly describe what their reading experiences were like and remark on what they thought was interesting, provocative, or relevant in the texts.
At least four of the journal entries should be descriptions of a physical activity students have engaged in outside, such as walking, biking, canoeing/kayaking, and paddle boarding. Student participation must be documented with photographs of their activities, and the photos should be included with their journal entries.
For all of the journal entries, careful observations of the natural environments are expected, and self-reflections are encouraged. Student should write about their thoughts, and responses. Throughout the semester students will receive credit for their journal entries, and at the end of the semester the cumulative holistic quality of their journals will be evaluated and graded. Please note: 7 of the journal entries should be posted before midterms and fall break
7) Nature Essay. In order to practice their own nature writing, students will be asked to submit a Nature Essay at the end of the semester. This final essay should be a careful extension and revision of one of their journal entries, and it should be 6 to 10 pages in length. These essays must demonstrate several of the stylistic techniques from one or several of the assigned Nature writers, and they must also reflect a strong structure and overall thesis. Specific, closely detailed descriptions of environment[s] should be mixed with self-reflection describing how the students reacted to, and interacted with, their environments.
8) Final Presentation. For the final assignments, student teams (2-3 students) are required to create and present a brief video project (8 to 10 minutes) that offers a concluding reflection of their thoughts, observations, and experiences throughout the semester. There is no specific format or formula, but students are asked to reflect on what they experienced as learners that was interesting, striking, memorable, and/or relevant. These videos should be engaging and creative. Along with the video presentation, student teams must submit a 2-page justification of their presentation. Both videos and justifications must be uploaded to the Nature Journals.
9)Never Use the Non-Word “Very.” For the rest of the semester, at least in our class, this four-letter non-word is forbidden. It is a useless word, and the English vocabulary is rich with specific, vivid qualifiers and descriptors. “The day was very sunny” is a weak sentence.
Extra Credit:For Fall Break, The Rec Center is planning two outside excursions, one to Guadalupe Mountains National Park(Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet above sea level) and the other to Matagorda Island State Park(a 38-mile barrier island on the Texas Gulf Coast). Signing up for one of these trips is optional, but students who take part in one or the other will receive extra credit if they document their excursions in their Nature journals.
Final Grade:
Nature Journals 25%
Lead Respondent Assignments 20%
Nature Essays 25%
Final Presentations 20%
Attendance/Participation 10%
Required Texts:
American Earth: Nature Writing Since Thoreau
Dan Williams
TCU Press (3000 Sandage) and 1238 Library
817-257-5907 (office)
817-239-1376 (cell)
Office hours: By appointment. Please verify where I am holding office hours before trying to locate me. I am most often found at TCU Press, located at 3000 Sandage on the far eastern edge of campus.
TCU Mission:To educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.
Honors Pledge:“As a member of the John V. Roach Honors College, I pledge to dedicate myself to intellectual inquiry, life-long learning, and critical thinking, to demonstrate personal and academic integrity, and to engage others in earnest and respectful discussion with an open mind.”
**Statement of Disability Services at TCU
Disabilities Statement: Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator of Student Disabilities Services in the Center for Academic Serviceslocated in Sadler Hall, 1010. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at (817) 257-6567.
[Note: The following two paragraphs are recommended, but are not required.]
Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations. Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/disability_documentation.asp.
Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.
**Academic Misconduct
Academic Misconduct (Sec. 3.4 from the Student Handbook): Any act that violates the academic integrity of the institution is considered academic misconduct. The procedures used to resolve suspected acts of academic misconduct are available in the offices of Academic Deans and the Office of Campus Life and are listed in detail in the Undergraduate Catalog. Specific examples include, but are not limited to:
- Cheating: Copying from another student’s test paper, laboratory report, other report, or computer files and listings; using, during any academic exercise, material and/or devices not authorized by the person in charge of the test; collaborating with or seeking aid from another student during a test or laboratory without permission; knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents of a test or other assignment unauthorized for release; substituting for another student or permitting another student to substitute for oneself.
- Plagiarism: The appropriation, theft, purchase or obtaining by any means another’s work, and the unacknowledged submission or incorporation of that work as one’s own offered for credit. Appropriation includes the quoting or paraphrasing of another’s work without giving credit therefore. [If you are using Turnitin, place information about your course ID/password or TCU Online integration. If you want to use Turnitin as a spot check please indicate that you may use Turnitin for plagiarism detection.]
- Collusion: The unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing work offered for credit.
Netiquette: Communication Courtesy Code
All members of the class are expected to follow rules of common courtesy in all email messages, discussions, and chats. If I deem any of them to be inappropriate or offensive, I will forward the message to the Chair of the department and appropriate action will be taken, not excluding expulsion from the course. The same rules apply online as they do in person. Be respectful of other students. Foul discourse will not be tolerated. Please take a moment and read the following link concerning "netiquette."
Participating in the virtual realm, including social media sites and shared-access sites sometimes used for educational collaborations, should be done with honor and integrity:
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