SYLLABUS

HNRS 353-004 J. Trefil

Spring 2006 207 East Bldg

(703)993-2183 jtrefil@gmu.edu

Jan. 24 Group organization, overview of course, Edge City assignment. Group and

individual assignments

Jan. 31 private meeting with instructor to evaluate Edge City assignment

Feb. 7 The agricultural revolution and the beginning of cities NATURE, CH 1-3

CITY, CH 1

Feb. 14 Technology of the modern city CITY, CH 3-9

Feb. 21 How the DC area developed and how it works today

Group presentations, new group assignments

Feb. 28 private meeting with instructor to evaluate written work

March 7 The city of the future CITY 10-14, 16

March 21 New technologies EVOLUTION

March 28 New technologies (cont.) EVOLUTION

April 4 Group presentations, term paper assignment

April 11-25 private meeting with instructor to discuss progress on term paper

May 2 presentation of term papers

‘CITY” = A SCIENTIST IN THE CITY, James Trefil

‘NATURE’ = HUMAN NATURE, James Trefil

‘ECOLUTION’ = RADICAL EVOLUTION, Joel Garreau

EDGE CITY ASSIGNMENT

PREPARATION

To prepare for this assignment, you are to spend a couple of hours in an Edge City like Tyson’s Corners or Bethesda. You are to observe what the area is like and what happens there. If you don’t know what an Edge City is, the first part of the assignment is to find out.

ASSIGNMENT

Based on what you observed in your Edge City, you will formulate an interesting question to ask about it. You will then pose and answer that question in a 500 word written paper. The paper should consist of two paragraphs.

(1) a statement of what the question is and why it is interesting, and

(2) the answer to that question based on your observations.

Some sample questions might be

How do people get to this place?

What do they do once they’re there?

How is the place built and/or designed, and how does that influence what people do?

What ‘face’ does the place present to the outside world? Does this differ from what you see once you’re inside? Why should this be so?

The writing should be at the level of a publication like the Washington Post. It is not a term paper, and I do not expect to see footnotes.

PRELIMINARY NOTES

HNRS 353 J. Trefil

Spring 2006 207 East Bldg

(703)993-2183 jtrefil@gmu.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will be built around a simple question: What will the DC area look like in 50 years? We will trace the technological advances, from agriculture to IT, that shaped the modern city, then look at new technologies and try to predict how they will shape the future. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams to present various topics to the class, and there will be several writing assignments that will be closely supervised by the instructor.

ABOUT THE COURSE

This is an experimental course. Depending on whether you are by nature pessimistic or optimistic, that means that you are either guinea pigs or collaborators. Roughly speaking, we will be spending about half the course talking about how the city got to be what it is, and half talking about what it might become. Because the course is experimental, however, your input and comments can change what we do. The syllabus, in other words, should be seen as a rough guide and subject to modification.

This course is going to stress individual research and the development of communication skills. If you are looking for the standard lecture-exam-term paper format you will be disappointed. The course will emphasize communicating ideas. You will get practice in three areas: (1) making presentations as part of a group, (2) writing short essays on specific topics, and (3) writing a longer report.

RESEARCH TEAMS

During the first class we will split the class into five research teams of 4-5 people each. Insofar as possible, each group should include people with backgrounds in the natural science, the humanities, and the social sciences. The makeup of each team must be approved by the instructor before they are finalized.

Each team will then choose a topic for later presentation, and individual members of the team will be assigned specific areas to cover. The general topic will be “How the DC Areas Works”, and teams might choose to talk about subjects like transportation, communication, water supply, energy, and so on. After the team topic is approved by the instructor, individuals in the team will take on specific assignments – for example, if the general team topic is transportation, one member may discuss highways, another public transportation, another train systems, and so on. One member of each team will be designated as rapporteur, and will send the instructor a written list of the individual assignments.

The team can decide how it’s presentation to the class will be made, but all presentations must be in PowerPoint. In addition, each individual member of the team will write an 800 word paper describing his or her individual topic. These papers will be handed in at the time of the presentation and will be discussed in private meeting with the instructor as scheduled. All written work in this course must be done on a word processor.

Although I hope it never happens, it may turn out that some member of a team does not do his or her fair share of the work. In this case, the team can ‘fire’ that individual, who will then make his or her presentations directly to the class and the instructor.

Later in the term, the teams will go through a similar process for presentations on the topic of “What is the Future of the DC Area?”

TERM PAPER

The last part of the course will be taken up by the development of a term paper. These will be done individually, and will be written on a topic to be chosen by the student and approved by the instructor. Students will meet individually with the instructor to develop their papers, and the papers will be due the last day of class. Further details will be given in a future handout.