MindScapes

WORLD PEOPLES’ RESPONSES TO SPACE AND PLACE THROUGH SCIENCE, LITERATURE AND CULTURE

English 211 and Geography 120

INSTUCTORS:

DONNA THOMPSON JOHN VANLEER

CCC1 373 CCC145

352-8240 352-8157

dthompson@cascadia.ctc.edu jvanleer@cascadia.ctc.edu

SPRING 2006

TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS: 11:00-3:20PM

PREREQUISITE: ENGLISH 101

This learning community explores the interconnectedness of people and their environments. Through an examination of the natural forces that shape the Earth, we will investigate the development of regional lands, societies, and cultures – how we came to live where we are and how we interact in that space. Additionally, we will study the literary and artistic responses to the local landscape in order to discover how people have voiced their evolving cultural and regional identities. Through literature such as travel journals and nature writing, students will envision these regions from a variety of perspectives: outsider vs. insider, science vs. sentiments, colonial vs. post colonial, haves vs. have nots, and others. It will be a journey that circumnavigates the globe and circumfuses the human experience.

Required Texts:

Ernesto Che Guevara--The Motorcycle Diaries

Joseph Conrad-- Heart of Darkness OR*

Chinua Achebe-- Things Fall Apart

Arundhati Roy-- The God of Small Things

John Steinbeck--Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Paula Rothenberg-- Beyond Borders: Thinking Critically About Global Issues

Edward F. Bergman and William H. Renwick--Introduction to Geography: People Places & Environment Updated 2nd edition

Oxford University Press--Essential World Atlas 3rd edition

Additional readings on e-Reserve

*Students are required to purchase and read only ONE of these texts.

Required Materials:

• Graph paper
• Calculator
• Portfolio folder
• Scan Tron sheets
• Paper and pen for in-class writing assignments

Academic Success: The best way to succeed in this class is to ATTEND every class, PARTICIPATE with vigor, and READ THE ASSIGNED readings. The material presented in class is the best example of what will be assessed. The assigned reading does not cover every concept you are expected to learn. Conversely, the text contains significant amounts of information that will not be tested. In addition, details about assignments and assessments are provided in class. Participation is the best way to get interested and stay motivated. If you’re not having fun, you’re probably not learning as much as you should be. Talk to the instructors. See them during or after class, or use office hours. Whatever you do, be in charge of your learning – make it happen.

Classroom Dignity: A classroom must be a safe and comfortable place for students to learn. As a result, the instructor and the students must respect each other’s individual differences whether they be cultural, racial, sexual, intellectual, physical, or of any other type. The atmosphere of this class will be a warm and inviting one for everyone. No behavior that interferes with the learning of any person or persons will be tolerated at any level.

Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities requiring auxiliary aids, services, or other accommodations should contact the Student Success Facilitator at 425-352-8288 or visit the Enrollment Services Office on the first floor.

Assessments and Grading: Students will be assessed in a variety of ways. These will include an article review, scientific inquiries, a final project and presentation, quizzes, take-home independent essay questions, and mid-term and final exams. They are outlined below. Additional information will be made available in the future.

All assignments will be graded on a scale of 0 – 100%. However, they will be weighted individually for calculation of the final grade.

Assessments and their associated grade weight are as follows:

• Quizzes (online) -- 5%
• Essay -- 10%
• In-class literary assignments and discussions-- 10%
• Portfolio Assignments – 10%
• Geographic Knowledge Assessment – 5%
• E-Portfolio Narratives – 10%
• Book Seminar Discussions and Presentation – 10%
• Midterm Examination – 10%
• Final Examination – 10%
• Final Project – 15%

You will receive the same grade for both the English and Geography portions of the course.

Cascadia’s grading policy is detailed on page 50 of the catalog. This equates to a 100 point scale as follows:

100% - 96% = 4.0	83% = 2.8	71% = 1.6
95% - 94% = 3.9	82% = 2.7	70% = 1.5
93% = 3.8	81% = 2.6	69% - 68% = 1.4
92% = 3.7	80% = 2.5	67% - 66% = 1.3
91% = 3.6	79% = 2.4	65% = 1.2
90% = 3.5	78% = 2.3	64% = 1.1
89% = 3.4	77% = 2.2	63% = 1.0
88% = 3.3	76% = 2.1	62% = 0.9
87% = 3.2	75% = 2.0	61% = 0.8
86% = 3.1	74% = 1.9	60% = 0.7
85% = 3.0	73% = 1.8	<60% = 0
84% = 2.9	72% = 1.7

Policies: Cascadia Community College’s Academic Honesty policy can be found on page 53 of the catalog. It deals with plagiarism, cheating, and other violations of integrity. Read it. Please be aware that any infraction will be dealt with quickly and aggressively. Additional policies regarding acceptable use of information technology, drugs and alcohol, privacy, student rights, and student code of conduct can be found in the student handbook beginning on page 52. Become familiar with them and reference as necessary.

Schedule of Topics and Assignments:

Week	Topic	Reading	Assessment
1 – Jan 4	Course Introduction “I come from Des Moines, Iowa. Somebody had to. When you come from Des Moines you either accept the fact without question and settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there forever and ever, or you spend you adolescence moaning at length about what a dump it is and how you can’t wait to get out, and then you settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there forever and ever. Hardly anyone leaves. This is because Des Moines is the most powerful hypnotic known to man. Outside town there is a big sign that says: WELCOME TO DES MOINES. THIS IS WHAT DEATH IS LIKE. There isn’t really. I just made that up. But the place does get a grip on you.” Bil Bryson	A Latte Nonsense: Poetic reflections on Seattle
2 – Jan 11	Introduction to Geography & Geographic Tools “There are very few corners left on this planet where you are not following in everyone else’s footsteps. I wanted, once, to trace my own path across a land as yet untrampled by hordes of tourist feet, I want to lose myself in unmapped landscapes and to meet the people who inhabited them.” Erika Warbrunn	Chapter 1 T: Theroux, Mapping the World Turnball, The Function of Maps Monk, Are Things What they Seem to Be? Lindaman & Ward, How Textbooks Around the World Portray U.S. History Shalom, Lapulapu and Magellan Schwalbe, The Cost of American Privilege Bullbeck, Fracturing Binaries Mohanty, One Third/Two Thirds Worlds TH: Steinbeck, Whitman, Song of the Open Road Simon & Garfunkel, America HItchens, On Becoming American Mohanty (in Rothenberg), On Being South Asian in North America	Quiz 1 e-Portfolio Narrative 1
3 – Jan 18	Weather & Climate “It was if we were being punished for the loveliness of summer.” Willa Cather, from My Antonia	Chapter 2 T: Steinbeck, de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (excerpts) Levy, In the Footsteps of Tocqueville TH: Laskin, The Children’s Blizzard (excerpts) Wilder, The Long Winter (excerpts) London, To Build A Fire	Geographic Knowledge Assessment
4 – Jan 25	Landforms “Just beyond the northern boundary of Everglades National Park lies a vast, primordial swamp of dwarf pond cypresses and slash pine islands, of hardwood hammocks and wet prairies, of sawgrass marshes and mangrove forests. Here, in the Big Cypress National Park Preserve, 700-year old great cypresses somehow escaped the loggers’ blades; blooming air plants perch on tropical hardwoods like flocks of strange birds at rest; and alligators slip into dark pools of backwater sloughs.” Stephen Gorman	Chapter 3 Surviving Nature T: Seattle Times, Arctic Out of Balance Sara Wheeler, Terra Incognita (excerpts) Callahan, To Weave A World Davidson, Minus 148 degrees Krakauer, The Devil’s Thumb & The Alaska Interior Cherry-Gerard, The Worst Journey in the World Experiencing “Home”lands TH: Reading the Landscape: Selected writings of William and Dorothy Wordsworth Islands of Words: Contemporary writing from Taiwan, Chinese Immigrant poetry from Angel Island (1910-1940) & the Changing Face of Anacortes, WA Geo-Graphy: Sue Wheeler, Vanderbilt, & D. Rothenberg	Quiz 2 e-Portfolio Narrative 2
5 – Feb 1	Landforms “To me, the very name spells everything attractive and enchanting: an ancient name of a land where every stone and rock is old and imbued with history, where vistas are endless and the light so pure it dazzles, like crystal, or flame. Who would not want to leave the dullness of the north, this rawness and sad urban ugliness, for a land where volcanoes rise from valleys into snow-topped cones, where hills flow outward in waves of lilac and rose and violet all the way up to the horizon, where trees bear golden oranges and lemons as in some romantic ballad and flowers bloom in colors so rich and varied as are not dreamt of in the north? Anita Desai	Chapter 3 T: Field Trip: Henry Art Gallery Maya Lin, Systematic Landscapes & James Turrell, Light Reign TH: Guevara, Rodriquez, Go North Young man	Essay Due
6 – Feb 8	Biogeochemical Cycles & Biosphere “Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour and is not reminded of the flux of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence” Ralph Waldo Emerson	Chapter 4 T: Guevara, Galeano (in Rothenberg), Open Veins of Latin America TH: Considering the Natural Environment Seminars: Wilderness and Tourism	Midterm Exam e-Portfolio Narrative 3 (Henry Gallery Reflection Assignment)
7 – Feb 15	Population “Each morning Ghana’s seven-and-one-half million people seem to crowd at once into the capital city where broad avenues as well as the unpaved rutted lanes become gorgeous with moving pageantry: bicycles, battered lorries, hand carts, American and European cars, chauffer-driven limousines. People on foot struggled for right-of-way, white-collar workers wearing white knee-high socks brushed against market women balancing large baskets on their heads as they proudly swing their wide hips. Children, bright faces shining with palm oil, picked openings in the throng, and pretty young women in western clothes affected not to notice the attention they caused as they laughed together talking in the musical Twi language.” Maya Angelou	Chapter 5 T: Film: Stranger With A Camera Rothenberg, Part 5 TH: Achebe/Conrad Seminar Rothenberg, Part 6 Memmi (in Rothenberg), Assigning Value to Difference
8 – Feb 22	Food Supply “As a child I loved playing in dirt, in that rich Kentucky soil, that was a source of life. Before I understood anything about the pain and exploitation of the southern system of sharecropping, I understood that grown-up black folks loved the land. I could stand with my grandfather Daddy Jerry and look out at the fields of growing vegetables, tomatoes, corn collards, and know that this was his handiwork. I knew that my grandmother Baba’s backyard garden would yield beans, sweet potatoes, cabbage, and yellow squash, that she would walk with pride among the rows of growing vegetables showing us what the earth will give when tended lovingly” bell hooks	Chapter 8 T: Achebe/Conrad Seminar Rothenberg, Part 6 TH: Achebe/Conrad Presentations	Quiz 3 Achebe/Conrad Writing Due
9 – Feb 29	Earth Resources and Environment “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?” Chief Seattle	Chapter 9 T: Roy, The God of Small Things Chief Seattle, The Words of Chief Seattle and Chief Seattle’s Treaty Oration TH: Roy, The God of Small Things Rothenberg, Part 4 Eisenstein (in Rothenberg), Hatred Written on the Body
10 – Mar 7	Regionalization and Globalization “The only thing worth globalising is dissent.” Arundhati Roy	Chapter 13 T: Film, Spectre of Hope Roy, The God of Small Things Hoffman, New Nomads Rothenberg, Parts 7 & 8 TH: Roy, The God of Small Things Rothenberg, Parts 7 & 8	Quiz 4 Portfolios Due e-Portfolio Narrative 4
11 – Mar 14	Final Projects “i shall return to this place to end this journey: one part ashes to the air, one part ashes to the waters, one part ashes to the land. i will howl to the tune of ghost whispers and let my blood fertilize this land. i shall wear the skin of the wind and begin a journey anew. Tamara Madison-Shaw	T: Dillard, Sojourner Bishop, Questions of Travel Tennyson, Ulysses Cafavy, Ithaca	Final Exam

Note: This schedule is subject to change and additions. Only an overview is provided here. Items in italics are available on e-reserve. All other items can be found in the required textbooks or will be given out in class. Specific readings in Rothenberg will be announced in class.