Course Syllabus
Click the link above for a full course overview, including grading/assessment, how to request an extension, and much more! If you have questions about course policies, this is where you will find the answers.
Read on for brief overviews of our projects for this year.
Read on for brief overviews of our projects for this year.
College Essay Boot Camp
In our first project of the year, we will be tackling the very real problem of how to make colleges like you in 300-500 words. For the first two weeks of class, we will engage in a college-essay boot camp. This will allow me to get a baseline assessment on your writing skills, and will allow you to knock a major task off your college application to-do list.
For those overachievers (who have already finished their essays) and iconoclasts (who are taking a different path) out there, you will have the option to write a scholarship essay, or to work on a piece of narrative non-fiction to hone your writing skills. |
The United States is the richest country on the planet, yet it has more poverty than any other industrialized democratic nation-- and it's not getting better. Despite declaring a "War on Poverty" in 1964, the United States has continued to see steady rates of poverty in society, with no sign that this will end anytime soon. In our fall exploration, we will look at why there is so much poverty in the United States, what has been tried to address it, and why this issue is so intractable in our society. You will be asked to challenge your assumptions about poverty, and to use various forms of data to draw conclusions and answer your questions.
As we explore this topic, we will also be getting meta- we will be using this project to essentially teach you the skills and processes you will need to be successful in researching, designing, and executing your senior thesis and project. |
Fall Topic: Poverty in the United States
Senior Project: Thesis, Action Project, and TED Talk
.Okay, this is the big one! For the entire second semester, you will exploring a topic of your choosing, both through academic research and writing, and through a self designed project. Your senior project will have three main parts:
Start thinking of ideas now, because you will cycle through many of them before you end up on your final topic. Don't be like the plant guy. |