Journal

General Instructions

The major written work of the course will be a weekly journal, to be handed in usually on Friday. You should expect to produce 3-4 handwritten pages a week (normal handwriting, single-spaced, standard [8 1/2 x 11] pages). Please write as legibly as you can. If you prefer to use a computer, figure 2-3 pages a week. You should turn in your whole journal each time so that we can read each week's entry in the context of the whole. The best way to manage this is to use a binder of some kind to which you can keep adding pages. This will enable you to keep writing even after you have turned in the journal. If you use a composition book, this should be 8 1/2 x 11.

The object of journal assignments is to raise your awareness of what is happening in the natural environment. The journal will include observations of natural phenomena, assigned exercises, and analytical commentary on the readings and on issues raised by the course.

Some weeks, including the first, we will ask you to use some or all of the entry for an assigned exercise.

The greater part of the journal, however, will consist of your commentary. You should begin each entry critiquing one (or more) of the readings for each week. Make sure you identify the reading(s) to which you refer. You should aim to devote as much as half of this commentary to the readings. It will usually be best to explore more fully some aspect or aspects of the reading that interest you more fully rather than to try to touch on everything. You should then relate the readings and an observation about what you see happening in the natural world around you each week. The observation could be as little as one thing, carefully observed and recorded with attention to detail. Thus the journal can also serve as a place for you to reflect on issues that arise from class discussion, field trips, or your work for the course in general.

During the last three weeks of the term you should include in your journal some reflection on your project experience and your reactions to the projects of others.

Think of writing for the journal as falling somewhere between what you would do for a paper and what you would do if you simply wrote the first thing that popped into your head. The journal should be a place where you can experiment, ask questions that you may not be able to answer, explore lines of thought, try to capture the meaning of an experience. It will work best as writing, and have more value to you, if you find your own voice and write about things that matter to you. And if you take the journal writing seriously, giving it your best effort. Feel free to write more than the minimum required. Although we will read your journal, and grade you on it, we hope that you will regard it as something that you are writing for yourself as well as for the course. It should be something you will want to keep.

We will collect journals on Friday and return them on Wednesday.

Journal Exercises

Sense of Place

Due 14 January 2000.

Part 1: Ecological address: In a paragraph, tell a friend how to find your home (your family home, not your Ann Arbor one) without mentioning street names, using natural features as much as possible. If you want, you can establish a starting point (e.g., somewhere in downtown or wherever).

Part 2: Sense-of-place map: Draw a map in which you locate the home in which you grew up (or the most important one, if you grew up in several) in its immediate area. The object is not to produce an accurate map, rather one that registers your feelings about the place by representing features (parks, streams, trees, buildings, whatever) that have particular significance for you. Include your own home. Number any features you want to highlight, and give a key at the bottom, with brief annotations.

Finding the Way

Due 25 February 2000.

Read Pleasant Walks and Drives About Ann Arbor by Judge Noah Cheever (1999 re-released edition). Take yourself out on any one of three excursions Judge Cheever describes (Cedar Bend Drive, Geddes from Observatory to the bridge over the Huron, or Cascade Glen). Compare the landscape, buildings, and roads today with the way they were when Cheever wrote (probably in the 1890s). Annotation the natural features you see. Explain which features make the walks memorable today and what you think made them memorable in Judge Cheever’s time.

Passing Weather System

Due 17 March 2000.

Record your own observations as a winter weather system passes over your Ann Arbor home. Include cloud types and cloud cover, temperature, precipitation amounts and type, and wind. Describe the nature of the system (warm and cold fronts).

Projects

Due 14 April 2000

See separate instructions.