Pacific Seminar I: What Is A Good Society?

Course: Pacific Seminar II Money, Power & Green Profit
CRN 36104 - Section 27
Term/Days/Time/Dates: Spring 08/MWF/12:30-1:50 pm/Jan 14, - May 14
Class Location: Knowles Hall 307 and in-context

Office Location/Days Hours: Library Room 135/ MW 2-4 pm & by appointment

Required Learning Resources

• Environmental Science Articles (20) to be Provided via Blackboard (free)
• Team Rodent by Carl Hiaasen (1998). (~$10)
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854). (~$6 or free online at http://books.google.com/books?id=2oMAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=walden&as_brr=1&ei=9FhnR9jIOZ7mtQO2kqSZAw#PPP1,M1)
• Select only ONE of the following books by Hiaasen: Basket Case (2002); Sick Puppy (2000); Lucky You (1997); Stormy Weather (1995); Native Tongue (1991); Double Whammy (1987); or Tourist Season (1986). (~$6/each)
• Articles from your Pacific Seminar I Reader to encourage you to remember that texts are not static;
  they can be read and applied differently in a changed context ($0, already purchased):
  1. "Serving in Florida" from Nichel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (2001), Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
  2.  Epitaph for a Peach from Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm by David Mas Masumoto, HarperCollins Publishers.
  3. Power Steer by Michael Pollan, International Creative Management, Inc.
  4. Babycakes from Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins Publishers, Avon Books.
  5. Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning from NW Env Watch.
• Video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6650219631867189375 (free online)
• One packet of 73 x 123 mm Yellow Notepad Post-Its. (~$6)
• Engaging learning attitude and perspective. (free, but very valuable and sometimes difficult to find)

Optional Readings/Instructor Sources

• Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle - Free e-text @ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/140
• Tao Te Ching; The Upanishads; Confucius: The Analects
• Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience - Free e-text @ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/71

Course Description
The importance of human’s interaction with their natural world, which was explored in Pacific Seminar I, will be expanded, challenged and possibly opposed in this experience.  What is the importance of interacting in a positive way with our environment in a good society – as a person, an employee or employer, as a contributing citizen or even as college student?  Ultimately, everyone should ask themselves, “what are the best ways to act responsibly towards our limited environment?”  And possibly even more importantly, “are we analyzing and questioning today’s public approach to environmental stewardship and clean up?”
 
Specific, contextual examples of how humans interact with the environment will be shared.  Examples will range from an environmental consulting company to novels by satirical columnist and environmentalist Carl Hiaasen.  Groundwater flow models, field work, sampling and analysis, chemical and biological data interpretation as well as contaminant remediation designs will be integrated with Hiaasen’s fictional and non-fictional work on the environment will be actively pursued.  Participants will ultimately deliberate the attributes of ‘environmentally friendly’ or “green” companies, buildings, fuel and the philosophy of green prostitution (whereas prostitution is operationally defined as "performing for hire, or agreeing to perform for hire where there is an exchange of value").
 
This learner-centered experience utilizes active learning methodology to assist participants in making connections between societal attributes, informal education and the natural world.  The approach is conceptually-based and subsequently process driven, engaging learners to observe, communicate, classify, infer and predict.  A learning environment will facilitate learners to build on their prior knowledge and value of education expanding into models of learning, critical thinking and methods of teaching.  Ultimately, learners will research, propose, design, test and troubleshoot their own environmental stewardship models.

Course Goals
Pacific Seminar II will address critical thinking about issues of a good society.  Included in this pursuit are opportunities on extensive writing, (including a scholarly research project); oral presentations; and the use of campus newspaper program (During the academic year, the New York Times, Stockton Record, and USA Today are delivered to every residential facility on campus as well as to the dining hall and library). Common to all objectives is the use of a combination of active presentation, discussion, demonstration, multimedia, collaborative and cooperative small group inquiry, research, presentation, literature review and observational experiences. Please notify the instructor within the first week if a reasonable accommodation to a disability is needed for this course. (If you have special needs that require accommodation, please contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities in Bannister Hall, Room 101 to obtain an Accommodations Request Form. After your request has been reviewed AND approved, please schedule a meeting with the instructor to discuss and arrange the accommodations.)  Also, if you would like additional academic assistance, please contact the Education Resource Center (ERC); or if you are in need of emotive assistance, feel free to contact the Counseling Services.

Technology Considerations
Assignments will be shared in class, via the instructors website and the university licensed course learning system, Blackboard (Bb).  Please locate a computer with Internet access on campus or at home and login with your PacificNet ID and password.  To enroll yourself in the course site, click the Catalogs tab to display the Course Catalog module. Within the Course Catalog module, click on the Pacific Seminars.  Locate your PACS 2 course and click the Enroll button to the right of the course name to display the Self Enrollment page. Click Submit and then click the OK button to complete the process.  You are required to deposit in the Written Communication Outcome of your e-portfolio your research paper and drafts of it as well as a reflection statement on this paper. You are also encouraged to deposit other work in other relevant e-portfolio Outcomes with corresponding reflection statements. The research paper and reflection on it must be deposited by the end of the course in order to pass the course.

Institutional Objectives: Pacific Rising 15 Goals (http://web.pacific.edu/Documents/provost/acrobat/pacific_rising.pdf)
1. Expand innovation in academic programs through an ongoing innovation process, support to pedagogy and research and new education and service delivery models.
2. Enhance University administrative programs and services through innovation and creativity by targeting fundraising, increasing incentives and improving services and programs.
3. Strengthen current and develop new academic programs of distinction through investment in existing programs, national stature for the first-professional schools and new academic hallmarks.
4. Advance faculty teaching, scholarship and research by expanding faculty development and increasing resources for scholarship and research.
5. Pursue University-wide marks of distinction, specifically in leadership development, experiential learning, international programs and student achievement.
6. Advance integrated, multidisciplinary experiences for undergraduates through a first-year experience, new accelerated programs and three-campus, three-city opportunities.
7. Strengthen the liberal arts and sciences core through General Education, improved student writing and better integration of liberal arts and sciences with professional education.
8. Leverage collaboration for innovative learning experiences by expanding three-campus programs, establishing highly customized graduate/professional programs and supporting collaborative scholarship, research and creative activity.
9. Make experiential learning a hallmark by achieving 100% student participation, increasing international experiential learning, advancing undergraduate research, strengthening the residential learning community and increasing study abroad.
10. Create distinctive citizen-leader development programs through service learning and volunteerism, a framework for leadership development based on emotional-social intelligence (ESI), lifelong learning and lasting relationships with the University.
11. Cultivate diversity, intercultural competence and global responsibility by ensuring student competencies, making diversity an integral part of curricula and student life, creating a more diverse student body, maintaining the “Diversity Hiring Plan for Faculty,” increasing faculty and staff ethnic diversity and increasing training.
12. Strengthen wellness, recreation and athletic programs by increased participation in intramural, recreation and active club programs and intercollegiate prominence.
13. Increase support to the region and connect our strongest initiatives with national and global partnerships through specific regional programs and new partnerships in the Pacific Rim and the Americas.
14. Collaborate with alumni, parents and friends to connect them to students and programs by fostering alumni leadership, establishing new alumni and parent programs and engaging alumni in student recruitment, internships and placement.
15. Invest in marketing initiatives that build partnerships and elevate institutional visibility by building marketing capacities, expanding relationships with media outlets and achieving greater national visibility.

Course/Pac Sem II Objectives (this is what the active, higher level processing, student-centered learner should be able to DO, specifically under what conditions and to what degree these expected outcomes will be measured)
     At a minimum, upon successful completion of this learning opportunity, the student will:
► make distinct, clear, global connections synthesizing conceptual frameworks between Pacific Seminar I and II through continuing the study of the question “What is a Good Society?" through hands-on, contextual discovery in the discipline-specific perspective of environmental science (the connections will be measured through formal/informal writing/presenting in/outside of class and the degree for determining success will be 90% accuracy);
► develop and actively engage in academic/college writing and research skills appropriate to the high aptitude students at Pacific relatively new to the academe of higher learning within this writing intensive course (the skills and ability to DO writing will be measured through formal and informal writing deliverables to the degree of 90% accuracy for success);
► develop and model Bloom's critical thinking and best-practices for learning, and engaging in high quality, frequent oral presentations (the ability to transfer the thinking into tangible products will be determined specifically by a formal Critical Thinking Activity evaluated and success quantified to the degree of 90%); and
► broaden their own social awareness by interacting with the content and regional society, through on-site visits to landfills, water treatment plants, environmental consultants, etc. as well as and be fully participatory in engaged citizenship; connecting the local hydrological cycle and the respective issues with a the global community; (the success of these connections will be evaluated using a culminating opportunity, which will be measured based on criteria of how complete the student integrates 90% of the concepts discussed throughout the course).

Course Assignments, Expectations and Grading Procedures
Required Course Elements are Formal/Informal Writing; and Formal/Informal Speaking