Environmental Rhetoric – Fall 2010

Now that you have all had a chance to reflect on your experiences with the climate conference role-play, I want to hear your thoughts on a few issues:

1) Was it worth your time? What did you get out of it?

2) What is one thing you would change about the assignment?

3) If you were to do it over again, what would you do differently?

Finally, the end of our discussion on Thursday was a bit of a downer- after suspending disbelief on two levels (allowing for the countries to be far more cooperative than they might otherwise be, and allowing for country groups to pledge more aggressive action than might be realistic), we found that the efforts were still not enough. What does this mean- that we shouldn’t even try? Find another way?

Please post your comments early. We will discuss them in class on Thursday after discussing our last reading.

After the second day, there were two issues that I heard the most about:1) what should be done about getting more participation in the discussion, and 2) should the group be focusing almost exclusively on funding environmental action in the developing world? Address both of these issues by stating whether you think each is a concern, and if there is something that should be done about it. Please post your comments by noon on Monday.

After the first set of presentations and starting discussion, what is one aspect of the climate conference that you would either change or one thing that you would do that hasn’t been done? Focus on what will lead to a more successful climate conference. Be as specific as possible, thinking about what you would like to see put into place for Thursday or next week.

In this blog post, reflect on the mock hearing that was held in class on Thursday. In this role-playing exercise, several advocacy groups presented their views on the proposed legislation, and the Senators and the Public Advocacy Group had a chance to comment on how well those proposals would work in support of the goal to lessen America’s dependence on foreign oil. Think about how well this role-playing exercise was handled and comment on the following:

1) what are the benefits of using a role-play in place of a class reading discussion?
2) how should the instructor evaluate a student’s performance in a role-play exercise?
3) how should the goal of the role-play be established: should it be set by the instructor, or should the role-players have some say?

Please post your comments by noon on Monday, October 4th.

Comment here on the reading for Thursday – “A Functional Analysis of the Environmental Movement After 100 Years: The Pragmatists and the Radicals,” David Knapp and Michael Spangle, Speaker and Gavel

Brian will lead discussion, and is planning to post the handout online on Wednesday afternoon.

Post your response to the class prompt under comments for this post. Comment on two items: give an example of how ‘natural selection’ is used outside of discussion of Darwin, and give some comparison of how ‘natural selection’ was used by Darwin, and how it is popularly used today. Please enter your post by Monday evening-

Welcome to the blog for Comm 205 taught by Dr. Anand Rao in Fall 2010. This blog will host course materials, student grade pages, as well as the blog entries for student comment (announced in class). The password for protected class pages will be provided in class. Student grade pages will be protected using the passwords provided to the instructor.

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