updated 12/03/06

 

"Only connect! . . .Live in fragments no longer.”  E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910), ch. 22

"We go for a walk in nature, we see a beautiful sunset — we breathe the order in through our senses, we feel connected. The inside begins to mirror the magnificent outside. In the Vedic tradition that connectedness is called 'yoga.'”

Chris Adamason, Vedic Architecture http://www.newlifejournal.com/aprmay04/adamson_0504.shtml

image of a hammer    image of a hammer    image of a hammer

‘One day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are half-asleep, ‘Hammer* your thoughts into unity’. For days I could think of nothing else and for years I tested all I did by that sentence [...]” William Butler Yeats, Nobel Prize for Literature (cited in Frank Tuohy, Yeats, 1976, p.51)

*hammer images "Thor's Hammer is a symbol of the struggle against chaos and evil. It's the weapon used by Thor against giants, monsters, and other trollish folk who threaten the common good. It seems particularly appropriate in these troubled times" (http://www.ragweedforge.com/ThorsHammer.html). See especially http://www.mackaos.com.au/Articles/Mjol.html

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Explore U. T.!

a freshman seminar

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subject to change

MAKE SURE TO "REFRESH" YOUR SCREEN EACH TIME YOU VISIT THIS PAGE TO GET THE LATEST VERSION

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The importance of READING DIRECTIONS in this course.

In terms of your future success even more important than reading literature with care is the ability to read directions carefully and follow them fully and faithfully. Employers regard that as a key asset, and of course see weakness in this area as a serious liability. You can not expect an employer to hold your hand throughout an assignment the way you may have expected your parents or previous school teachers to do so. Now that you are in college you must make the transition clearly stated in the traditional address to Freshmen at Amherst College. On the other hand, if, after reading the directions carefully, you still have questions, and you probably will, you are strongly encouraged to ask questions in class, email the instructor, or come to see him in his office hours. I look forward to getting to know you and helping you in any way that I can. I want you to succeed here!

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FS 301 06 SCHEDULE

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Formal Writing due dates

P1 = Personal Vision;

P2 = Leadership Vision,

A = Electronic B = hard copy

 

Sept. 26: P1A electronic

post on Blackboard Discussion Board

Oct. 3: P1A hard copy

Oct 17: P1B

Oct. 31: P2A post

Nov. 7: P2A hard copy

Nov. 28 P2B

Dec. 18 or earlier : Portfolio due in Par 132 1:30-3 OR -100 POINTS

Dec. 19 or earlier: Portfolio picked up, Par 132 1:30-3 OR -100 POINTS

UNLESS YOUR PORTFOLIO IS ENTIRELY ELECTRONIC YOU MUST PICK IT UP OR LOSE 100 POINTS

Informal Writing due dates

Sept. 19 Psychological Type Essay

REQUIRED DISCUSSION BOARDS [RDB]

Oct. 10 UT heroes: stories; Texas our Texas

Oct. 24  U. T. Landscape Architecture

Nov. 21 Ruskin, “The Nature of Gothic”

Dec. 5  Unity

REQUIRED CLASS PRESENTATIONS

Road Maps: Sept. 12

REQUIRED CLASS EXCURSIONS  

Sept. 24, 1-3:15, Downtown architecture

Nov. 12, Landscape Architecture: Taniguchi gardens

EXTRA CREDIT SCAVENGER HUNTS

SHELLS

HAMMERS

IMAGES OF THE FEMALE

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EXTRA CREDIT ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE RANCH PARTY: OCT. 21

 

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RDB=Required Blackboard Discussion Entries Due; ODB=Optional Blackboard Discussion Entries Due; C = Class Presentation Due; P=Project Due; R= Responses to Projects Due; I=In-class writing project

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Sept. 5 Par 104: Questionnaires + Time Management Plan due Course Introduction, Journaling, etc.Introduction to reading and writing with computers, including BLACKBOARD, webspace, MOO, hypermedia, etc.

BRING TO CLASS YOUR TIME MANAGEMENT MATERIALS, ALL YOUR CLASS BOOKS, AND QUESTIONS:

Time Management

Learning Skills Center Motivation and Goal Setting site

Learning Skills Center Time Management Site

Learning Skills Center Procrastination Site

Semester Planning Form

Monthly Planning Form

Daily Planning Form

Our virtual model of a world to which you can contribute now: find openings, opportunities for you in the world: MAPPA MUNDI (just hit Enter for the password; Mac users use Firefox

Sept. 12 Par 104 :

C Road Map Due: The Power of Places in Your Life: How Your Places  Have Made You Who You Are. Where Did You Come From? Where is Your Home? What Is Your Pilgrimage, Your Ultimate Goal in Life?

  • Assignment Due: Bring to class a visual representation of the various "places" you have experienced over the course of your life. You may think of your life not in terms of places but in terms of people or whatever. However, remember that the goal of this exercise is to raise your consciousness of the power of places in your life: houses, schools, churches, playgrounds, places in nature, etc. To earn maxiumum credit, keep the focus on the power of places and spaces in your life. sense of place To get a sense of the power of such places as houses, schools, churches, and places in nature, see the readings below.
  • The actual oral presentation of the Road Map is a very small part of the assignment, lasting only five minutes or so. The emphasis is primarily on visual rather than verbal rhetoric. To see what is meant by visual rhetoric see the readings below. Because students will have so little time to look at your Road Map in class, it is particularly valuable to have an electronic version of your Road Map that we can put on our website. However, I will take a pictures of physical road maps for our website as well.
  • The Road Map can be in the form of a graph or a mandala or a map or computer program or ......  Many students make Power Point presentations which they put on a CD which we can play in class and then put on our website. Some make websites. However, a website or Power Point version, while recommended, is not required. You can do a physical version instead, if you wish, as many others have done before you.
  • For electronic examples and pictures of physical road maps, see below
  • This will become part of your portfolio.
  • Speaking of portfolios and websites, instead of using webspace.utexas.edu for a website, I ask that you use the "Content System (trial)" in Blackboard. It is designed by the same people who did webspace and has the same limitations, but by putting assignments in the Blackboard Content System you will be able to collect them all together quickly at the end of the semester in a Portfolio (required).
  • Remember, if you do an electronic Road Map to get credit you must put it on a CD and turn the CD in to the instructor for transfer to our website. The CD should be tested before the presentation.
  • Also, consider using shells to mark the stations of your pilgrimage, see
  • 576-577          Iconography of scallop shell stone carvings at U. T
  • scallop shell stone carvings at U. T.

Road Map Presentations, 05 Freshman Seminar --those pointing at screens are Power Point presentations

Road Map Power Point, 05 Freshman Seminar

sRoad Map Presentations, 04 Freshman Seminar

print guidelines:

293                        Road Map of Places in Your Life

294-297                Road Map of Your Journey

consider using shells mark the stations of your pilgrimage, see 571-572 "Iconography of scallop shell stone carvings at U. T"

     goals and inspirations of the Road Map Presentations:

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VISUAL AS WELL AS VERBAL RHETORIC

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216-223           Shifting to the Visual Mode: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

224-234            “Semiotics,” from The World is a Text

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THE POWER OF  PLACE

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235-236            Where do you belong? Placeways: theoria, haptic perception, expressive space, pathetecture, selective support, mutual immanence, Plato’s doctrine of place

237-241            Place theory or topistics:  Nature and the Idea of a Man-made World

242-246           Terms for sense of place: genius loci, querencia, inscape, instress

247                    Lopez, an introduction

248-252            Lopez, “A Literature of Place”

NATURE AS PLACE

253                 Wordsworth,  “Michael, A Pastoral Poem”

HOME AS PLACE

254                Pater, introduction

255-257          Pater, “The Child in the House”

SCHOOL AS PLACE

280                 Dickens, introduction

281-284          Dickens, from Hard Times

285-288          Shideler, “The Classroom’s Sense of Place”

289-292A        Pink Floyd, “The Wall”

292B-E            College as Place

580-581        the experience of place at Oxford

292F                 "Sacred" Places

INTERNET "READING"

sense of place

semiotics

iconography

scallop shell stone carvings at U. T.

other examples of road maps from  last year's Senior Seminar , E375L last spring, E320M, The previous E320M , E603 last year , Previous E603

other examples of electronic road maps: from last year's Senior Seminar: Amy , Andrew , Kristin , Mali ,Nicole ,from E603:Victoria, Jessica,Brette

person/place connections in MAPPA MUNDI

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Anonymous Student Feedback

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Sept. 19 Par 104: Self-Reflective Essay Due, practice for your first essay:

"Who Are You? " said the Caterpillar (repeatedly). Are you an introvert or an extravert or .....?  

Take the psychological “type” test of the Meyers-Briggs variety, such as that at http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

Print out the results and include them in your document. Then check out the descriptions of the related learning styles in our course anthology and add a evaluation of a page or two of how well you believe "your" learning and writing styles describe you as a reader and writer.

148-151             Teaching/Learning Styles

152-160            Writing Styles

[ODB] READING ASSIGNMENTS * DISCUSSION  BOARD, LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY, and CLASS DISCUSSION ALSO DUE:

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INTERNET "READING"

for today's assignment

Origin of Universities

Carnegie Report

U. T. Tower

U. T. Discovery Learning Site

Logic of the Humanities

Victoria's R. L. Moore ghost on the MOO (Mac users use Firefox)

Passing the Torch

Generations

Generations II

Books by Margaret Catherine Berry on the history of the University of Texas

MOO as world to which you can contribute: MAPPA MUNDI (Mac users use Firefox)

review, connect, hammer into unity:

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for next time:

LOOKING AHEAD:  INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR FIRST FORMAL ESSAY:

70-77                        Your Personal Vision

78-88                        Lee, Discovering the Leader in You

62-69                        Leadership and EQ

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Sept.  26: Par 104:   P1A POSTED BEFORE CLASS. P1A electronic version: post on the Blackboard "Project One" Discussion Board before class

Optional Discussion Board: Traditional Heroes:

EXAMPLES FROM WORLD HISTORY

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919                         Emerson, Introduction

920-921            Emerson, Representative Men

922                        Yudof on Religion at College

923-960            Jesus           

961-965A            “Ahimsa,” Gandhi’s tradition

965B                        Gandhi biography

965C                        King biography

966-968            King, “I Have a Dream”

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review, connect, hammer into unity:

179                “The Mystery”

180-181            GHOSTS: Ancestral Voices of The Collective Unconscious as Inspiration

182                        Steinmark tribute before each game

183-199         Key to HRC ghost windows

Experiencing the ghosts at U.T.: an example

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Sept. 27-30: R Collaborative Creativity

60-61                        How to Respond to the Projects of Others*

How to Respond to Other Students' Projects

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Anonymous Student Feedback

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Oct.  3: P1A hard copy due:   Project instructions 

ODB: UT students as leaders: Willie and Cecilia Morris

OCT. 21 Class "Ranch" Party

 

directions

Pied Beauty, the ranch

Pied Beauty, the horse

Babe: the story

Babe: the sequel

Tex and Bob

Jenny and Bottom

the other critters

 

Oct  24 Par 104: Tower Garden

REQUIRED THIRD-HOUR EXCURSION

 

RBD: Landscape Architecture: Natural Retreats / Recharge Zones

"and then -- she found herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains."

I

638-639           Klingenborg, Without Walls

640                  Definition of “garden”; “Arcadian golden age”

641-643          Tower Memorial Garden

644-645           Forster, introduction

646-651           Forster, “The Other Side of the Hedge”

652-654           Arnold, introduction,

655                 Arnold, “Kensington Gardens”

656-657          Definitions of bucolic, pastoral, etc.

INTERNET "READING"

Project P2A instructions

U. T. Tower Garden/ Biology Ponds

Tower Garden

aka Biology Ponds

two students at the Biology Ponds

more students at the Biology Ponds

review, connect, hammer into unity:

314- 317       Newman, The Site of a University,

review time management, stress, and need to learn concentration, "relax[ing] and do nothing rather frequently," the VALUE OF MEDITATION: Improved Mental Abilities: Increased intelligence, increased creativity, improved learning ability, improved memory, improved reaction time, higher levels of moral reasoning, improved academic achievement, greater orderliness of brain functioning, increased self-actualization.

http://www.tm.org/research/home.html

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for assignment due next time:

Alice says to the Cheshire Cat: "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

Project P2A instructions

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Oct 31, Par 104:  P2Apost before class, and then Meet at Dobie's house 702 E. Dean Keeton St. (now the Michener Center for Writers). Opposite chilling station no. 4 and the law school.

REQUIRED THIRD-HOUR EXCURSION

 

Who Are You? A Longhorn?

ODB  The Dobie walk: literature, sculpture, art, and architecture.

"The 'plot of earth' where he was born, [Dobie] said, 'has said more to me than any person I have known, or any writer I have read, though only through association with fine minds and spirits have I come to realize its sayings.' "

Project P2A instructions

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Nov. 7, P2A hard copy

General Project P2A instructions

Specific Requirements: Turn in P2A hard copy in your folder with the copies of P1A and P1B that have my comments on them and your highlighted list of suggestions from others for P2A and, if you want credit for them, your suggestions to others, all in the proper format. REMEMBER TO CHECK VERY CAREFULLY FOR PUNCTUATION, MECHANICAL ERRORS, AND THE ERRORS YOU MADE ON P1A AND P1B BECAUSE THE PENALTIES WILL NOW BE MULTIPLIED BY THREE FOR MAKING THE SAME ERRORS!

REQUIRED THIRD-HOUR EXCURSION

 

Meet at Bob Bullock Story of Texas museum at Martin Luther King Blvd. and Congress/Speedway. I   Who Are You? A Texan?

Bring writing materials and $5, or $8.50 if you are 19 or older.

In-class writing. Instructions supplied for semiotic analyses of exhibits. Semiotic analysis of "Star of Destiny" production required.

I   What is a Texan? What is the relation between nature and civilization in Texas?

338                        Map of Campus

702-704            The Bob Bullock Story of Texas Museum

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NOV. 12   I Zilker excursion: bring anthology and writing materials and meet at the Bamboo hut in the Taniguchi oriental garden at 3:30; 20 points to be earned, -20 points if you do not attend.

REQUIRED THIRD-HOUR EXCURSION

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Nov 14 : Meet at Texas Memorial Museum/ NATURAL SCIENCE CENTER

REQUIRED THIRD-HOUR EXCURSION

 

scientists and poets as heroes

ODB Why Are You Here? What Are You? An Animal? An Angel? Both? Neither? What, Where Are You in Relation to Nature? Clues in the Campus Natural History Museums.

 

OPTIONAL Discussion Board

588-592              Texas Memorial Museum guide to ghosts

593                    Eiseley, from The Firmament of Time

594                  Evolution, introduction

595-600             Darwin,  from The Origin of Species

            598-599         “The Great Tree”

601                          “The Tree of Life”

602                     Living Among Skeletons and Ghosts

603-608            Walking the Forty Acres

SPIRITUAL APPROACHES TO NATURE

609-612            “Genesis”

613-614                W. Blake, introduction

615                       W. Blake, “Auguries of Innocence”

THE PREDICAMENT

616-617                The Debate           

SOLUTIONS?

618-619             Tennyson, introduction

620-625             Tennyson, In Memoriam selections

626-627           Bump, “Science, Religion, and Personification”

 

 

INTERNET "READING"

Oxford University Museum virtual tour

Oxford University Museum images

illustrated account of The Debate at the Oxford University Museum

Texas Memorial Museum

McKinney Falls Rock Shelter (just east of Austin)

1] Read Tennyson's #123 (from (In Memoriam), which focuses on the firmament of time. This is the poem quoted on the south side of the Hogg building, referring to the time when this part of Texas was at the bottom of the sea. Relate to the quote from Eiseley's Firmament of Time.

[2] Read "Evolution" on the debate between Darwinism and the literal interpretation of the Bible. Basically, the problem was the belief that fossils and multiple strata in the crust of the earth (more than seven) meant that Genesis could not be scientifically true if taken literally. This was not necessarily a problem for a Rabbi or a Jesuit priest, but fundamentalists, then and now, who insist on a literal interpretation of the Bible were and are troubled by this.

[3] In that context read poem #56  (In Memoriam), written by Tennyson when speculated on the meaning of fossils in "scarped cliff and quarried stone." In this poem "type" means "species." As you can see, to him, fossils provide that species could become extinct, and thus according to the Darwinian interpretation, homo sapiens also could become extinct. If this is true, he feared, churches and organized religion based on the Bible could become meaningless and "love thy neighbor as thyself" reverts to the war among dinosaurs and other "dragons of the prime." Eventually he solved the problem in the same series of poems (In Memoriam), but this is a famous statement of the predicament.

[4] Read our Darwin selections to see for yourself what Darwin said.

illustrated account of The Debate at the Oxford University Museum

_Oxford's University Museum  For a virtual tour of the museum click here

REVIEW

 

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Anonymous Student Feedback

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NOV. 21; J Meet at Littlefield house 24th and Whitis.

REQUIRED THIRD-HOUR EXCURSION

Are You a Modernist or an Antimodernist? Both? Neither? A Romantic? A Goth?

RBD on 535-562   Ruskin, “The Nature of Gothic”

OBD on: " Truth to Nature” in Architecture "

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NOV. 28; P2B due, with changes highlighted, in folder with P1A, P1B, P2A, and a CD version of P2B without the highlighting.* Meet at Par 104: Spanish heritage and Renaissance style: Sutton, Battle, the Tower. We will leave from Par 104 for a tour of the President's new offices in the Tower.  

*To get a sense of what you might want to add to P2A, see the new italics in the instructions for P2A:Project P2 instructions

Otherwise, adapt the instructions for P1B: revised hard copy due --