Target Level: B2-C1
Description
The syllabus linked below describes a course called “Green Germany” centered around an Academic Civic Engagement project in which students met with local partners near their college campus, then did research on sustainability topics in Germany, and finally presented their findings to the local partners.
When the course was first conceived, the plan was to begin with a cultural and literary history of environmental thought in Germany and then turn to recent policy and technology developments in the final third of the course. However, through a combination of necessary restructuring when the decision was made to create the ACE project, and strategic adjustments to draw in students who might not normally take German courses, the structure was changed to the plan linked below.
The course begins with very short introduction to German environmental history and thought; at the same time, students learn about local sustainability efforts in the community around their campus. In the middle portion of the course, students conduct research through online sources and interviews with partners in Germany and Austria. At the end of the project, students give two different presentations: a public presentation in English targeted at the local partners and open to the public, and then a second presentation in German for the community of German learners on campus.
The second presentation serves as the basis for the final written project in the class, which takes the for of a personal statement (Motivationsschreiben) and project proposal (Forschungsexposé) for a grant proposal that could allow the students to transform their month-long project into a longer research project after graduation. In the final weeks of the course, students study German literature and art about the natural environment. They integrate these cultural ideas into their grant proposals, for example by discussing cultural aspects of their interest in the environment in the Motivationsschreiben, or by discussing cultural elements of German environmental thought in order to demonstrate necessary background knowledge in their Forschungsexposé.
If other instructors adapt this syllabus for their own use, the trajectory of the course will inevitably vary based on unique local contexts. Still, if you would like to hear more about this specific course, please contact the instructor, Seth Peabody, at speabody@carleton.edu.
Learning Goals (content-based)
Students will demonstrate:
- The ability to research, summarize, and synthesize relevant social, political, and economic developments related to technological advances.
- The ability to work collaboratively on group projects that draw on expertise from the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.
- The ability to compare cultural contexts in Germany and in our local community, and to make recommendations for action based on these comparisons.
- The ability to understand, analyze, and interpret a range of German-language texts about the environment and to present their findings orally and in writing in German.
- The ability to create written texts and give oral presentations on complex issues in a way that makes them accessible to a general audience, both in English and in German.
Learning Goals (for “Writing-Intensive” course attribute)
Students will demonstrate:
- The ability to write effectively in a form appropriate to a particular disciplinary or interdisciplinary course of study (in this case, German Studies and Environmental Studies).
- The ability to write as a means for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating.
- The ability to engage in writing as a systematic, iterative process, using flexible strategies for generating drafts, responding to feedback, revising, editing, and proofreading.
See a description of the IRB application materials used for the ACE project within this course.
See also this white paper for critical reflections on the course and ideas for how it might be revised.