office: Walker 115 (337-2393)

email: perkinsr@queens.edu

office: Walker 119 (337-2260)

email: steinmej@queens.edu

This course will explore the vital, and often conflicted, relationship humans have with rivers. Floods bring destruction, but also the fertile soil for new life. Rivers are home to intricate ecological systems, but are also transportation arteries driving economic growth and the quality of human life. From nearly any perspective, rivers are central to understanding the human experience on Earth. In this semester’s journey, we will ask some fundamental questions: How do rivers work ecologically? How have rivers guided human history? How have rivers shaped us---economically, recreationally, artistically, spiritually? We will consider how answers to these questions change as you move from headwaters to the ocean. The focus will be on the Catawba River, but we will also consider major river systems throughout the world.

Course objectives:

By the end of the term, students should:

93 A   90 A-  87 B+   83  B   80 B-   77 C+  73 C

WebBoard Entries         15

Final Paper                    30

Group Presentation        20 

Field Trip and Response 10 

Participation                   12 

Individual Presentation    10

There are assigned readings for nearly every class session. Because the strength of our discussion (and depth of our learning) depends on thoughtful reflection of each reading prior to class time, we are asking you to participate in a web log discussion of the readings. For your web log contribution, please mention one of the main points from the reading, how well you think the author (or authors) succeeds, and your reaction to the authors’ ideas. Responses should be at least a short (but thoughtful) paragraph in length, though you are certainly welcome to write more. In particular, try to frame your thoughts to coincide with the major perspectives we are exploring this semester (i.e., economic, recreational, spiritual, artistic, and environmental). You are required to submit at least one entry per week for 11 weeks of the semester. These entries must be submitted by midnight on the Sunday before each class. In addition, you are required to submit at least five response entries over the semester. A response entry responds to the web log contributions of your classmates. These must be posted by 9:00 pm on the Monday before each class. The WebBoard can be found at:

http://webboard.queens.edu:8080/~honors220

In this paper, we are asking you to develop more completely your ideas how any one of the five perspectives might be blended or contrasted with any other perspective. For example, you might be interested in examining how a spiritual perspective toward rivers might connect with one of conservation. We hope you will be able to use web log entries as a basis for much of this paper. To further build your insights, you are required to reference five outside sources in your paper. At least one source should be a detailed case study. The paper should be of sufficient length for you to fully develop your argument about the connections between the perspectives you choose. We are not overly concerned with the length of the paper, but 8-15 pages seems reasonable.

There are ten possible combinations of the five major perspectives. All students who have chosen the same two perspectives will become a group (or two groups if the number is large). The presentation will require a synthesis of group members’ views on the connections between the two perspectives, each person to have a speaking role, and enough specific examples to demonstrate your main points.

There will be two weekend, overnight field trips this semester. Each student is required to participate in one trip. Participation in a second trip is strongly encouraged. Transportation, housing, lodging, and itinerary details will be discussed as each trip approaches.

Headwaters Trip (Sat Feb 12 - Sun Feb13) – The first trip will be to the Appalachian Mountains and the headwater streams of the Catawba River. The goal is to experience the Catawba River at one of its points of origin. We will be staying in cabins.

Estuary Trip (Fri Apr 15 – Sun Apr 17) – The second trip will be to Charleston, SC, where the Catawba River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. This trip will require a fair amount of sea kayaking. On Saturday, we will kayak to an island near the shore and camp overnight.

Each student is required to prepare a short response paper following the field trip. In this response, your goal is to make connections between what we observe in the field and what we’ve discussed in class. We will give you more details as the trips approach.

*All readings are on reserve in the library.