last revised: 05.12.31

    Pre-tests will be administered at first meeting of class and post-tests will be administered at time of regularly scheduled final. These are applied in instructor's evaluation of the course and are not graded nor applied in computing final grades. However, failure to submit pre- and post-tests will result in withholding of your grade for course.

    Your Lecture grade , 3crhr, will be based equally on your participation (120 pts) and your final product, a writing portfolio with illustrations (120 pts).   Extra credit projects may be negotiated (in advance of the assignment) for the writing portfolio.   Students taking the course for Honors credit are required to include a fifth major component with topic developed in consultation with the instructor.

    [The Laboratory grade , 1 crhr, is computed separately (see below).]

    The item distribution of possible points is as follows:

PARTICIPATION

PARTICIPATION:

    Because a simulation relies on participation, your preparedness, attendance and participation in class and mutually agreed upon group meetings in class and mutually agreed upon group meetings is mandatory and "more than two unexcused absences WILL (not 'may') adversely affect your final grade." Also, I will be looking for your increasingly skillful collaborations with your peers in communication and problem solving activities.

WEEKLY JOURNAL:

    At the end of each week I expect you to submit to me a confidential journal/direct e-mail letter about your experiences in and relating to this class. This may be from your perspective as a student, from your persona's point of view, or in parts from both. You may simply cut'n'paste this from your persobnal journal/log if you wish. I will award full credit (4 pts) for a minimum of a page, 7 +/-2 paragraphs, of thoughtful description and reflection e-mailed to me before Sunday morning of each week. (15 x 4= 60 pts)

    You need to keep a copy of each entry, because these weekly journal entries will provide an important source of information for your quarterly papers (see below).

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QUARTERLY 'PROFESSIONALISM' RANKING:

    Each quarter you will evaluate all of the participants, yourself included in this ranking for professionalism, responsibility to the community, and contribution to accomplishment of class objectives. These are kinds of things that you can assess from a very different perspective from the instructors; I will do my assessment on other criteria.
    I will promptly provide each of you with confidential feedback in this regard. The results of this evaluation will NOT affect your grade, but I will impose a penalty (-7.5 points) for not submitting completed quarterly evaluation sheet. (You'll be provided a list of all participants in the class, a roster, and twice that number of points to award among them according to your best judgement; your submission and your computed rating will be kept confidential between you and me.) (4 x -7.5 = -30pts)

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ORAL PRESENTATIONS:

   (to be improved) You will be expected to present informative reports, formally and informally, on aspects of the community within your responsibility. You will be expected to participate actively in the process of the 'sign-up agendas', 'town hall meetings (simplified Robert's Rules) and editorial review of the minutes - both face-to-face in the classrooom and in meetings on-line.

You will be prepared to formally and professionally introduce yourself in persona, explain your four areas of expertise and responsibility within the community, identify persons/ positions you expect to need to be working with, and solicit constructive feedback from your colleagues. This may be extended to making an original presentation petinent to objectives of the coure at the time, or leading discussion of article from Reserve Readings. (@ 0-5 = 0-50 pts, throughout semester)

You have 10 min. to make a professional self-introduction and solicit feedback.
    I expect you to prepare and distribute a handout that outlines the essential points in your presentation, and provides space for your colleagues to fill in with their own notes.(1 x 10 =10 pts) , hard-copy handout or e-mail as appropriate.

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ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIO

    The each quarter's papers, as posted, will be assigned as required reading for the next quarter of the course. You are expected to dialogue with other students about their papers, and as you find important connections between papers, you are expected to construct reciprocal hotlinks (HTML "A NAME/ anchor name" type links).

    Each paper may earn up to 20 points, and may be edited, revised and re-written up until the last day of class. While points will be awarded on basis of the 'final' version, first versions submitted late will be penalized 10% per class period. An additional 0-40 points will be awarded for the four original illustrations. (total 120pts)

    While your Lab grade will be computed separately; the 'printed' and appropriately edited log of your 'personally guided tour' of what you have built in the simulation, and any other locals you find pertinent to include, should be included in your writing portfolio along with an accompanying ilustration.

    You may submit additional writing and illustrations done in conjunction with this class, in persona or as student, for up to 20 pts. per paper and 10 pts. per illustration, as per papers and illustrations assigned above; these must be negotiated before submission, and are limited to two. Students taking class for Honors credit MUST submit at least one paper and illustration unit, or equivalent e-product in addition to those described above.

The Quarterly Papers

• Phase I - G: Site Planning and Arrival ; I: Roles in Mars Base * paper & original illustration
• Phase II - G: Scenario and Site Development; I: Biography in the Scenario * paper & original illustration
• Phase III - G: People in Isolation and Confinement ; I: Problem-solving * paper & original illustration
• Phase IV - G: Society and Culture in Isolation and Confinement; I: Culture in Mars Base * paper & original illustration
• Lab paper & original illustration
• Honors paper & original illustration

FORMAT: Each paper must be titled, double-spaced, and equivalent to 7 +/-2pp (1250-2250 words) in length. Each paper will be posted to your website in pre-formated text These papers will constitute your primary reading assignments in Quarters II, III, and IV of the course. You are expected to seek-out places where items in other students papers are appropriate to hot-link to items in your paper(s), and to take initiative in contact the author(s) and establishing reciprocal hotlinks among the papers. You may find places in their papers that you would like to link to. In regards feartures such as citations, titling of illustrations and/or tables, etc., papers must conform to the style of The American Anthropoligist or Human Organization.

At the end of the semester the content of all student websites will be down-loaded onto an archival CD.

    By the end of Phase I you are expected, as the Mars Settlers, to have answered the questions of who you each and all are, what year it is, how you have gotten here, why (and where) you are going to permanently settle Mars, what you are going to be doing here, how you intend to survive and thrive here, and you must have a preliminary design for the habitat that you intend to build on the surface -and in the MUD. In this regard you should discuss among yourselves in some detail, in class or out, in the MUD or face-to-face/ f2f), what is possible, what is probable, and what is preferable.
    In designing your Habitat you will need to consider what needs have to be met for individuals, what needs have to be met for the group as a whole, and therefore what kinds of occupational roles must be present in your community. An early session of class will be dedicated to this discussion.

We specify four broad categories of roles: * Mission, * Base-keeping, * Defense, * Personal, discretionary -
and expect you to collaboratively identify all the possible needs in each of the first three categories, and allocate responsibilities among your population to cover all your needs.

    Individually you must decide where YOU fit in, which area(s) of community needs are going to be your areas of expertise, responsibility, and authority. And this must necessarily be a public process, very much like a political caucus. This will be the topic of your first oral presentation, and of your first paper. Your paper should substantiate your expertise by including a guide to resources you have found searching the libraries, the Internet, etc.     In this, and all subsequent papers, I expect you to use citations from, and not limited to, the assigned reading and independent research as they apply, or can be applied, to your particular situation.

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    Building your habitat (negotiating with the planet, and the Net), and negotiating with the other communities undoubtedly will introduce some changes in your plans; you must accommodate these changes and explore and accommodate -and explain- their consequences. And both the General Scenario and inhabitable community must be ready to go to CONTACT 2005, 18-20 March at the NASA-Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA. (Top eight students will receive scholarships for travel, room and registration.)

    Individually you are expected to be collecting more information and applying your expertise, working with your colleagues, members of other communities and, perhaps, Adjunct Faculty, to design and 'build' those parts of the community for which you have responsibility and authority - and comensurate resources. Your second paper will chronicle who you are, and how you got here within the constraints of the Scenario, your persona's work experience up to now; what have been the challenges, frustrations, surprises, and finally what have you accomplished, what have you learned, and what's next to accomplish.
    This paper can be written in 1st or 3rd person, or alternate between the two.

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    Your third paper is a "Problem Solving" paper. You will identify a social problem which has arisen in the Simulation, and apply a template which will be presented in class to the analysis of and recomended solutions for this social problem.

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    The objective of your fourth and final paper is to look at the Mars Settlers not as individuals, but as a group, as a system, as a society and with its own culture. How did they in fact organize themselves? In conflict with what, if any, expectations? What conventions have they adapted, invented and adopted? What do only Martians know ?
    Students will read and discuss in class several of the key anthropological concepts "culture" and "world view" which will be applied in this final, summary paper.
    Your primary resources for this paper are all of your preceding writing, and that of peers which you have read. You are charged to identify a particular aspect or feature of Mars Base culture, describe its origins, development, consequences, and forseeable future.

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Illustrations

    The illustrations, in their electronic version (and they may be rendered electronicly in their creation), may be incorporated into the MUD as part of your 'building'.

    A student once asked, "You mean you want something like a Science Fair project?" and this isn't far off the mark.

Point Summaries and Grading Scales