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Assignment: Essay on McKibben's 'Eaarth'

L David Smith
Initial Publication Date: April 29, 2016

Summary

Students are asked to investigate some question of interest related to Bill McKibben's book 'Eaarth' and write a 5-7 page essay on that topic. Sample questions are provided to guide their thinking. The paper comes at the end of five 90-minute discussions during an interterm course.


Learning Goals

The goals include: writing a coherent, well-constructed paper; synthesizing information and viewpoints gained during class discussions of the book with their own experiences; and thinking about different responses to climate change.

Context for Use

This exercise requires that students read McKibben's book critically and, ideally, discuss the material with their peers and the professor over 1-2 class periods prior to writing their paper. The assignment should be accessible to all college-age students (and advanced high school students) and is best suited to small to medium-size classes that have some climate change component in their course. Some of the sample questions could easily be modified to apply to other books on climate change.

Description and Teaching Materials

Students must have read Bill McKibben's book 'Eaarth' prior to completing the assignment

Essay on McKibben's 'Eaarth'
Instructions for 5-7 page essay eaarth_essaydirections_11 (Microsoft Word 33kB Nov19 15)

Teaching Notes and Tips

Ideally, the writing exercise would use a draft method in which the instructor comments on a draft and returns the paper to the student for additional revision.

Assessment

Improvement on the draft, in terms of writing style and content, would indicate that the learning goals were met.

References and Resources

Links to McKibben's 350.org and several climate change skeptic websites are included on the assignment

Citation

Smith, L. (2011). Assignment: Essay on McKibben's 'Eaarth'. Retrieved from http://www.camelclimatechange.org/view/assignment/51cbf16c7896bb431f6a5774