Course Objectives & Requirements

HIST 695 Field Experience

Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes

 

Graduate students can enroll for three hours credit or for six hours credit. The 3-credit-hour option focuses mostly on the experiential phase of the course in the field, 12-19 July. The 6-credit-hour option entails some additional preparation for the experiential phase and considerable follow-up involving individual work. Further details are given in tables below.

 

Here are the objectives of the course. On completion, students should be able to

 

1.      Articulate the role and rationale for earth buildings in the historical culture of the Great Plains

2.      Identify and describe the five types of earth building traditions on the plains

3.      Demonstrate mastery of techniques for restoration of earth buildings

 

Requirements for 3 Graduate Credit Hours

Activity

Time Period

Products

Evaluation

View & discuss DVD, Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie

1-11 July

Online contributions to Facebook discussion board

Reflective review by Prof. Isern

Read & discuss literature from the course bibliography

Full participation in study tour, with accompanying lectures, of historic earth building sites across western North Dakota

12-19 July

Field journal, to be maintained in hard copy and submitted to Prof. Isern at end of experiential phase

Reflective review by Prof. Isern

Full participation in restoration activities at Hutmacher farmstead

12-19 July

Post-assessment

19-30 July

Completion of online form assessing instruction & learning in the course

Not graded – participation only

 

Requirements for 6 Graduate Credit Hours

Activity

Time Period

Products

Evaluation

View & discuss DVD, Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie

1-11 July

Online contributions to Facebook discussion board

Reflective review by Prof. Isern

Read & discuss literature from the course bibliography

Identification and planning of individual research project

1-11 July

Proposal made & refined via Facebook discussion board

Approval of project by Prof. Isern

Full participation in study tour, with accompanying lectures, of historic earth building sites across western North Dakota

12-19 July

Field journal, to be maintained in hard copy and submitted to Prof. Isern at end of experiential phase

Reflective review by Prof. Isern

Full participation in restoration activities at Hutmacher farmstead

12-19 July

Post-assessment

19-30 July

Completion of online form assessing instruction & learning in the course

Not graded – participation only

Completion of individual research project

20 July – 15 August

Research paper submitted to Prof. Isern as Word doc attached to email – see specifications for graduate papers

Qualitative evaluation by Prof. Isern

 

Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes