final project

You have explored four major forward-thinking, creative trends this semester. Now you are going to focus more closely on one of them.
But before we actually get to the projects, this one has some different options, so lets visit those first.

presentation of the project

Include lots of pictures! They don’t count as text pages, but they make your ideas clearer and a lot more fun.

The "paper" itself can be done a variety of ways:

NOTE: If you choose to do this as a blogsite or website, you have to determine the length by word count, rather than pages. You still need to have about 1500 (or more) words of text. You can easily figure page count and/or word count if you compose the text in Word and then copy/paste the different parts of the paper into the different sections of your site. I do understand that the spacing, margins, etc. will not conform to MLA manuscript (paper/essay) format. The Works Cited information and all parenthetical citations, however, should conform to what you see in your MLA Works Cited file and on the Purdue OWL MLA site. E-projects should not be printed out; instead, you will e-mail me the URL of the site, so that I can access it (and be sure it is set to Public viewing, or I won't be able to access it).

a few additional requirements

ok, now choose only one of the following topics for your project
they may look oddly familiar


 

Topic 1 - Repurposing/Upcycling

This topic is ideal for those of you who have the DIY bug, who love making/crafting things, who have the urge to transform spaces in clever ways, who like to do things hands on. If you choose this topic, you will actually be creating a space that incorporates several repurposing/upcycling projects (or you will, at least, be getting a start on it).

The first thing you will be repurposing is your Too Much Stuff paper. All of that work you did won't go to waste. So unless you need to make some imporvements on that shorter paper, it could be word-for-word the first 1/2 of your Final Project.

So what's the second half?

You are going to apply those principles to an actual makeover of a significant space--your room, your living area, your back yard, your study area, your _______. And you are going to do it economically and creatively, in a way that suits your needs, by upcycling/repurposing some of that "stuff" that you have lying around. Yes, you can go out and get more stuff (wine crates, pallets, bricks, etc.), but you are trying to show you can convert unused things into useful and maybe even beautiful things.

So for the largest part of your paper, the entire second half, probably, you will have pages of detailed, step-by-step projects (which you actually do and photograph at each stage) showing your transformation of that space.

Create an overall theme or goal for your space. One student did several projects to create a romantic dining area by an outdoor fireplace. Another student wanted to create an entire storage wall for ZERO DOLLARS (and she did); fortunately, she had quite a lot lying around her house. A description of that space and the theme or goal will begin the second half of your paper (don't forget to have a transition from the first 1/2 of your paper, something like,

So repurposing has now reached a point beyond trending; it is a revolution, and looking around at all of the junk in my house, I realize it is time for me to join the revolution. My goal is to create a relaxing, beach-themed dining area by...

And off you go.

Here are some tips:

ALSO NOTE: Repurposing is not the same thing as refinishing. Please don't refinish a table or chair and show me a new version of a table or chair. Instead, find a new way to use that table or chair. Here are a few links you can look at to get ideas (remember, though, this is just for ideas; you are doing your own original upcycling with your own "stuff"):


 

Topic 2 - Alternative Housing

As I noted in the "a few additional requirements" section above, you really have laid the foundation for this project. You will use your 100-point Altenative House paper will as the first 1/2 of this Final Project. You already (should) have an opening, some historical background, some thoughts on trending, and a general idea on what your own dream house would be. You've got some research worked into that part, and you will want to get additional research material for the rest of your paper.

Which is?

In the second 1/2 of your project, which comes after you've given the reader some background, will be an expansion of the last, short paragraph in your original paper. You will describe the alternative house of your own design that you would like to live in and why (consider ecological reasons, economic reasons, lifestyle reasons, and so on); is your goal to be self-sustaining? mobile? surrounded by nature or fantasy? compact and uncluttered? mortgage free? Describe the kind of house that will give you all of those things you want; your transition from an earlier section of the paper might be

My goal is to live a simple, uncluttered, efficient life that allows me to travel the country and pursue my passion for rock climbing; to do that, my idea house would be a converted bus.

And then off you go. Design it.

Yes, the larger part of your paper (with pictures, drawings, a floorplan (absolutely required) will be your house design. There are lots of things to consider:

FINAL REQUIREMENT: regardless of which format you choose, you must include a floor plan (you could use free floor plan software on the Web, or you could sketch it out and scan it or take a photo of it). If you can also include images of "things" (maybe a wind generator you will have in the front of your house), please feel free to include those as well. Pictures do not count as text pages, but they sure make the project look better and more fun.

Here are a couple of links you can look at to get ideas:


 

Topic 3 - Intentional Community

Once again, you really have done the first half of this assignment. In your shorter intentional communities paper you incorporated an opening hook, explained what Intentional Communities are (including a quoted/documented definition), gave some background information on a range of communities (which you got from your research), and briefly speculated on what sort of community you might possibly like to join in or create. And, of course, you provided a correctly-formatted Works Cited page at the end.

The last paragraph of your shorter paper explained what sort of intentional community you would imagine designing..

Now you will expand on that last short paragraph and make it the second 1/2 of your project (with pictures, drawings, a community map--absolutely required) which will describe an intentional community that you design. This is not you moving into an existing community (though you can borrow ideas from many existing ones). It needs to show your unique philosophy or passion. It needs a clear, narrow, practical focus (it cannot be something as general as "It will be filled with Mormons"). However, if you have a particuarly unusual group that falls into a small religious-or-spiritual niche (such as practitioners of Reiki or people devoted to Zazen, then that will work. If you are unsure about this, please ask. There are lots of things to consider:

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: all of the following details of your community must be researched, so, yes, you will likely need more sources.

Things such as costs and obstacles that other communities have experienced and what life is like in similar communities are not just what you IMAGINE them to be; you need to look those things up, quote, document.

FINAL REQUIREMENTS: regardless of which format you choose, you must include a Community Map showing housing, landscaping, key buildings, etc. You also definitely want to include pictures, even though pictures do not count as text pages, but they sure make the project look better and more fun. Last comes that Works Cited page (which you may have added to for this second part.


 

Topic 4 - Google Projects

Just like the other topic choices, this one will be built onto work that you have already done. Unless there were problems that need fixing in your Google Projects paper, then much of that will serve as the first 1/2 of this Final Project. You ended that by considering one specific project you would pitch to Google if you could; YOU WILL NOT BE EXAPNDING ON THAT; that is actually far too difficult for this paper because you would have to research how to make that project a reality, but it still is one possible way to conclude this project with an interestingh twist. The part you are going to expand on with a lot more detail is the part just before that last paragraph, the part where you focused on one Google Project that seemed particularly useful or inventive or necessary or creative or _______ that you thought was worth supporting. That last section might change (if you wanted to focus on a different project), or it will just be greatly expanded upon. It made up about two paragrahs in the shorter paper; here you will expand that to at least two pages with a lot more detailed examples.

This should not just be a personal opinion (such as, "I don't believe in warfare"). Instead, consider the actual implications of the project; imagine (and logically describe) what some of the positive or negative consequences might be and the impact the project might have (plus or minus). Try to be objective. Some projects are "neat" but impractical, beneficial but cost-prohibitive, tantalizing but outside the reach of current science/technology. Here is one instance (this is an expansion of an existing project; actually, it is now a discontinued project):

If the Waymo driverless car is successfully developed, one of the logical applications would be to eliminate the need for drivers of long-haul trucks. This would potentially eliminate accidents and the need for trucks to be out of service as drivers rest, but it would also eliminate hundreds or thousands of jobs. The effect to the economy might be...

You would need to research (use authoritiative, documented quotations in much of this section) that shows (in detail) some of the safety projections, some of the instances that have made the news. Do some research on the cost in jobs, etc. Make comparisons with driverless Uber cars, etc.

Here are some tips:

And here are a couple of sites on the Google Mural Project (just so you can see some examples; you must pick a different project):

sample assignments

Check out the Sample Student Papers folder in the Files section of Canvas :)