Samples of Previous PLC Assignments

PLC has found that students greatly enjoyed summer readings like Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams, Arundhati Roy's Power Politics, and Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed.

Below is a portion of the initial syllabus for PLC term A last year:

Syllabus for PLC Sections 1 and 2-A Term 2002-First Portion: Required Reading:

• A. Lightman, Einstein's Dreams (summer)
• B. Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed (summer)
• Plato, The Dialogues of Plato (Bantam edition)
• The Republic (Dover Edition)
• D. Berlinski, A Tour of the Calculus
• Collins and Pinch, The Golem at Large
• F. S. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
• A. Roy, Power Politics
• A. Camus, the Plague
• R. Serway, Physics for Scientists and Engineers
• Varberg, Purcell, and Rigdon, Calculus (latest edition)

Each year utilizing a personality assessment called DISC, PLC forms small project teams -which can and usually do alter during the course of the term-for at least four projects (reports and powerpoint presentations). Last year's initial project notices appear below:

PLC Section 1

The presentation of these projects will occur on Thursday, September 19, beginning at 11 a.m. A luncheon will be set up for the mid-point of the presentations.

It is essential that all teams schedule rehearsals of their presentations before 19 September at 11 a.m. No presentation should exceed 15 minutes in length total, with all members of the team speaking.

The project report accompanying the Powerpoint presentation should be between 8 and 12 pages in length (typed, double-spaced), including appropriate referencing via footnotes, and feature an attached black-and-white, 6 slides-per-page printout of the Powerpoint presentation.

Use Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers, as a guide for proper footnote/endnote form.

TOPICS

1. Definitions and Demographics of Poverty: a compilation of internet sources and personal experience. The project team will collect and analyze data and statistics from various governmental sources, think tanks, and advocacy groups on the nature and extent of poverty in America. The quantitative analysis should be supplemented with personal narratives of eating at the Mustard Seed on Piedmont Street in Worcester.
2. Insull/Enron/WorldCom - The collapse and bankruptcy of utility magnate Samuel Insull's empire (Oct. 4, 1932) was the 1930s equivalent of the Enron/WorldCom debacle of our own time. Compare and contrast the two events, utilizing contemporary news coverage of both as well as historical literature.
3. Two Bubbles: A coparison and explanation for the rupture and extent of damage of Japan's economic "Bubble" in the 1990s and America's burst "Bubble" of 2000 to the present. Dissect how real estate and advanced technology played into the bursting of the bubbles - survey contemporary economic commentary on the two bubbles.
4. Analyze the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent "Great Depression." Compare the explanations offered by Frederick Lewis Allen in ONLY YESTERDAY (chapter called "Aftermath")(published in 1931) with that of John Kenneth Galbraith in THE GREAT CRASH (published in 1955). Analyze both of these "explanations" in the terms of economist Milton Friedman.
5. Political Parties and Economic Hard Times: Compare the platform of the People's Party of 1892 with the Socialist Party platform of 1912, the Democratic Party platform of 1936, and the platform put forth by candidates Robert Reich and Mitt Romney in their bid for the Massachusetts' governorship in 2002.
6. Explain the phenomenon of "homelessness" in Massachusettts with special reference to the current controversies over the PIP shelter in Worcester. Provide statistics including the changes in Medicaid policy in Massachusetts.

WRITING GUIDANCE: You may not use "this" as a stand-alone pronoun until your 31st birthday! Clarify the distinction between "its" and "it's." Clarify the use of "there," they're," and "their." Avoid constructions such as "is when," "is because," "of how," and "the fact that."

PLC Section 2

The presentation of these projects will occur on Thursday, September 19, beginning at 11 a.m. A luncheon will be set up for the mid-point of the presentations.

It is essential that all teams schedule rehearsals of their presentations before 19 September. The presentation should take no more than 15 minutes per project, with each team member speaking in equal time segments. An additional question and transition time should not exceed 5 minutes. -spaced), including appropriate referencing via footnotes, and feature an attached black-and-white, 6 slides per page printout of the Powerpoint presentation.

Use Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers as a guide for proper citation form.

TOPICS

1. Robert Goddard at WPI: Utilize archival materials in Gordon Library and net resources.
2. The Physics/Math of Rocketry: thorough explanation of the physics and math of rocket motion, with illustratiuons and exposition of the so-called "rocket equation."
3. Herman Oberth and his relation to SDI (German rocket pioneer, comparable to Goddard, perhaps).
4. Von Braun, Peenmunde, and Operation Paperclip: America's utilization of Nazi scientific talent after World War II.
5. Understanding SALT I and II, the ABM Treaty and SDI: and why the U.S. withdrew from the ABM Treaty (begin with John Newhouse's book, Cold Dawn, and net sources.
6. The rocket and spaceship imagery incontemporary popular culture: from sci-fi fiction to films including andalysis of 2001: A Space OIdyssey, Apollo 13, and October Sky

WRITING GUIDANCE: You may not use "this" as a stand-alone pronoun until your 31st birthday! Clarify the distinction between "its" and "it's." Clarify the use of "there," "they're," and "their." Avoid constructions such as "is when," "is because." "of how," and "the fact that."

Project-based Learning Community
Worcester Polytechnic Institute - 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280
Phone: +1-508-831-5215 - Fax: +1-508-831-5485 - plc@wpi.edu