You might be surprised that many of this course’s learning objectives don’t have anything to do with learning the “facts” of the past. This is deliberate, as while this course is about the past, it’s just as much an opportunity to further develop good habits and skills for college, grad school, or the workplace.

1.    Demonstrate genuine curiosity about the past by asking thoughtful or productively provocative questions—and trying to find initial answers to those questions.

1A. Craft (and, if necessary, revise) a question about the past that others say they find interesting.

1B. Write a series of questions that are increasingly complex.

1C. Engage in lively conversations about the past with other students in the course.

1D. Find a relevant, reputable article on the open web. 

1E. Locate relevant books in the library catalog.

1F. Find relevant peer-reviewed articles in the library’s subscription databases.

2. Initiate research into the past, and formulate arguments about it based on reliable evidence, critical thinking, and some cognitive associative leaps.

2A. Identify a research question.

2B. Identify historians already working on this subject.

2C. Analyze the work of those historians: identify arguments, evaluate their use of sources, determine the validity of their arguments.

2D. Synthesize the work of scholars to construct a challenging, arguable thesis.

2E. Make novel connections among disparate historical and cultural phenomena.

2F. Draw on objectives 1A-1F while using evidence to support an argument.

3.  Explain how they are part of complex systems engineered over many generations, and how their values may align or conflict with those of these systems’ developers.

3A. Craft a definition of engineering.

3B. Explain how an engineered system reflects habits, beliefs, and values.

3C. Analyze how and explain why, in some situations, people resist engineered systems.

3D. Create a visual representation of the systems of which one is a part.

3E. Delineate how one’s values came to be—or not be—represented by a system, and how systems may influence one’s values.

4. Communicate their knowledge about the past to different audiences, in ways that are meaningful and relevant to the student and each audience.

4A. Identify the needs, interests, and motivations of various audiences and stakeholders for diverse historical projects and programs.

4B. Participate in discussions with other students on the course discussion boards.

4C. Communicate with other students during a group project.

4D. Complete a project in a genre a practicing historian would use.

5.   Understand, and even empathize with, people from cultures unlike their own (and/or remote from them in time and place).

3B: Explain how an engineered system reflects habits, beliefs, and values

3E. Delineate how one’s values came to be—or not be—represented by a system, and how systems may influence one’s values.

5A. Compare and contrast another culture’s engineered system to a congruous system of which the student is a part.

5B. Ask questions that demonstrate empathic engagement about cultural practices represented in engineered structures and systems.

6.Collaborate thoughtfully with others on a complex and significant project.

6A. Assemble a team of students whose members’ strengths complement one another’s.

6B. Use analog and digital means to communicate and collaborate with other students.

6C. Synthesize, build upon, and extend course concepts in a group project.

6D. Use technology, including visual media, thoughtfully to present complex ideas to a specific audience.

6E. Assist other groups by evaluating preliminary versions of their projects.