Honors 221: The be-wilding of science or scientific bewilderment
Conservation philosophy for the 22nd century
Jeremy Littell
Winter, 2012 Having spent considerable time hiking and exploring national forests and wilderness areas, I thought I had an idea of what “wilderness” meant. However, taking Jeremy Littel’s class made me think about and interrogate the concept of wilderness in a new light. Learning about conservation and wilderness conflicts from the past, I was able to draw parallels to today. My “radio spot” project allowed me to take interests and skills from other classes and disciplines (politics, sound design, theatre) and apply them in a humorous yet insightful way by researching the historical conflicts and differing viewpoints surrounding the development of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir area in the early 1900’s. This project also tied into one of Jeremy’s key focuses of the class: communication about scientific concepts. Distilling the key elements of each side’s core arguments in the Hetch Hetchy debate into a 30-second commercial forced me to think critically about what the most important aspects of each argument were, and how best to communicate them to an audience that might be unfamiliar with the particulars of the policies and issues in question. |
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