showcase

Self & Society

Showcase

Rather than a traditional final exam, this class will end with a Showcase: a gathering of minds, a reflection on 10 weeks of intensive study, the culmination of our intellectual journey in the second half of Self & Society.

This showcase offers you a chance to express your reactions to Core creatively, in a medium of your own choosing. I encourage you to work with an idea or ideas that have been influential to you and that resonate with you emotionally because you’ll do your most gratifying work if you find something that inspires you.

Guidelines:

· Your contribution to the showcase could take the form of an original song, poem, mixed-media collage, skit, music video, painting, drawing, short story, game, rap-battle, or anything else appropriate to the class. Aim for greatness!

· You may work alone or in a group. Generally speaking, group projects should be more impressive than what one student could accomplish alone. Three students working on a sketch comedy presentation or a song with multiple instruments would be great, but three students working on a poem or small collage would be underwhelming.

· In this project, you are being given unprecedented freedom. As Sartre and Frankl would remind us, with great liberty comes great responsibility. Aim to create something that will make you smile when you look back on your second quarter of Core 4 years from now. If you have questions about your Showcase project, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Evaluation:

Your goal is to make something awesome. Thoughtful projects that show clear signs of effort will receive the highest marks. In the interest of clarity (and since this project is worth 5% of your grade), here is an evaluation rubric to gauge how your project will fare:

5 Piece is highly relevant to course ideas and texts, original in content, demonstrates a high level of effort, and presents as finished and polished.

4 Piece is relevant to course ideas and texts, somewhat original, demonstrates solid effort, and/or presents as somewhat polished.

3 Piece is somewhat relevant to course ideas and texts. Would have benefitted from more thought and revision to be more successful.

1-2 Piece may not be highly relevant or clearly original. May appear “bare minimum” or unfinished.