book report

CON E 101 Construction and Culture Spring 2017

BOOK REPORT ASSIGNMENT Part 2

You are assigned to a group in which one person has read each of at least three of the four books from the individual report. With your group, develop answers to the following questions and provide in a short report. Your report should read as a SINGLE report, NOT as a combination of reports from different people. You will have to work together to develop a consistent format and voice for the final submission. 1. Attach your individual reports from 03/03 as appendices. 2. Summarize, in a total of no more than one page, the (key) events described in the four

books. Summarize a comparison of the events by completing the following table. This table should be included in the report. Highlight important similarities and differences in text that accompanies and references this table.

Location of Structure (s)

Time Period of Construction, Fire

Impacts of the Fire Most important factors that led to the fire and the loss of life

3. Compare and contrast the ways in which structures failed as a result of the disasters.

These disasters occur over a long period in the 1900’s. Do you think that there is evidence from one to the next that the built environment is improving, or that people otherwise learned lessons from the earlier fires to make the built environment better support people surviving the disaster? You are encouraged to think broadly about this question, including issues such as escape routes, beyond simply the details of construction.

4. Compare and contrast the impact of other factors on the affected locations (such as

bad luck, location, current events, political systems, etc. – things other than the way the places were built).

5. Compare and contrast the ways in which the built environment influenced survival in

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ways? You can work from your answers to these questions in your individual reports (be specific, and argue from evidence)

6. In what SPECIFIC ways do you think things would be different if the same disaster

struck today? In other words, do you think we have learned anything?

CON E 101 Construction and Culture Spring 2017

NOTES ON GROUP FUNCTION: Your group will have the following deliverables: 1. SUMMARY of your plan for completing the work and an OUTLINE for the report. DUE IN CLASS 04/10. Your plan should list specific assignments for individual members of the group. For each section, you should have one or two people responsible for drafting the section, and one or two responsible for reviewing. Each person MUST have sole responsibility for reviewing or drafting at least one section, and no person may participate in both parts for a single section. Your OUTLINE should provide a detailed breakdown of the sections, with specific points to be made and supporting arguments and facts. It should be developed and reviewed by the same parties outlined above. 2. REPORT DRAFT DUE IN CLASS 04/21. This should be a draft version of the report. It may not be complete by this time, but holes requiring more work should be identified, and the logic of your report should be clear. 3. THE FINAL REPORT will be due AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS on MONDAY 05/01. I expect a professional report in the range of 7 to 10 pages. If I suspect that your report does not represent all members, I may ask you to turn in markups from each person in a group with edits of the next-to-last version. Therefore, you should keep those until grades are returned. 4. A SURVEY of your group will be conducted at the end of the process. The survey will take place in class and will be mandatory (date to be announced). Grades will be assigned based on a combination of the group performance and the balance of the group’s assessment of your individual performance. Part of the survey will include questions regarding your personal familiarity with ALL aspects of the group’s conclusions. No grade will be assigned to the members of the group until all surveys completed.