AMST 205


MATERIAL ASPECTS OF AMERICAN LIFE

Course Description
In this course we will learn how to read objects as sources of insight about American culture. We will explore a wide variety of objects from coke bottles to motels, concentrating at the end of the course on home life in Greenbelt, Maryland in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The class will use campus computing facilities to study objects and to work on creating exhibits for a virtual museum on the Internet based on the Greenbelt Museum. Students will construct their own web pages and will be expected to take an active role in presenting their object- based research projects in class and on-line.

There are no official prerequisites for AMST 205 except students' willingness to get involved in the course, to keep up with assignments, to master the basics of communicating through electronic mail and exploring the Internet, and to share the results with the class. Our emphasis will be on developing students' skills for working through challenging problems by attempting challenging projects.

There will be eight homework assignments each worth 5 points, two projects worth 15 points each, and a final project worth 30 points. There will be no midterm or final exam.



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