Assignments

This section contains some of the assignments from this class, as well as proposal instructions designed to guide students towards their final project work.

Assignment 1 (PDF)

Assignment 2, Part 1 (PDF)

Guidelines for Writing Effective Essays (PDF)

Pre-NOLA Visit: A First Proposal Working Session

Step 1: Synthesize a set of primary goals that your group has identified as essential to the future of New Orleans. These goals can be anything as long as you are convinced of their primacy. Describe each goal with one sentence. Write a short paragraph describing the relationship between these goals: symbiotic, contradictory, mutually exclusive, etc. 15-20 minutes

Step 2: Now, define the scope of work that you believe would be required to bring about the goals you have identified. The work required should address key infrastructure and design issues while outlining the major political and social implications. 15-20 minutes

Step 3: Finally, organize a presentation in which you state your goals, describe the work involved to reach those goals and describe the city as it would be after your proposals were accepted and implemented. Why would the city be a better place? 10 minutes

Term Project Proposal

Please provide the following in a one page submission:

  1. Topic and Need: Specify the general topic of interest (such as education, employment, housing etc.) and the actual need that you are interested in addressing, such as high school drop-out rate, high unemployment for persons between 18 and 25, dramatic rises in real estate costs, etc.
  2. Systems Focus: Specify the actual components of the physical and non-physical systems that you are interested in developing or altering in some way. This includes physical resources such as workshop space, transportation (buses), infrastructure, and nonphysical resources such as curricular structures, business development models, health care provisions etc.
  3. Sustainable Plan: Specify a process by which your proposal is sustained into the future.
  4. Products: Specify the most appropriate products to address the topic you are addressing.