Why Do Sustainable Technologies Succeed and Fail?

Arbitrary Hour is a Spring seminar series at Student Designed Course at Olin College in Boston, MA. The goal of the course is to create a community for students who intend to enter the field of sustainability, and introduce them to the concepts that will be important for their future work and decision making in a space that is currently cluttered with misconceptions.

Course Background, Description, and Expectations

The goal of the course is to learn how to approach sustainability as an engineer and entrepreneur. Many students are interested in joining the field, but don't know how it works day-to-day, or about the wide range of opportunities available in the field.

All students enrolled in the course will be required to plan and deliver at least one seminar during the course. All students are required to give written feedback about each seminar to the seminar leader. The leader must then write a written reflection about their seminar that will be posted to the Arbitrary Hour blog for others to read. This will enable us as a group to figure out what makes an effective experience. Students are encouraged to casually post about the seminar experiences (with photos and video!) to the Arbitrary Hour blog.

As a one-credit course, each week includes three hours of expected work time. This translates into a one-hour seminar, and a one-hour feedback requirement. During the week in which a participant is delivering a seminar, they are expected to spend an additional two hours planning their seminar, and two hours reviewing feedback and reflecting on their presentation.

Seminars

A thirty? minute lecturing time limit might be important. It is difficult to give an engaging one hour lecture, and a discussion or hands-on experience is likely more effective for learning.

Recording and Archiving

All talks will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube for posterity.

Competencies

Olin College employs a competency system. The following competencies will be addressed by the Arbitrary Hour course:

• Life Long Learning
• Communication

How to Join

Sign up for the Arbitrary Hour mailing list at [1]!

Olin College (and other BBOW schools) students wishing to take this "course" should contact Greg Marra, preferably before the first week of September, which is the due date for Independent Study paperwork. You must also create a Wikiversity account and add yourself to our participant list below.

External learners who would like to participate in the course are welcome. While geography may be a problem, we will attempt to be accommodating, and would love drop-in lecturers or participants! To let us know your interest, please add yourself to our participant list below!

Participants

• Greg Marra (Olin College)
• Mel Chua (Olin alum) - if I'm in the area, I'd love to drop in and watch a lecture or two, and (on a separate occasion) give one.
• Ellen Chisa Olin College Student on Leave of Absence
• Nick Hays (Olin alum) - Same as Mel. If it were at night I would try to stop by whenever I could.
• Nikolaus Wittenstein (Olin College)
• Nikki Lee (Olin College)
• Sarah Allen (Olin College) - if i drop by in the fall, I'd love to drop in or even give a lecture. Keep me updated!
• Andrea Lai (Olin College)
• Lauren Van Schepen (Wellesley College)
• Elana Altman (Wellesley College)
• Erik Kennedy (Olin College)
• Kathleen Towers (Olin College)

What Do You Want to Learn About?

Fill this space with topics you would like to learn about. Maybe someone knows a lot about it.

It's kind of like that wall from the movie Accepted.

• Car Maintenance
• Cooking
• making Dim Sum (I will be learning this summer and can theoretically teach it after --Nikki)
• international politics
• philosophy