Day 9 July 17 - Final Online Reflection

Answer the following four questions respectfully, thoughtfully and honestly:

1. How is the summer school curriculum different from the curriculum you experience during the regular school year?

2. What was the most interesting thing you learned in summer school? Explain.

3. What was your biggest accomplishment during summer school? Explain.

4. What did you find to be challenging about summer school? Explain.

5. If you could give one piece of advice to another Emerson student about summer school, what would it be? Explain.

6. If you could give one piece of advice to the Emerson summer school staff about how to structure summer school differently next year, what would you tell us? Explain.

7.  If you could recommend a topic for next year's summer school, what would that be and why? 

8.  How could you incorporate English, History, Math and Science into that topic? Explain.

Day 8 July 16 - Paper Beats Plastic?

View the video and answer the questions that follow…

1.   Why may paper bags be worse for the environment than plastics bags?

2.   Why are eco-materials not as eco-friendly as most people think? Explain

3.  Define environmental folklore. 

4.  What is the problem with environmental folklore as a source of information? Explain

5.  How is this speaker’s view of sustainability different from the common understanding of sustainability? Explain

6.  What is life-cycle thinking?

7.  How can life-cycle thinking promote sustainability?  Explain.

8.  How did the speaker bust the myth about biodegradability? What does she discover?

9.  According to the speaker how does the way refrigerators are designed lead to increase food waste?

10.  How should refrigerators be redesigned to address food waste?

11. How does the way electric tea kettles are designed negatively impact the environment? Explain.

12. How should electric tea kettle be redesigned to address this problem?

13. How does current mobile phone design negatively impact the environment? Explain.

14. The speaker says consumption is the biggest problem.  Do you agree/ disagree? Explain. (You may need to look up the word consumption)

15.  How did this talk expand your understanding of the concept of sustainability? Explain.

16.  How can the premise of this TED talk help you as you build your “future city”?

July 15 Day 7 - Open-Source Architecture

1.  Why was Mr. Sinclair the “black sheep” in architecture school?

2. How did Mr. Sinclair make his vision a reality?

3. How did the project in Kosovo address the needs of the people that lived there?

4. Which proposed design for Kosovo surprised you the most? Why? Explain.

5. How did the project in Africa address the needs of the people?

6. Why couldn’t Africa address this need themselves? Explain.

7. Which proposed design for Africa surprised you the most? Why? Explain.

8. Explain why you have to be sustainable when you live on 4 dollars a day?

9.  Why do you think a sustainable lifestyle cannot be achieved as easily in a place like New York City? Explain.

10. How did the Siyathemba project address the needs of the people in Africa? Explain.

11. Why is it important to make the people of the community part of the design process in order to make urban planning after a natural disaster successful?  Provide an example.

12. What did it take the United Nations 20 years to add to the UN Tents that they provide as temporary housing?  How does this reinforce the main argument Mr. Sinclair is trying to make? Explain.

13. What is Mr. Sinclair’s wish?

14. Do you think Mr. Sinclair’s wish will come true? Why? Why not? Explain.

15. How can this talk help you as you build your “future city” this week? Explain with details. 

July 14 Day 6 - Retrofitting Suburbia

Retrofitting – the addition of new technology or features to older systems

Suburb – a town or other area where people live in houses near a larger city

Watch the video and answer the questions that follow…

1. In light of the definitions above and what you learned from the speaker, define “retro-fitting suburbia”

2. According to Ms. Jones, how are suburbs actually more a burden than a blessing that we should consider retrofitting suburbia? (3 ways)

3. According to Ms. Jones why is retrofitting the more practical option when it comes to urban planning?

4. Define “under-performing asphalt” according to Ms. Jones?

5. What are some of the things that can be done with a “dead mall” or “dead office park”?  Can you think of any other ideas?

6. Would Jane Jacobs, the urban planning critics from the 60s, agree or disagree with Ms. Jones ideas? Why? Explain.

7. Which examples are your favorite retrofits and why?

8. What are the retrofitting challenges for the future?

9. What challenge does Ms. Jones present to the audience? 

10. Why does retrofitting require a cultural shift as well as an urban planning shift?

11.  Do you think retrofitting is a viable idea in light of all you have learned about urban planning? Explain.

12. Which other TED talks that you have watched present similar ideas to the ones presented by Ms. Jones?

13.  How can you use this TED talk as you begin to build your “future cities” this week?

14. Do you think it is possible to create an urban lifestyle within a suburban environment? Explain with examples.

Day 5 July 11 - Let's Prepare For A New Climate

After viewing the video answer the questions below thoughtfully and in detail.

1. How is the topic of this talk different than the others you have viewed so far?

2. When most people think of the consequences of natural disasters and climate change their first thoughts are about loss of property and loss of life.  What other “distributional consequences” does Ms. Arroyo shed light on?

3. Identify 2 examples of how some cities have adapted to violent storms and floods?  Why have they been successful?

4. According to Ms. Arroyo why is understanding and adapting to the “human element” even more important than adapting infrastructure and technology when dealing with natural disasters?

5.  How did Congress adapt to the “human element” after Hurricane Katrina?

6. Identify 2 examples of how some cities have prepared for heat and drought? Why have they been successful?

7. Identify 2 examples of how some cities have adapted to rising seas? Why have they been successful?

8. According to Ms. Arroyo what legal and policy changes are available to help prepare for a new climate?

9. Why do you think most New Yorkers do not realize how vulnerable we are to climate change even after events like Super Storm Sandy and Nemo? Explain.

10. To what extent do you agree with Ms. Arroyo that when it comes to the issue of climate change we can no longer “rely on the past and established norms” to guide our planning? Explain using specific evidence from the talk.

11. How can this talk help you for when you receive your assigned geographic feature on which your “future city” will be built?

July 10 Day 4 - A New Vision For Detroit

Make sure you answer all parts of all questions specifically and thoughtfully

1. In the early history of Detroit, how did Detroit represent the American Dream for African-Americans who arrived during the First Migration?

2. What was the primary business of Detroit in its early days?

3. How was the Second Migration different from the First Migration?   What happened to the city of Detroit as a result?

4. Identify 3 ways that a depleted population results in the decline of a city?

5. What was the Third Migration? How did the Third Migration represent hope for Detroit?

6. Many Detroiters took control of vacant lots and began to build community gardens.  Why does Ms. Griffin argue planting a garden isn’t enough to revitalize a city?

7. When many people think of revitalizing a city the first instinct is to return the city to” the glory of what it was”.  How is the strategic plan of Detroit Future City different?  How is this plan for Detroit a lesson both in urban planning and in life?

8. How does the “live-make” neighborhood reflect the 3 imperatives Ms. Griffin argues are essential to making the Detroit Future City Plan work?

9. Ms. Griffin argues at the beginning of the talk that an urban planner cannot save a city.  After seeing the talk in it’s entirety, do you agree? Disagree? Explain using 3 reasons.

10. In which specific ways does this talk give you ideas for the final project?

Day 3 July 9 - Brilliant Designs To Address Overcrowding In Cities

View the video above and answer the questions below thoughtfully complete with details from the talk.

1. How has the configuration of cities changed throughout history?

2. Which invention does Mr.Larson claim permanently changed the way cities were configured in the US?

3.  What is the difference between a city and a sprawl?

4.  Why does Mr. Larson prefer the way European cities are configured? Explain.

5. Which technological innovation/ invention impressed you the most and would help "make cities more about people"? Explain.

6. How do the technological innovations/ inventions presented in the talk address the trends occurring in cities now and in the future?

7. To what extent do the technological innovations/ inventions presented in this talk solve problems? or create new problems?

8.  To what extent would Ms. Carter and Ms. Khan agree or disagree with Mr. Larson's ideas? Explain using details from all the talks.

9.  Which ideas would you like to implement into your "future city"? Why?

Day 2 July 8th - New York's Mean Streets? Not So Mean Anymore

Watch the video above and answer the questions that follow.  Make sure your answers are unique and reflect your own point of view.  Points will be deducted for answers too similar to posts by other students.  Further,do not speak generally; make sure to use specific examples from the video.

1) Ms. Khan's mantra is, "do bold experiments that are cheap to try out".  How has this mantra changed the streets of NYC? Provide specific examples complete with statistics.

2) According to Ms. Khan how does the creation of public space lead to profit? Provide specific examples complete with statistics

3) Some argue that "The thing that irks me about her talk is that it is always inferred that the masses are so appreciative and happily adopting to all of the changes happening in NYC. But reality speaks a different truth as the millions of drivers in NYC are discriminating against by this City-Planning. And the myth that everyone is riding bikes to and from all the boroughs is only partially true in the warmer months and for those living close to NYC. The rest of the people living further out into the outskirts of NYC don't have access to any of this. -So stop calling it something for everyone. IT'S NOT." In light of what you saw in the video and your own personal experiences in NYC do you agree or disagree with this argument?  Give three reasons for your  answer.

4) Does this TED Talk contradict or corroborate last night's TED Talk by Majora Carter? Explain.

5) Ms. Khan talks about the many lessons that can be learned from the re-purposing and re-imagining of NYC streets.   How can you use this TED Talk to complete your final project.  Be specific.  We expect that details from all TED Talks will be incorporated into your final presentation.

Day 1 July 7th - Is GREEN the new BLACK?

Watch the video above and answer the following questions thoughtfully:
What is the common perception of the South Bronx?
How does Ms. Carter hope to change this perception. Use specific examples.
What evidence does Ms. Carter provide to support her argument? Use specific examples from the video.
Do you think Ms. Carters hopes for the South Bronx are realistic? Explain.
How can this video help you design a future city?