Restricted to students enrolled in the GTL SLS-France program, this course introduces students to local sustainability practices in France through a combination of volunteer work, scheduled field trips, and theme-based individual projects. Conducted primarily outside the classroom, the course emphasizes experiential learning and community engagement. It is designed for students concurrently enrolled in FREN 3501 and will be conducted entirely in French.
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Gain experience in engaging directly with local sustainability initiatives in France through volunteering and fieldwork
- Demonstrate an understanding of contemporary environmental practices in a French context.
- Develop and carry out an individual, theme-based project related to sustainability, integrating field observations with academic inquiry.
- Communicate effectively in French in real-world, intercultural settings, enhancing both oral and written language proficiency.
- Develop facility in reflecting critically on the relationship between global sustainability goals and local practices, drawing connections between field experiences and broader environmental, social, and cultural issues.
- Develop cross-cultural sensitivities
No required course textbook.
All material will be provided on Canvas with PDFs documents and URL links.
Assignments / Weight (Percentage, points, etc)
Présence, Préparation, participation 10%
Field Trip/Excursion Reports (11) 20%
Project 1 (1) 10%
Project 2 (1) 15%
Field Work Video (1) 20%
Final Portfolio (1) 25%
Grading Scale
Your final grade will be assigned as a letter grade according to the following scale:
A 90-100%
B 80-89%
C 70-79%
D 60-69%
F 0-59%
According to policy, grades at Georgia Tech are interpreted as follows:
A Excellent (4 quality points per credit hour)
B Good (3 quality points per credit hour)
C Satisfactory (2 quality points per credit hour)
D Passing (1 quality point per credit hour)
F Failure (0 quality points per credit hour)
See http://registrar.gatech.edu/info/grading-system for more information about the grading system at Georgia Tech.
Attendance in person is required for this course. Attendance and participation are essential to success in courses in the SLS-France Program. Because of this, you are expected to attend class in person. Not attending a scheduled class session in-person results in an absence.
Our classroom will be a space for intellectual conversation, debate, and questioning, so your active participation and engagement with the material is imperative. If you are quieter by nature, please come speak to me in office hours so we can discuss strategies for your participation.
The success and interest of this course rely on the respectful and thoughtful participation of each and every member of the class. Note that your active participation in class is crucial and will help to determine your final grade. Students may miss a total of two (2) classes for T/Th classes without penalty. Each additional absence after the allotted number deducts 2% from a student’s final grade. You will be rewarded with a *perfect score* as long as you attend all class sessions and actively contribute to the class discussion.
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.
Georgia Tech aims to cultivate a community based on trust, academic integrity, and honor. Students are expected to act according to the highest ethical standards. One serious kind of academic misconduct is plagiarism, which occurs when a writer, speaker, or designer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, images, or other original material or code without fully acknowledging its source by quotation marks as appropriate, in footnotes or endnotes, in works cited, and in other ways as appropriate (modified from WPA Statement on “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism”). If you engage in plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct, you will fail the assignment in which you have engaged in academic misconduct and be referred to the Office of Student Integrity, as required by Georgia Tech policy. For information on Georgia Tech's Academic Honor Code, please visit http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/policies/honor-code/ or http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/rules/18/.
Collaboration is welcome and encouraged. You may find it helpful to consult with your peers about readings or paper ideas. However, all written work submitted for evaluation should be the product of your own thought, research, and writing. Accordingly, you must properly cite any engagement with other authors.
This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Humanities area.
Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.
This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:
- How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic and philosophical works?
Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:
- Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts in English and French, or of works in the visual/performing arts.
Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:
- Ethical Reasoning
- Information Literacy
- Intercultural Competence