This class is scheduled for two hours twice a week and for one flexible hour. This extra hour is reserved for special needs or opportunities and is supposed to be a response to the incredible diversity in backgrounds, interests and preparations among students in this class.

The following are alternative possibilities to take up a "5th hour opportunity". You may want to suggest your own opportunity to the instructor.

1. Make yourself available and offer your help in a semi-formal way to class-mates ("Learning through Teaching"). Hang out your shingle as someone with relevant skills. Subject matters which come to mind include: Economics, GIS, HTML, Web design, Power Point etc. You seniors in GIS: What about forming a GIS Consulting Firm/Group for this purpose? (of course, independent of your own project)

2. Take an officially scheduled non-credit workshop in something which can be applied this quarter to your class or project experience: Library-, Computer-, Power Point-, MS-Excel- etc. workshop,, e.g. from among those listed in right column on your calendar (CSSCR, UWired, Library etc.) Provide a copy of your registration and a 1/2 page write-up on your Webpage.

3. Develop an activity which YOU feel would be a meaningful learning experience for members of this class. For example, develop a "Field Trip" for the class as a whole OR for individuals. An example of such a field trip might be to assemble information needed for an individual to travel by bus to Redmond and through the Microsoft campus with explanations of the layout of the two campuses, land use/ traffic issues in the Overlake area and the importance of the firm for selected sectors of the local (Redmond/Overlake) economy.

4. Attend at least three appropriate, officially scheduled, special lectures or colloquia, e.g. from among those listed at the top of the right column in our calendar. Write up a 1/2 page summary of each lecture which addresses both the actual content and the relevance to our class or your project.

5. Sign up for a Service-Learning activity (and let me know) [But be aware that you may also get additional credits for such a commitment] Talk to me. I want to relate Service-Learning activities as much as possible to project objectives.

6. Come up with your own relevant volunteer activity (and let me know and please provide evidence)

7. Sign up for attendance at least 5 "group office hours" on Wednesday mornings between 11:30 and 1:30. These are my regular office hours which I would in part convert to open-door question & answer sessions.

8. The Writing Place awaits your visit: The time spent with the Geography Writing Tutor (Dana Morawitz in Winter 2001) counts as part of your "5th Hour" requirement!

Please note: While providing help (a minimum of 1/2 hour per week [average for 10 weeks]) for classmates qualifies for the "fifth hour", receiving such help does not. You will have to look for something slightly more formal (e.g. a workshop).

It remains to be said that this "learning opportunity" requires an "active learning motivation" on your part. It suggests that you know why you are taking this geography class, and that you are willing to discover (with help as needed) at least a small part of what you might want to learn in a broadly defined class context by yourself. Should all this be too "unstructured" and flexible for you, PLEASE see me or sign up for option #6.

Click here for some additional thought about the documentation of this fifth-hour learning experience.