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INST 154
Apollo at 50
Spring 2020
Course Description
Catalog Description
In May 1961, President Kennedy reached into the 21st century and
pulled a decade back into the 1960s. Just over eight years later,
Neil Armstrong became the first of twelve people to walk on the Moon.
This was one of the greatest engineering accomplishments of all time,
and a transcendent human experience. This course will draw on both
primary and secondary sources to explore the social, political,
financial, scientific, engineering, operational and human aspects of
the Apollo program that came together to make the Moon landings
possible and it will invite students to reflect on the limitations of
the Apollo approach that leave us still grasping for solutions to many
other complex societal problems.
Goals
- Understand the interplay between political, economic, social,
scientific, technical, and practical factors that made the Apollo
program both possible and challenging.
- Develop an appreciation for the degree of complexity involved in
an undertaking of this scale, the processes that were used to
manage that complexity, and how well those processes worked.
- Apply what you have learned to help you think about what's
similar and what's different in the approaches that could be
taken to address other exceptionally challenging problems.
Approach
Face-to-Face Sessions
For the first half of the semester, the class met in person on
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:00 to 6:15 PM in ESJ 2212. Each session
began with a presentation by the instructor (or, perhaps occasionally,
a guest speaker), followed by discussion in small groups, and then the
second part of the presentation. In the final few minutes of class we
typically discussed the current student activity (see below).
At the start of the semester, students were be assigned to groups of 6
that will meet for 15 minutes during each class session to discuss
that session’s topic. Each student in the group was assigned one
document to read (or one media file to view or listen to) as
background for that session. Some readings are longer than others,
but you should read selectively and limit your preparation time to one
hour per session so as to have adequate time for the other activities
described below. The goal of these diverse assignments is to bring
multiple perspectives into the class discussion during each session.
Each student in a group served on a rotating basis as a discussion
leader or as a scribe. The scribe posted a one-page set of bullet
points summarizing the group’s discussion to the course ELMS site by
10 AM the next morning.
Asynchronous Online Sessions
After Spring Break, the class will continue in an asynchronous online
format (with one exception, May 12). Each session typically involves
five student activities:
- An introductory video
- One assigned reading (or video), as before
- An open book quiz on the assigned reading
- A lecture video
- Posting to the discussion board
The materials for each asynchrnous online class session will be
available for one week: they will be linked from the course schedule Web page one week prior to the
assigned date for that session, and they must be completed by 6:15 on
the assigned date for that session (i.e., by the end of the originally
scheduled class session on that date).
Synchrounous Online Sesson
The May 12 class will be synchrounous, meeting at the regular class
time (5:00-6:15) using Zoom. After a brief introduction that we will
all have together, students will join breakout rooms to discuss the
draft papers that they have read with the authors of those papers. At
the end of that class, we will come back together to discuss broad
themes across the draft papers.
The scale of the Apollo program is daunting, so we will use four
activities outside of class over the course
of the semester to bring students in contact with different aspects of
the Apollo Program possible.
Students are expected to devote a minimum of 8 hours per week to this
course, including 3 hours in class, 2 hours preparing for class, and 3
hours devoted to the current individual or team experience.
Individual Experience: Museum Field Trip
Maryland students are uniquely fortunate to be a metro ride away from
on of the finest sets of museum exhibits on the Apollo Program
anywhere in the world at the National Air and Space Museum on the
National Mall. We'll therefore start the course with a tour of that
museum. Students may join a one-hour guided tour with the instructor
during the first or second weekend of the course, or they can conduct
a self-paced tour on their own. Students will be asked to submit a
selfie photo with some Apollo artifact to verify completion of this
assignment.
Individual Experience: Case Study
Each student will nominate some historical figures
who they would be interested in studying in greater depth, and a
single person will then be assigned to each student, with each student
studying a different person. The student will be expected to bring
their assigned historical figure’s perspective to class discussions,
when appropriate, and they will write a short paper on a critical
incident of their choice in that person’s life. In every case an
initial source is be provided, and students will be expected to
augment that source with additional primary and secondary sources, and
to list those additional sources on their submitted paper.
Team Experience: Managing the Apollo 11 Mission
The year 2019 was the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing on
the Apollo 11 mission. In a recent project we worked with colleagues
to digitize dozens of channels of voice interaction in the NASA
Mission Control Center during the entire 8-day Apollo 11 mission, a
total of more than 8,000 hours of audio. Students will work in groups
if three, with each group being assigned a different mission phase to
study. Each team will selectively listen to the recordings from their
chosen mission phase and will present what they have learned both
about mission operations and about the human experience of serving in
Mission Control during the Apollo Program.
Term Paper: Doing Big Things
Early in the semester, students will be invited to select some other
audacious goal that either was, was not, or has yet to be achieved.
Over the course of the semester, students will then be invited to draw
parallels between their chosen goal and the Apollo Program. At the
end of the semester, students will then be asked to write a term paper
in which they draw om what they have learned in this class to focus on
the factors that did, didn’t, will or won’t make it possible to
achieve their chosen goal.
Office Hours and Contact Information
During online instruction, office hours are being held using WebEx.
No prior arrangement is needed to connect during office hours to
discuss material from the class sessions, readings, individual or team
experiences, etc. We are also happy to talk at other mutually
convenient times by phone or in person if coming to office hours is
not possible for you; email is the best way to reach us to set up an
appointment, and it is also a good way to get a quick answer to a
simple question.
A schedule that summarizes what we will
cover in each session can be found on the course
Web site.
Course Materials
The course Web site at http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~oard/teaching/154/spring20/
contains the most recent version of all material produced for this
course. Among other things, this course description, and links to the
materials for each session. We will use ELMS only for things that can
not be done on the open Web. Examples include submitting homework
assignments and summaries of assigned readings and reading materials
prepared by other students. Details of how we will use ELMS can be
found on ELMS.
Reading assignments for each week can be found on the schedule. The principal texts for this course
are:
- Andrew Chaikin, A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo
Astronauts, Penguin Books, 2007. ($16 in paperback from Amazon).
This is the classic text on the human adventure of Apollo.
- Catherine Bly Cox and Charles Murray, Apollo, 1989. ($8 on
Kindle from Amazon). This is the classic text on the engineers
of Apollo. You can read Kindle books on many platforms (e.g.,
Windows or iPad in addition to a Kindle).
The course has a Google Groups mailing list that will be used by the
instructor to make announcements. Students will be automatically
added to the mailing list based on email addresses on file with the
university.
Grading
Student grades will be computed from:
25% Attendance, readings, and discussion group participation
10% Quizzes
5% Air and Space Museum selfie
15% Case study
20% Apollo 11 team project
5% Extra credit for exceptional class participation
25% Term paper
Totals above 100% will be rounded down to 100%. Grades a A will be
awarded for total scores of 90-100%; B for 80-89.999%; C for 70-79.999%,
D for 60-69.999%, and F for total scores below 60%.
During Face-to-Face instruction, assignments were due at 5:00 PM
(i.e., before the start of class) on the date indicated in the
schedule. During Online Instruction, assignments are due at 6:15 PM
on the date indicated in the schedule. Deadlines are sharp, and no
credit will be awarded for late assignments.
Participation in discussion groups is an important part of the
learning experience, so class attendance is required. The discussion
group grade will be computed separately for each student by the
instructor and teaching assistants, working together. Discussion
group grades will be reduced for all absences after the first, except
as required by university policy or law (e.g., for religious
observances affecting more than one class period, extended illness
affecting more than one class period, or military service affecting
more than one class period). For the team experience, all team
members will receive the same grade. The term paper will be sole
authored, but you may (and should!) get comments on drafts from
others.
Completing the reading or media assignment before every class
(except the first) is very important because that will be the basis
for our discussions durng class. Unanounced quizzes (or, during
online instruction, quizzes for every class) will be used to check
understanding of key concepts from the readings. Each quiz during
face to face instruction will be 5 minutes at the start of class.
Students are encouraged to work together to learn the materials and to
learn the how to do the assignments. However, all of the material
that is turned in for grading must be produced by the individual or
team that is submitting the material.
Accommodations
Some of the assigned reading and media materials may not be available
in formats that are accessible to students with vision or hearing
impairments. Students for whom such materials would pose problems
will be asked to inform the instructor during the first week of
classes so that alternative sources that with suitable provisions for
accessibility can be assigned. Lectures will be recorded using
Panopto and made available to all students through ELMS; experience
has shown that such recordings can be particularly helpful for
students with limited proficiency in spoken English. Students
requesting other types of accommodations should contact the
Accessibility and Disability Service for evaluation during the first
two weeks of classes, and (except in cases of emergent difficulties
during the semester) must discuss their request with the instructor
prior to the end of the third week of the semester.
Doug Oard
Last modified: Tue Mar 24 10:20:19 2020