HONR 269I
To the Moon and Back: The Apollo Program
Spring 2019 E5: Term Paper

The goal of your term paper will be to apply what you have leaned in about what made Apollo successful to begin to think about how other "big things" were accomplished, or might in the future be accomplished. Early in the semester, you will select some other audacious goal that either was, was not, or has yet to be achieved. Then over the course of the semester, you should try to draw parallels between your chosen goal and the Apollo Program.

There are many types of goals that you might consider, including:

Note that you might disagree with the way I have grouped these. For example, the AIDS crisis was as much a social challenge as it was a challenge for medical "technology," some technologies are used in armed conflict (e.g., nuclear weapons, but also the Internet), and armed conflict sometimes arises from social challenges. And you might easily think of other categories (e.g., the economic rise of China doesn't fit neatly into any of these categories). The key is to have some way of thinking about what kind of challenge you want to study, and having a list of categories with a few examples may be useful as a starting point. Note also that not all of my examples were completely successful (Nixon's war on drugs, for example), but we can learn as much from failure as from success. So don't hesitate to choose a (partial) failure if the goal was important and ambitions.

At the end of the semester, you will then write a 8- to 10-page (single-spaced, standard margins, not counting references) term paper in which you draw on what you have learned in this class to focus on the factors that did, didn’t, will or won’t make it possible to achieve your chosen goal. There are many aspects of the Apollo program that you might consider for comparison and contrast with your chosen goal, including, for example:

Surely you can add to that list.

Part 1: Select a Goal

Before class on February 19, please select a goal and write a half page about it. I'd like to know what your goal is (in not much more detail than I listed above in the examples I provided), why you selected it (i.e., what about it do you find interesting as a basis for comparison with Apollo), when did or will it happen, and what you already know about it (i.e., will this all be new to you, or is it something you have already studied?). Feel free to select any of the examples used above, or any other similarly ambitious goal (please don't select something of much smaller scale, such as inventing Facebook or earning a Ph.D.). It would be best if your goal were situated in the twentieth or twenty-first century -- there is little to be gained by entering the realm of further back history (where fewer sources may be available) or science fiction (where it might be hard to ground your claims adequately). And it is important that no two students choose the same goal (although its fine if you choose related goals). For that reason, we'll have a brief discussion of the goals you are considering on February 14, and if two students do happen to choose the same goal we'll work with you to change (at least) one of them. This assignment is not graded (unless you don' t turn it in!), but we will offer feedback.

Part 2: Write your Paper

As the semester proceeds, you should take notes about aspects of the Apollo program that you can compare and contrast with the goal you have selected. You should strive to have a new insight on this every week or two, and to write down your thoughts at the time. Then when you finish your second team experience you will already have notes assembled that you can start from. A good strategy is to then outline your paper and copy your notes into your outline as a starting point, and then to write quickly the other parts of the paper that don't have notes. Your outline should contain at least an introduction that clearly states the goal, a background section that describes the context in which your goal was, was not, or may yet be achieved, a section analyzing the factors that made or may make your goal achievable or unachievable, the story of how your goal did work out or speculation on how it may work out, and a conclusion in which you draw out some important points that can be learned from your analysis about how big things get done, illuminating both commonalities with and differences from Apollo. Try to do that all in the first week! Seriously -- you can't improve your paper until it exists, so the sooner it exists, the better it will be in the end.

Then you can spend a week working through the paper and improving it, and doing some focused research to fill in gaps in your knowledge. In the third week, you can then work carefully on parts that you learned in the second week still need work, and at the end of that week you can exchange papers with a friend (perhaps someone you have worked with in one of the team experiences; don't choose a member of your class discussion table) so that you can comment on each others' work. Finally, before class on May 9, upload your term paper to ELMS. This is not the final version -- we will assign two of your discussion table partners to read it, and you will read two of their. Then in class our last class together on on May 14 you'll have a chance to discuss you paper and their paper with them. We'll also give you comments.

Part 3: Polish your Paper and Submit It

At this point you will have seen three other papers, and gotten comments from at least four people on your paper, and you will have been thinking about it for more then three weeks. So you should be ready to take a pass with fresh eyes and further improve it. Your final paper must be uploaded to ELMS by 9 PM on Sunday May 19, which is 5 days after our last class (during the final exam period).
Doug Oard
Last modified: Fri Mar 8 22:17:12 2019