Rethinking Sustainable Societies: Urban Lab

6 EC

Semester 1, period 3

5512SSSL6Y

Owner Minor Rethinking Sustainable Societies
Coordinator dr. M. Giezen
Part of Minor Interdisciplinary Minor Sustainability, year 1

Course manual 2022/2023

Course content

This course is developed around a pressure cooker format that mimics a climate-proof planning process and integrates design thinking. This practice-based approach is also particularly suited to develop skills around cooperation, project management, design thinking, and stakeholder analysis. The course will take place in four weeks of intensive cooperation. It will start with an introduction day with the client and content and skills workshops. Students will then actively cooperate in the first week on the analysis phase, The second week will again start with a workshop and reflection session and then students will continue with the second phase of visioning. The third week will again start with a workshop and reflection session, after which the students will work on the third phase of plan development using a backcasting and prototyping approach. The fourth week will focus on elaboration and refinement. It will start again with a workshop and reflection session, and end with the presentations of the plans to the client.

Study materials

Literature

  • Provided through Canvas and Library

Objectives

  • apply concepts from the minor to concrete urban practices
  • effectively organize and cooperate in group work
  • apply design thinking to an urban sustainability issue
  • apply a planning process to an urban sustainability issue
  • develop a coherent plan and present it in both oral and written form

Teaching methods

  • Seminar
  • Presentation/symposium

Learning activities

Component

Amount

Duration

Hour

Starting days and workshops

5

4

20

Research and preparing reports and plan

 

 

80

Preparing presentation

1

8

8

Group meetings interactions

15

2

30

Reading materials

 

 

30

Total

 

 

168

Attendance

Additional requirements for this course:

Students need to be present at the start of the sessions. Workshops cannot be missed.  1 point per session will be subtracted from the final grade per missed workshop. Students should be present at group meetings. Missing more than two leads to 1 point subtraction of the final grade per additional missed meeting.

Assessment

Item and weight Details

Final grade

75%

Final Report

25%

Presentation

Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years

Need to redo all assignments

Inspection of assessed work

Feedback on summative assessment is provided through Canvas. Continuous feedback on the project and presentation is possible during the tutorial sessions. Please make use of those moments. 

Assignments

The course assignments consist of a final presentation and a report. Descriptions and rubrics are provided on Canvas.

The group will receive one grade. Students can then distribute their grades in such a manner that the average remains that grade. E.g. If a group of 3 students receives a 7, they can choose to all keep a 7, or distribute the grade such as for example student A:6. B:7, C:8. This enables students to more fairly attribute grading to their input to the project that the lecturer is unable to assess. The report should include a discussion of the type and amount of work done by each individual student and how this relates to the final grade that person should be getting. 

Please note that exceeding the number of words significantly has a negative impact on your score (Individual assignments: -0.5 points per 50 additional words, Group assignment: -0.5 per 100 additional words).

Handing in your assignment late will lead to a subtraction of 0.5 points per half hour (e.g 1-

30 = -0.5, 31-60 =-1, …)

 

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Week 1

Introduction to the course

Introduction by Municipality

Lecture Climate Proof Development

Workshop Collaborative Team

Workshop DT

 

Workspace and Q&A

Workspace and Q&A

Week 2

Scrum Stand-up

Workshop DT: Interpretation, Visioning and Ideate

Workspace and Q&A

Workspace and Q&A

Week 3

Scrum Stand-up

Workshop DT: Backcasting, Elaborate and Prototype

 

Workspace and Q&A

Workspace and Q&A

Week 4

Scrum Stand-up

Workshop: Test and Refine

Workspace and Q&A

Presentation to client

Hand in report

Thursday afternoon 03/02

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

  • Right of inspection/ Collective Assessment Evaluation

 

Up to 20 working days after the announcement of the result, students have the right of inspection of their work (all forms of assessment). The student can request a copy of his/her work by e-mailing the teacher/course coordinator.

 

Feedback will provided through Canvas and in the closing session. Students can request a meeting with the teacher by emailing them to discuss the feedback.

 

Please note: you lose the right of feedback from the examiner when you don’t attend the Collective Assessment Evaluation without good reasons. For more information about the right of inspection, please refer to OER part A FNWI, article 4.9.

 

After the above mentioned 20 working days have expired the entire exam package must be handed over to the IIS Service Desk after which the work will be archived.

Contact information

Coordinator

  • dr. M. Giezen

Staff

  • Max Keijzer