Rethinking Sustainable Societies: Urban Lab

6 EC

Semester 1, period 3

5512SSSL6Y

Owner IIS keuzevakken
Coordinator P. Şefkatli
Part of Minor Interdisciplinary Minor Sustainability, year 1

Course manual 2024/2025

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 developing 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 of the analysis phase. The second week will 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 presentation of the plans to the client.

Study materials

Literature

  • Provided through Canvas and Library

Syllabus

  • Provided through Canvas

Practical training material

  • Provided every week in class (on Mondays and Fridays)

  • More resources will be available on Canvas

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
  • Fieldwork/excursion
  • Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis
  • Supervision/feedback meeting

During the seminars, the students are introduced to practical skills they will use every week in their fieldwork. Fieldwork/excursion will be made altogether with the class so that the students get to know the research area better. The students will be encouraged to work independently throughout the week so that they can learn how to think solution-oriented. They will be supported by weekly supervision/feedback meetings. During mid-term and final presentations, the students will be able to get feedback and validation on their projects from professionals who are working on the topics they researched. 

Learning activities

Component

Amount

Duration

Hour

Starting days and workshops

6

4

24

Research and preparing reports and plan

 

 

80

Preparing presentation

1

8

8

Group meetings interactions

15

2

30

Reading materials

 

 

30

Total

 

 

172

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

80%

Final Report

NAP if missing

20%

Final Presentation

NAP if missing

0%

Weekly assignments (AVV/NAVV)

Mandatory

WA Week 1: Preliminary project definition and action plan

Must be ≥ pass

WA Week 2: Problem definition and possible solutions

Must be ≥ pass

WA Week 3: Building a prototype and testing it

Must be ≥ pass

0%

Fieldwork data (AVV/NAVV)

Mandatory

FD Week 1: First impressions and weekly data collection

Must be ≥ pass

FD Week 2: Desktop & literature research and weekly data collection

Must be ≥ pass

FD Week 3: Intervention Explanation

Must be ≥ pass

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's main assignments consist of a final presentation and a report, which will be graded. Next to that, there are two weekly assignments that are mandatory to submit. 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

This course adheres to the general rules on ‘Fraud and Plagiarism` as set by the UvA. Students are expected to have familiarized themselves with these rules.

The terms Fraud or Plagiarism are to be interpreted as the copying of the work of peer-student and/or the copying of (scientific) sources of information, without explicitly referring to its source.

Fraud/plagiarism is forbidden and actively checked by staff. When one is suspected of having committed fraud/plagiarism, the exam committee of beta-gamma and future planet studies will be informed. The highest punishment for fraud/plagiarism involves the student to be disallowed to partake of any exams or examination activities within the future planet studies programme, for the duration of a whole academic year, or may even face dismissal from the programme. More information about Fraud and Plagiarism can be found at: www.uva.nl/plagiaat

Course structure

 

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

Week 1

Introduction to the course

Introduction by client

Group formation

Assignment instructions

Group work

Fieldwork: first observations

20:00 Mid-week assignment 1

 

Introduction by area coordinator

Workshop session: Analysis/project definition

Weekly feedback

20:00 Weekly Assignment 1

Week 2

Seminar: Problem definition

Brainstorm session

Literature research

Fieldwork: exploring the problem

Exploring what is done already

20:00 Mid-week assignment 2

Workshop session: Approaching solutions

Weekly feedback 

20:00 Weekly Assignment 2

Week 3

Seminar: Developing interventions

Mid-term presentation to the client

 

Fieldwork: building a prototype

20:00 Mid-week assignment 2

Workshop session: testing the intervention

Weekly feedback 

20:00 Weekly Assignment 3

Week 4

Seminar: synthetising and finishing up

Working on the presentation and final report

Working on the presentation and final report

20:00 Deadline report

Presentation to client

10:30

 

 

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.

Social safety and Evaluation Committee

The Evaluation Committee for Elective Education ensures the quality of electives and is committed to providing a safe learning environment. The committee, consisting of students and teachers, meets at least four times a year to provide requested and unsolicited advice on all educational matters related to IIS Elective Education. It utilizes course evaluations and actively seeks contact with students enrolled in IIS Elective Education.

 

The Evaluation Committee is very interested in comments, suggestions, recommendations, and other insights regarding the content, implementation, and offerings of IIS Elective Education. Students can contact them at evaluatiekeuzeonderwijs-iis@uva.nl.

 

If you experience undesirable behavior or unsafe situations, you can contact the study advisor of your educational program, one of UvA's confidential advisors, the Evaluation Committee, or the coordinators of the IIS Electives Program (via keuzeonderwijs-iis@uva.nl). More information and contact details of confidential advisors can be found at: https://student.uva.nl/en/topics/help-with-undesirable-behaviour

 

Last year's student feedback

In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.

Course Name (#EC)N
Strengths
Notes for improvement
Response lecturer:

Contact information

Coordinator

  • P. Şefkatli

Staff

  • dr. M. Giezen
  • Eva van der Pol  e.j.vanderpol@uva.nl