This GLI freshman seminar will explore the human condition as it is revealed through classical and contemporary
stories of outdoor adventure. It will consider the conceptual themes of shared human experience within the stories
as well as the state of the art of storytelling, historical and modern. The course will encourage students to think
about the boundaries between known and unknown, both geographical and personal. Modern and classical maps
and simple mapping technology will demonstrate technological tools for locating oneself in space and defining
territory to be explored. Trust games will be used to safely explore the physical sense of self in place and the mindbody connection to adventure.
The class experiences will culminate in the creation of a multi-media presentation that explores the potential for
exploration and reflection, using Missoula’s many trailheads as a jumping off point for storytelling. The projects
will be made available to the public through a partnership with a local publication or non-profit organization.
Readings: Selections from Odyssey by Homer; Jason and the Argonauts by Apollonius; Aeneid by Vergil,
Geographia by Ptolomy. The Place in Between by Rory Stewart; To Timbuktu by Mark Jenkins; Deep Water
Passage by Ann Linnea plus other first person contemporary narratives and examples of place-based multi-media
presentations.
V. Criteria: Briefly explain how this course meets the criteria for the group. See:
http://umt.edu/facultysenate/documents/forms/GE_Criteria5-1-08.aspx
Expressive Arts courses are activityThis course asks students to read both
based and emphasize the value of
classical and contemporary adventure
learning by doing in an artistic context.
or challenge literature for style,
structure and content. They will then
Courses guide students, whether in individual or
consider in group discussion and
group settings, to acquire foundational skills to
activities the mind-body connection
engage in the creative process and/or in interpretive
to contemporary outdoor challenges;
performance. Through direct experience (for
finally, they will explore,
example, attendance and involvement with live
individually or with a partner, the
performance, exhibitions, workshops, and readings),
dual challenge of knowing nature and
they will engage in critical assessment of their own
sharing that knowledge with a public
work and the work of others.
audience in different types of
communication: first person nonfiction narrative; informational; and
with imagery, using a medium of
their choice (drawing, still
photography, video or a combination
of those.)
VI. Student Learning Goals: Briefly explain how this course will meet the applicable learning
goals. See: http://umt.edu/facultysenate/documents/forms/GE_Criteria5-1-08.aspx
1. Express themselves in the making of an original work
or creative performance;
This will be demonstrated through the
written essays, journals and ultimately in
the creation of the Trailheads online
resource.
2. Understand the genres and/or forms that have shaped
the medium;
This will be demonstrated by comparing and
contrasting Classical adventure literature to
modern adventure story telling; through inclass discussion of readings, the
development of journals and a public, online
information site using multiple media.
3. Critique the quality of their own work and that of
others;
This will be demonstrated through in-class
discussion of the readings and of each
other’s writing, illustrative work, and
project presentations.
VII. Justification: Normally, general education courses will not carry pre-requisites, will carry
at least 3 credits, and will be numbered at the 100-200 level. If the course has more than one
pre-requisite, carries fewer than three credits, or is upper division (numbered above the 200
level), provide rationale for exception(s).
VIII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form.  The syllabus
should clearly describe how the above criteria are satisfied. For assistance on syllabus
preparation see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html
From Homer to HeroCams:
Adventure narrative through the ages and onto Web pages
A Global Learning Initiative course, Autumn 2014
Faculty:
Nadia White, associate professor of Journalism,
with Emeritus Professor of Classics Jim Scott
Introduction
You are far from home, facing new demands and hardship. You anticipated some challenges, but others test you
beyond your wildest imagination. You’ve got to stay calm and focused in order to make progress and achieve your
goals, but it is going to take new friends, some creative thinking and the willpower to resist some very attractive
distractions to get you through. It doesn’t take long before you are exhausted, and a little bit homesick. You miss
your mom. But you push on. The way you embrace the challenges you meet defines you as an individual and a
member of the human race; it changes the way you see the world and the way the world sees you. Your struggle
makes you think differently about what really matters – your core values and how they help navigate the
challenges life puts in front of you. You are either a freshman in your first semester at The University of Montana,
or Odysseus.
This GLI freshman seminar will explore the human condition as it is revealed through classical and contemporary
stories of outdoor adventure, and through experiencing adventure itself. It will consider the conceptual themes of
shared human experience within the stories as well as the state of the art of storytelling, historical and modern. The
course will encourage students to think about the boundaries between known and unknown, both geographical and
personal. Modern and classical maps and simple mapping technology will demonstrate technological tools for
locating oneself in space and defining territory to be explored. Trust games will be used to safely explore the
physical sense of self in place and the mind-body connection to adventure.
The class experiences will culminate in the creation of a multi-media presentation that explores the potential for
exploration and reflection, using Missoula’s many trailheads as a jumping off point for storytelling. The projects
will be made available to the public through a partnership with a local publication or non-profit organization.
Course objectives
This course proposes addressing the GLI themes of “Body and Mind” as well as “Story, Communication and
Interaction.” It satisfies the goals of UM’s General Education Expressive Arts perspective through a series of
creative assignments that result in a collage of multiple media – creative non-fiction writing, photography, drawing
and simple cartography – intended for public use. The class will blend interdisciplinary readings and discussions
with creative mixed-media storytelling techniques, combining the analytical experience of the classics, with the
writing and research processes of journalism and creative non-fiction.
Readings
“Odyssey” by Homer
“True Spirit” by Jessica Watkins
“To Timbuktu” by Mark Jenkins
“Charting the Writing Mind — Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer” by Peter
Turchi
General course outline
Part I
Weeks 1-4. Lead
instructor: Scott
Part II
Weeks 5-7. Lead
instructor: White
Part III
Weeks 8-15. Lead
instructor: White
Defining adventure and examining the human themes that transcend the ages
through the impulse to share stories of travel and exploration. Student work
focuses on reading selection from the Odyssey and identifying and writing about
a personal adventure, and expanding that essay with guided research.
Telling contemporary adventure stories. Work focuses on outdoor experiences
centered on a chosen or assigned trailhead and trails and exercises that
juxtapose objective and subjective facts; facts of research and facts of
experience.
Adventure narrative mashups: How to use a variety of simple tools to
complement adventure writing online. Students reimagine, illustrate and expand
on assignments from the first two parts of class. The resulting individual
portfolios of shared experience work form an online project called Missoula
Trailheads.
Students will gain:






The broad consideration of three big questions: How do we know the physical world? What does
that knowledge and process reveal about ourselves? How does our personal exploration of
boundaries affect us, and the way we move through the world?
Familiarity with adventure writing as a discreet genre of writing, from classical antiquity to today.
An introduction to college-level critical thinking skills that encourage the extension of academic
learning to explicitly inform personal awareness and the ability to connect the global condition to
the personal and the personal to the global.
An ability to critique writing in small groups, providing respectful, helpful feedback on writing
assignments in class.
A critical awareness of the difference between fiction and non-fiction adventure storytelling and to
distinguish journalism from journaling, analytic, and personal essay writing.
A practical, hands-on exposure to the creative potential of modern storytelling technologies to tell
stories of outdoor adventure.

A kinesthetic connection to the literature through controlled outdoor experiences.
For students:

By studying the stories of historical and modern adventurers who have expanded humanity’s sense
of the known world, you will gain a general appreciation for the ways that what we know shapes
our ability to engage in creative decision making.
You will demonstrate this through class discussion informed by personal journal keeping and
small-scale exploration of Missoula.

You will become familiar with the breadth of the adventure-writing genre and be able to identify
primary characters, themes and challenges in assigned readings.
Your reading comprehension will be demonstrated in class discussion, be tested with quizzes
on Moodle, and through one writing assignment in which you critique and reimagine an
existing work.

You will improve your ability to use observation and research to write first-person narrative.
This will be demonstrated through one writing assignment in which you write from personal
experience in an outdoor setting.

You will develop your basic research skills. These include the critical use of the Internet as a source
of information, use of Mansfield Library and historical research materials and maps, first person
interviews and reference guides.
This will be demonstrated as confirmed factual information is used to add context and
meaning to the first-person writing exercises. It will be further demonstrated in the
Trailheads project.

You will develop your ability to critique the work of your peers and to have your own work
critiqued by others.
You will demonstrate this in small-group sessions for the review of your personal essay, as
well as in full class discussions of the contents of the Trailhead project presentations.

You will improve your ability to engage yourself honestly outdoors; to listen, record and articulate
your own reactions to changing physical and emotional impressions.
This skill will be developed as you participate in intentional outdoor play and trust games in
class, and engage in at least two outdoor experiences you choose. It will be demonstrated
through the maintenance of a personal journal and contributions to a class social media
platform, as well as evidenced in your personal writing assignment.

You will learn to use basic online mapping software to build simple maps that define the
boundaries and identify information about the place.
You will demonstrate this by creating and presenting a map about a natural place that you
experience in Missoula, beginning at one of the marked trailheads in or near town.

A final class project, the Trailhead assignment, will bring together elements of each of these
demonstration points.
They must contain a written essay about your experience in that place that contains accurate
information about social and natural history as researched online, in person, through
personal interviews with a knowledgeable source. They will include a map you make,
photographs or videos, or other styles of illustration. These will be presented in class and
published online.
General Education requirements
This course proposes designation as a General Education course in the Expressive Arts perspective. The criteria of
that perspective are:
Courses guide students, whether in individual or group settings, to acquire foundational skills to engage
in the creative process and/or in interpretive performance. Through direct experience (for example,
attendance and involvement with live performance, exhibitions, workshops, and readings), they will
engage in critical assessment of their own work and the work of others.
The learning goals of that perspective are as follows and will be demonstrated by specific activities as indicated
below:
Upon completion of this perspective students will be able to:
1. Express themselves in the making of an original work or creative performance;
This will be demonstrated through the written essays, journals and ultimately in the creation of the
Trailheads online resource.
2. Understand the genres and/or forms that have shaped the medium;
This will be demonstrated by comparing and contrasting Classical adventure literature to modern
adventure story telling; through in-class discussion of readings, the development of journals and a public,
online information site using multiple media.
3. Critique the quality of their own work and that of others;
This will be demonstrated through in-class discussion of the readings and of each other’s writing,
illustrative work, and project presentations.
Grades
This course is offered only for standard grading; it is not available credit/no credit.
Grades reflect the following:
Attendance, quizzes and class participation: 20 percent
Submitted written or visual assignments: 30
Midterm exam: 15
Final project: 35 percent
The grade scale is:
A
93-100
A90-92
B+
88-89
B
83-87
B80-82
C+
78-79
C
73-77
C70-72
D
60-69
F
Below 59
The grades you earn on written and visual assignment will reflect how well you follow directions for
each assignment; your ability to clearly communicate your ideas with a reader or viewer; accuracy in the
presentation of factual material; the proper use of grammar and spelling.
Submissions that contain factual errors or misspelled proper nouns will be marked down one grade step
for each such error. So, a submission that would have earned a B but contains one factual error becomes
a B-, an addition misspelled proper noun, and it becomes a C+.
GLI: Homer to HeroCams Class Outline
(subject to change)
Week #
Part I
1- Aug 25
What are
adventures and
why do we share
stories of
adventure?
Topic, Learning objective, reading for discussion, homework – Course meets 2x/week
(preferably Monday and Wednesday)
Defining adventure and examining the human themes that transcend the
ages through the impulse to share stories of travel and exploration.
Student work focuses on personal essays that are written, critiqued, and
expanded with researched context and personal reflection.
1. Introductions & Overview (White and Scott)
What are adventures and why do we share stories of adventure? Explore the
world to know yourself: The historical context of the rhetorical imperative to
learn about ourselves by expanding the personal sphere of knowledge of the
physical world.
Reading: Read selection from the Odyssey by Homer
2. Consider the context: Time, place, war, journey. Class discussion: What is an
adventure? (White and Scott)
2 – Sept. 1
No class Monday
for Sept. 1, Labor
Day.
Assignment: Write a brief personal essay about a trip you took with other
people that was for some reason challenging. Be sure to explain where the trip
took you and why you found it challenging. 500 words.
1. Broader themes in the Odyssey. What makes this a classic that connects
people across the centuries? (Scott )
2.
How do fiction,
creative nonfiction,
journaling and
journalism
differ?
3 Sept. 8
Veracity I: What
is truth?
Journalistic truth.
Building a story
around agreed
upon facts.
Thinking
critically about
information we
receive.
4 – Sept. 15
Styles of writing: Consider Homer’s role in Odysseus’s story and the
difference between first-person and third-person storytelling. Identify
narrative, exposition and personal reaction. (White)
Reading: Selection from the Odyssey by Homer
Assignment: Rewrite your essay to enrich the context and reflection. (750
words)
1.
Facts and illusions: What did Ulysseus know and how did he know it?
(Scott)
Reading: Selection from the Odyssey by Homer
Listen to/read lyrics of Peter Mayer’s song, World of Dreams
(http://www.petermayer.net/music/?id=5)
2.
Factual literacy/Facts & fact checking: How to develop your sense of what
is true and what is not, especially online. -- at Mansfield Library with Sue
Samson Humanities Librarian. (White)
Homework: Evaluate http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/
300-word short essay. Is this an adventure story? Is it true? Does the format
work to engage you?
1. Your own private Ithaca: Personal goals, commitment and loyalty: Why did
Odysseus work so hard for so long to get home? What are you working
for? (Scott)
Reading: Selection from the Odyssey by Homer
2.
Lost: Fear, exhaustion: What role do they play in defining an adventure?
How does physical stress affect your sense of the world around you?
(White)
What is the relationship between truth and experience? Is what you feel true? Is
the truth you feel different than a truth you receive, are told or research?
Assign/choose individual trailheads to each student
Assignment, First experience from your trailhead. Short essay (500 words) with
three good instagram photos from your cell phone.
Part II
5 – Sept. 22
Read final selection from the Odyssey by Homer
Telling contemporary adventure stories. Work focuses on outdoor
experiences centered on a chosen or assigned trailhead and trails and
exercises that juxtapose objective and subjective facts; facts of research
and facts of experience.
1. Uncertainty: Trust games with Jillian Campana, Physical Performance
Skills faculty; Head of Acting/Directing. (White)
Classic themes
from Part I
reinterpreted
today.
Pay attention to what you see and how it affects you (observation, experience,
journal).
Read selections from To Timbuktu by Mark Jenkins
Veracity II: How
does it feel?
Becoming
attuned to
internal truths
and
contemplating
the creative nonfiction idea of a
subjective truth.
6 -- Sept. 29
The blog-osphere and
beyond: How
connectivity
changes the
exploration
experience.
2.
Discuss the trust games and the fluidity of emotions: How did the exercises
affect your feeling about your self, your stress level, your classmates
change through the shared experiences?
Discuss themes of friendship, fear and exhilaration and self knowledge in
Timbuktu and as compared to the Odyssey.
Assignment: Read and critique the trail experience essays of those in your
group.
Telling stories with info graphics.
1.
2.
Review a series of adventure websites that use a variety of visual tools
other than maps to share a real life adventure.
Consider a variety of tools that change how we get lost – and found – in
nature today.
Read selections from To Timbuktu by Mark Jenkins
Assignment: Create a compressed list of information someone new to town will
need to find your trailhead and have a quality experience on one of its trails.
7 – Oct. 6
1.
History and geography: How do people ever know where they are or
where they’ve been? Discuss the role of historical narratives in To
Timbuktu.
Read selection from True Spirit by Watson.
2.
Playing with maps of your trail: In-class lab creates simple Google Earth
flyovers to accompany your trail experience essay.
Assignment: Revise your Experience on Your Trail essay.
Part III
Adventure narrative mashups: How to use a variety of simple tools to
complement adventure writing online. Students reimagine, illustrate and
8- Oct. 13
expand on assignments from the first two parts of class. The resulting
individual portfolios of shared experience work form an online project
called Missoula Trailheads.
1. True Spirit: consider challenges of navigation and documentation on a solo
journey.
Charting
Read selection from True Spirit by Watson.
2.
A look at efforts to map the known world across time (old maps and new)
and a consideration of contemporary mapping tools – how they work and
how they change our relationship to place. – Mansfield archives, maps
librarian.
Assignment: Read and goof around with tutorials for Open Street Map.
Assignment due: Revised experience on your trail essay.
9 – Oct. 20
adventure:
Geographia to
GPS
Images from
words, images
from pixels
1.
In class lab: Create a map with your photographs using Open Street Map
and TileTool.
Read selection from Charting the Writing Mind — Maps of the Imagination:
The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi.
Assignments choose images to illustrate their experience essays.
2.
Finish making a map from photographs.
10 – Oct. 27
1.
Mapping an
emotional
experience
2.
Building on the map you created from photographs, and using a variety of
physical materials (not necessarily digital,) create a map that conveys how
you feel about your trail.
Portfolios are due; review work done and goals for the rest of the
semester. Assign critique teams, goals and rules for critiques.
11 – Nov. 3
Trailhead presentations and critique x 6
12 – Nov. 10
Assignment: Revision as needed
Trailhead presentations and critique x 6
13 – Nov. 17
Assignment: Revision as needed
Trailhead presentations and critique x 6
14 – Nov. 24
Assignment: Revision as needed
(Thanksgiving week)
Trailhead presentations and critique x 2
15 - Dec. 1
Assignment: Revision as needed
1 Putting it all together: Finishing touches on a multimedia journey along Missoula’s
many trailheads that is available online to the public.
2. Last hurrah. A look back and public unveiling of what we created.
GLI: Homer to HeroCams Overview
(subject to change)
Week
Topic
PART I
A human condition:
Adventure unveiled
Readings
1.
2.
Odyssey selections
Odyssey selections
3.
4.
Odyssey selections
Odyssey selections
PART II
Jenkins, from Timbuktu
6.
7.
8.
Jenkins, from Timbuktu
Watkins, True Spirit
Watkins, True Spirit
PART III
Using modern
Storytelling tools
9.
Maps: Representing place
and experience
GeoJournalism: Turning
photos into maps
Layered collage: Using altered
maps to convey experience.
11.
12.
13.
Fir
adv
Sec
pe
Unique experience;
Universal themes
5.
10.
Wo
Critique, review, final revisions
14.
Critique, review, final revisions
15.
Completion of each page and home
page
Turchi, from Maps of the
Imagination
GeoJournalism tutorials
Fir
you
ph
Fac
Re
tra
Fac
cre
Co
pro
Po
Fin
wo
Fin
wo
Fin
lau
Please note: Approved general education changes will take effect next fall.
General education instructors will be expected to provide sample assessment items and
corresponding responses to the Assessment Advisory Committee.