Aron Ralston Assignment

As I said, one of the things that I encourage students to do is to travel and see the world. How many national parks have you been to? How many can you name? You really should check out the US National Park system. There is so much that is out there to see. To sit in your comfy eastern PA houses and not see it... anathema.

We will be doing the Aron Ralston video and in class essay writing experience. As I don't lend out my videos and I don't know any other video store that is cool enough to have this video, YOU WILL NEED TO GO TO THE LIBRARY TO WATCH THE VIDEO TO GET THE POINTS IF YOU ARE NOT IN CLASS. This is a 50 point assignment that includes notes, WRITING AN IN-CLASS rough draft, and correcting it in class. It does not need to be perfect because it is for peer editing, but it needs to be done - all 5 paragraphs. If you go through all of the motions and give it your college best, you will get all of the points, if not... then...

You can read about his amazing life here and here.
You can read about the video of his life's major changing event here.
I can only completely and totally recommend that you buy the book about his adventure that he wrote after the events in Blue John Canyon.
You can see pictures by the guys at You Can Never Have Too Much Fleece here.
I only wish I was that great of a photographer and had that much time to adventure to really cool places. All the same, my pictures are here and my videos are here.

This is about all we really have time for...
well, in there, we are going to talk about
First paragraphs
How to write essays well (and poorly).
I'll have sample essays of both varieties.

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ARON RALSTON PROJECT (this is in-class)

2+ PAGES OF NOTES

1 8-paragraph essay (should not be perfect SINCE:

we will correct it in class as a peer review assignment.

If you do all of this correctly, then I will give you 50 points.

NOTES
Blue John Canyon – a slot canyon in Canyonlands National Park.
Issues that Aron faced during his 6 day ordeal.
1. Starvation (2 burritos)
2. Dehydration (22oz of water)
3. Decompensatory Shock
4. Trapped feeling
5. Blood loss
6. Weight loss (over 40 pounds)
7. 8 mile hike across exposed desert in excessive heat (the distance from RACC to the other side of Sinking Spring OR back and forth to the Fairgrounds Mall)
8. Hypothermia (cold temperatures at night)
9. Fear of death / thoughts of suicide
10. Lack of sleep
11. Hallucinations
12. Anger at self for making a foolish mistake
13. Worry about how his predicament would affect his family
14. Decomposition gasses poisoning him
15. The decision and actions involved with cutting off his own arm
16. Weakened state