Home Improvement 101: Course Philosophy and Schedule
Hosted by OSHER Life Long Learning Institute
The physical elements of your home can become creative spaces with some developed skills, much like an instrument can become a creative device once the basics have been mastered. This course considers home improvement a process of applying skills and knowledge to little challenges. This orientation is notably different from a course philosophy based on learning procedures, steps, or rules for a set of tasks. The little saying "teach a man to fish..." may come to mind, and is a valuable principle indeed. How one teaches somebody to fish, however, is not elaborated in the saying at all! A quick comparison of approaches may be illuminating:
Skill Application Learning Approach | Procedures / Steps Learning Approach |
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Skills taught are applicable to a range of cases | Procedures taught are usually case-specific |
Students are explorers and experimenters | Students are absorbers and replicators |
Students are asked to derive essential steps in a process and note for themselves how they vary from case to case | Students are shown steps and asked to replicate them in a case that is very similar to the demonstrated example |
The teacher acts as a supporter and guide, most of the time | The teacher acts as a distributor of tasks, steps, and directives, most of the time |
Class time focuses on developing core skills and applying them to a few use cases | Little or no differentiation between core skills and peripheral skills is made and use cases presented are not contextualized in the wider set of possible use cases |
Course Schedule
Consider this schedule tentative until the week of each course. Since this is a first pass through this course, the content and progression of skills will be adjusted to make the course as useful as possible for the students currently enrolled
Day # | Date | Core Topic | Core Skills / Learning Objectives | Learning Activities |
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1 | 12 May 2017 | Materials and fasteners (nails, screws, and bolts) |
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2 | 19 May 2017 | Wall anchors and level hanging |
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3 | 26 May 2017 | Molding installation and finishing essentials |
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4 | 2 June 2017 | Appliances and plumbing basics |
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5 | 9 June 2017 | Electricity Zap 1 |
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6 | 16 June 2017 | Electricity Zap 2 |
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7 | 23 June 2017 | Student home improvement project presentations |
Students: please come prepared to present/discuss your home improvement project with the class. Bring in any artifacts you have to share (hands-on course!). Email Xander a project overview and photos for posting on this site to share with students around the interwebs. |
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