A Beach Near My Hometown

2026 AAE Final Assignment: Tiny Ecology

Overview

Throughout this course, you have read and discussed how landscapes, environments, and the natural world shape human identity, emotion, and choice. For your final assignment, you will undertake a Tiny Ecology project—an exercise of sustained attentiveness to a specific place—and produce a piece of original writing based on your observations. You will then present your work to the class.

Tiny Ecology Writing

You will choose a place near your home or campus for intense and sustained ecological attention. There are no special requirements for the place you choose: a built environment, a natural space, a humanly curated expanse (park, garden), an abandoned corner or lot, a creek, or a fountain. 

Best is an area close to where you live or work that you have passed by or near for some time without paying much attention to what unfolds within its little biome. The area can be as small as a concrete planter by a train station or as large as a tree and its surroundings.

Over the final assignment’s working weeks, you will make frequent visits to this place and take detailed notes. Pay attention to human influence and neglect, nonhuman forces (weather, sunlight, microclimates, pollution, decay), and the histories surfacing in that space—including the species of animals and plants you encounter. You may have to learn the difference between kudzu and dandelion, a starling and a wren. Take notes that include questions your observations raise, and make sketches if possible.

Based on your observations and notes, you will produce one written piece of 600 words or more in one of the following forms:

• A personal essay: reflect on what you observed, and what sustained attention to this place revealed to you 

• A short story: create a fictional narrative in which a character’s identity or choices are deeply tied to the landscape you studied 

• A hybrid piece: blend field observation with personal reflection or lyrical elements

Your piece should engage meaningfully with at least two of the course themes below:

• The emotional or psychological effect of a natural environment on a person: What is lost or gained when a landscape changes 

• The relationship between social or political power and the environment: A sense of belonging to, or alienation from, a place

• You are also encouraged to draw inspiration from the readings—the moods, techniques, or ideas in “Mood Disorders,” “A Blizzard Under Blue Sky,” or “The Secret Lion”—without retelling or imitating them directly.

Course materials: 

• Houston, Pam. “A Blizzard Under Blue Sky,” in Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture (second edition), edited by Lorraine Anderson, Scott Slovic, and John P. O’Grady. Pearson, 2013, pp.155-159.

• Lasn, Kalle. “Mood Disorder,” in Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture (second edition), edited by Lorraine Anderson, Scott Slovic, and John P. O’Grady. Pearson, 2013, pp. 169-170.

• Ríos, Alberto. “The Secret Lion,” in Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture (second edition), edited by Lorraine Anderson, Scott Slovic, and John P. O’Grady. Pearson, 2013, pp.175-179.

• Tuan, Yi-fu. “The Pleasures of Touch,” in The Book of Touch, edited by Constance Classen. Berg, 2005, pp. 74-79.

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