The Rock and the Water Glass - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 24
About This Presentation
Title:

The Rock and the Water Glass

Description:

3rd ed. New York: Penguin, 1993. Saint Francis Dam,1928 ... David Brower, Sierra Club President, had previously argued against a dam site by ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:107
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 25
Provided by: derek3
Category:
Tags: glass | penguin | rock | water

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: The Rock and the Water Glass


1
The Rock and the Water Glass
  • Situating Case Studies Within a Holistic Meta-View

Derek G. Ross Texas Tech University PCA/ ACA
February 11, 2006
2
Purpose
  • Explore the significance of a single event in the
    creation of the Glen Canyon Dam
  • Consider this event from the context of technical
    communication
  • Examine, and perhaps rethink, the usefulness of
    the case study

3
A Brief History of the Glen Canyon Dam
  • 1922 The need for a Colorado River Storage
    project is suggested
  • 1938 July 14 President Roosevelt issues a
    proclamation extending Dinosaur National
    Monument. The extension includes Echo Park, the
    area first proposed for the Glen Canyon dam site
  • 1950 Bureau of Reclamation submits a report
    (House document 364, 83d Congress, 2d session)
    which includes a plan for the Colorado River
    Storage project

4
A Brief History of the Glen Canyon Dam
  • January The House Committee on Interior and
    Insular Affairs convenes hearings on the Upper
    Colorado River Storage Project
  • David R. Brower, leader of the Sierra Club,
    gives testimony questioning the technical
    expertise of the Bureau of Reclamations engineers
    in front of the House Subcommittee on Irrigation
    and Reclamation
  • 1956 David R. Brower promotes a high dam at Glen
    Canyon as an alternative to the Echo Park site

5
A Brief History of the Glen Canyon Dam
  • 1956 April 11 Colorado River Storage Project
    authorized by U. S. Congress. Glen Canyon Dam is
    included in this authorization
  • October 1 First construction contract awarded
  • October 15 Blasting begins

6
A Brief History of the Glen Canyon Dam
  • 1957 Prime construction contract awarded to
    Merritt-Chapman and Scott Corporation
  • 1959 February Glen Canyon Bridge completed
  • 1960 June 17 First concrete placed
  • 1963 March 13 Lake Powell begins filling
  • June Dam topped out.
  • September 13 Last bucket of concrete placed
  • 1980 June 22 Initial fill of Lake Powell Complete

7
(No Transcript)
8
Saint Francis Dam,1928
  • In March of 1928, the Saint Francis Dam, on the
    Santa Clara River, in the San Francisquito Canyon
    in Southern California gave way, unleashing 11.4
    billion gallons of water
  • Around 450 lives were lost, making this one of
    the dozen worst peacetime disasters in American
    history.

Reisner, Marc. Cadillac Desert. 3rd ed. New York
Penguin, 1993.
9
Saint Francis Dam,1928
  • The catastrophic failure of the Saint Francis Dam
    has been called the greatest American civil
    engineering failure in the Twentieth Century.

The Saint Francis Dam Disaster.
http//www.sespe.com/damdisaster/index.html
10
  • Over 24,000 acres of fertile land were swept away
  • Over 140,000 trees were destroyed or damaged
  • 400 homes were repaired and over 400 new homes
    built
  • Over 100 water wells had to be re-dug
  • 17 miles of pipelines had to be re-laid
  • 12 miles of ditches had to be re-dredged
  • 100 miles of fences were rebuilt
  • 10,569 acres of agricultural crops were swept away

The Saint Francis Dam Disaster.
http//www.sespe.com/damdisaster/index.html
11
Saint Francis Dam,1928
  • In the end, no single cause could be found to
    which to attribute the catastrophic failure.
  • However, when an investigator dropped a piece of
    rock abutment which had previously supported the
    dam into a glass of water, it dissolved in a few
    minutes.

Reisner, Marc. Cadillac Desert. 3rd ed. New York
Penguin, 1993.
12
Glen Canyon Dam, 1956
  • David Brower, Sierra Club President, had
    previously argued against a dam site by proving
    that the proposed dam site was unstable
  • California Congressman Craig Hosmer picked up on
    Browers argument, and had one of his colleagues
    pour water into a glass containing a piece of
    Chinle shale, taken from Glen Canyon, which
    rapidly disintegrated

Cosco, Jon M. Echo Park Struggle for
Preservation. Boulder Johnson Books, 1995.
13
Glen Canyon Dam, 1956
  • Arizona Congressman Stewart Udall brought part of
    a core sample from the dam site itself
  • In response to Hosmer, Udall dropped the small
    cylinder of sandstone into a glass of water.
    After describing the benefits of building the
    Glen Canyon Dam, Udall smiled and drank the clear
    water as his colleagues showered him with hearty
    guffaws.
  • Before the day was over, the House approved the
    project

Cosco, Jon M. Echo Park Struggle for
Preservation. Boulder Johnson Books, 1995.
14
Possible Technical Communication Lessons
  • Effective technical communication acknowledges
    history
  • Effective technical communication takes into
    account opposing viewpoints and arguments
  • Effective technical communication appeals to an
    audiences emotions

15
Glen Canyon Dam and Powerplant Self-Guided Tour,
1977
16
Case Studies are vital to knowledge-creation
  • Case studies signify a coalesced, active field
    of inquiry to researchers, administrators, and
    funding agencies.
  • Readily available
  • Often interesting
  • Effective heuristics
  • Case studies can be molded to fit the closely
    monitored timetable for getting a graduate
    degree.

Collier, James H. Reclaiming Rhetoric of Science
and Technology Knowing In and About the World.
Technical Communication Quarterly 14.3 (2005)
295-302.
17
Problems With Case Studies
  • Individually, case studies may be so unique that
    they lack relevance in relation to their intended
    context and/ or use
  • Even very good case studies do no philosophical
    work. They are at best heuristics. At worst, they
    give the false impression that history is on our
    side...

Pitt, Joseph C. The Dilemma of Case Studies
Toward a Heraclitian Philosophy of Science.
Perspectives on Science 9.4 (2001) 373-382.
18
Problems With Case Studies II
  • Narrow topics
  • Context-specific
  • Anachronisms
  • Sampling bias
  • Hasty generalization

19
Problems With Case Studies III
  • A case study does its job only if it yields
    improved understanding of how scientists or
    technical communicators solved (or failed to
    solve) problems, what methods they used or tried
    to use, how their various tools were made to
    interact, how they evaluated hypotheses and
    factual claims, and so on.

Burian, Richard M. The Dilemma of Case Studies
Resolved The Virtues of Using Case Studies in
the History and Philosophy of Science.
Perspectives on Science 9.4 (2001) 383-404.
20
Case Studies Have Value
  • Working entirely in the abstract/ theoretical can
    lead to problems with practical application
  • We believe in stories from Aesop to the Bible,
    to the Brothers Grimm, much of our culture is
    dependent on the story/ fable/ parable/ case
    study as a way to excite the imagination

21
Conclusions
  • Behind every statement, story, and event lies
    another related statement, story, or event
  • Taking the time to situate our case studies
    within a larger context a meta-view enables us,
    as technical communicators, to increase our
    awareness of the interconnectedness of
    communication strategies

22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
Questions?
derek.ross_at_ttu.edu
Mouth of Hidden Passage, July 1958 (now
underwater)
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com