Introduction to Philosophy: Organize an Activity

Aspasia and Socrates collect trash on the beach with a group of students.

Image: Chatterina / ChatGPT.

What would you like to do to make the world better?

Organize an action to make a positive change. Get creative! And take a leadership role.

Very Important!

YOUR SAFETY IS A PRIORITY! Choose a project that works for you given the risks you may face.

Examples

Activities might include something educational (fliers, brochures, posters, panel discussion, a mini-class/workshop that teaches a practical skill, etc.), some sort of fund-raising event (clothing drive, or other sort of collection event), getting a larger group together to do a volunteer project on a weekend (in a garden, with animals, building houses, cleaning up beaches, teaching underprivileged kids, etc.).

Here are some examples that other students have done for their activities:

Organizing a walk to benefit an organization helping those struggling with eating disorders.
Organizing a campaign for more healthy food options on campus.
Organizing shoe collection for a local organization benefiting people experiencing homelessness.
Organizing a vegan cooking night.
Organizing an interactive workshop to repurpose ghost nets into functional items, such as grocery tote bags, baskets, and cat scratching posts.
Organizing a CPR class for the campus community.

You will find many more ideas for possible activities at Engaged Philosophy.

In addition, UB’s Community & Civic Engagement team is glad to help you find volunteer hours. Schedule a meeting with them on Navigate.

Here’s What I Want You to Do

As you are organizing and implementing your activity, be sure to try and get pictures and/or video of your entire experience that make it clear what you did. This is probably the easiest—and dare I say, most fun—way to document your organize an activity for your report and Pitch-Your-Success video (see below). Just be sure you have permission to take pictures on location and that you respect the rights of others (especially children and vulnerable adults).

Once you have completed your activity, write up your organize an activity report and create a one-minute Pitch-Your-Success video.

In particular, do the following for your organize an activity report:

Download a blank copy of the Organize an Activity Report.

Fill out that report. In particular, be sure to include all of the following evidence of you organizing an activity:

A.	One-sentence pitch of your activity and its impact. A one sentence pitch has the following form: “I helped [TARGET CLIENT/STAKEHOLDER] achieve [VALUE] by doing [SOLUTION].” Just fill in those three spots to specify… The TARGET CLIENT/STAKEHOLDER or group that you ultimately helped out. The VALUE that you brought to those stakeholders. The SOLUTION detailing exactly how you brought that value to your stakeholders (which is the activity you organized).
B.	A two- or three-sentence description of your leadership role in organizing this activity.
C.	A list of names of any classmates in PHI 101 who were your co-leaders in organizing your activity.
D.	A list of names and emails of anyone else who assisted you in organizing your activity. This can include organizations you worked with or folks from UB’s Community & Civic Engagement.
E.	A log of hours done, with the date(s) and time(s) you did them, the location(s) where you did them, and what you did during those hours.
F.	Documentation that verifies you did your activity. Do not forget to do this. This documentation can consist of: pictures, videos, posters, emails, screenshots of posts to social media, etc.
G.	A short reflection that connects what you did to course concepts. Recall that (as Socrates understood it) philosophy is supposed to be a force for social good in our communities. So I want you to reflect on how the activity of philosophy connects to your experience of organizing an activity. For example, did course concepts help you better understand the impact of your activity? Or perhaps your activity gave you a better understanding of course concepts? This reflection should be 300–400 words (not longer).
H.	Very concrete tips for future students that are specific to your project. These should not be general tips about the class or about organizing activities in general. Imagine that someone wants to organize the exact same activity that you did… What would they need to know? Who should they contact? What mistakes should they avoid? What could they do differently to build and improve on your success with this project? Your tips should be 200–400 words (not longer).

Submit your completed report to UB Learns.

Patrick Dang gives solid advice on pitching your success!

Do the following for your Pitch-Your-Success video:

Create a one-minute video that showcases your activity. (Videos that are either shorter than 50 seconds or longer than 70 seconds will incur a large penalty.)
- This video needs to be self-contained (so someone outside of the class could watch it and still understand what is going on without additional context).
- Make it enticing (fun, engaging) and polished.
- The video can have multiple scenes.
- Consider using a free trial on Canva or Animoto.
- You may also find the video (above) from Patrick Dang on pitching helpful for organizing your own video.

Here is the strongly suggested structure (based on Patrick Dang’s advice) for your video:

A.	Begin by introducing yourself along with your one-sentence pitch. “Hello, I am [NAME], a [FIRST YEAR/SOPHOMORE/JUNIOR/SENIOR] [MAJOR] at UB.” “I helped [TARGET CLIENT/STAKEHOLDER] achieve [VALUE] by doing [SOLUTION].”
B.	Then showcase your activity wrapped in some sort of STORY: Start with a PROBLEM. Then talk about a SOLUTION. That is, how did you fix/address that problem with the activity you organized? Then talk about the VALUE and IMPACT that you had. In other words, why did your solution and/or your actions matter?
C.	Finally, finish strong with some sort of small ASK or next step from your viewer

Submit your completed video to UB Learns.

Here’s Why I Want You to Do It

I am having you organize an activity because it has you…

Differentiate between the impact of volunteering for an organization (charitable action) and that of organizing an activity of your own (justice focused action).
Engage with others by presenting arguments and thinking of counterarguments.
Exercise your own agency as you design and implement your activity.
Reflect on how your actions may directly contribute to tangible positive change in our communities.

In doing so, organizing an activity will help you achieve these learning outcomes for the course:

3.	Apply important philosophy concepts and theories to various hypothetical and real-world situations.
5.	Connect philosophy with your own lived experiences.
6.	Put philosophy into action.
7.	Reflect on your own assumptions and form more considered judgments on how you may address social issues.

Here’s How You’ll Earn Philosophy Experience Points

This experiment in philosophy is worth a total of 2,500 philosophy experience points, which is broken down as follows:

Report: 1,700 points.
Video: 800 points.

Your organize an activity report will be assessed according to the following criteria:

Documented evidence.
The overall project (level of difficulty, how much difference you made, amount of work involved, organizational skills, ability to plan ahead and be disciplined, etc.).
Reflection on and use of course materials.
Tips for future students.
Extremely polished (no grammatical mistakes, no typos) and college-level writing.
Crystal clear organization.
Word count.

Meanwhile, your one-minute Pitch-Your-Success video will be assessed according to the following criteria:

Engaging and polished.
Crystal clear presentation.
Length.

Using Philosopher’s Stones

You may exchange 1 philosopher’s stone for a 24-hour extension for completing this experiment in philosophy. Please note that this extension begins immediately after its original due date/time. Additional stones may be used for even longer extensions. Email me if this is something you would like to do.

Collaboration & Academic Integrity

You are free to team up with any of your classmates. However, I will then expect an activity that is more ambitious and with more work than done by students working alone. In that case, you still need to submit your own final report and video, focusing on your own individual contribution to the entire project along with your own personal reflections.

As usual, I expect you to write your organize an activity report on your own without resorting to artificial intelligence (AI) tools to write it for you. (Perhaps not too surprisingly, AI tools do a pretty bad job in completing this sort of report.) After all, I am primarily interested in how you are thinking about how your experiences connect to the activity of philosophy and other course concepts!

As a result, I expect you to put together and write up your own organize an activity report. Similarly, I expect you to put together and create your own Pitch-Your-Success video. These are not group activities. Let me know if you are struggling and I’ll gladly help!

Above all else, please be honest if you do receive any outside assistance or use the ideas of others. This includes using AI tools. In any of those cases, be sure to let me know what assistance you received, and I will let you know how to properly acknowledge that assistance in accordance with standards of academic integrity.

Socrates gives Aspasia a thank you card.

Image: Chatterina / ChatGPT.

Acknowledgment

This “Experiment in Philosophy” is based upon a similar “Experiment in Ethics” from Ramona Ilea and Monica Janzen. I highly encourage you to visit their website on Engaged Philosophy for much more!