What is ecology?  Ecology is the study of how and why organisms live where they live.  In other words, the science of ecology seeks to understand how life persists on this planet.  In order to get the most out of the semester, I will try to engage your intellect, curiosity, emotions, and state of awareness in many different ways.  Your answers from the first class indicate that you want as much hand-on learning as possible.  You want to go outside and learn about natural history & species interactions, the impacts of invasive species, and global change.  You want to tools and knowledge to understand how humans are affecting the life on this planet and how this will affect your life.  Also, many of you want to learn about edible and medicinal plants.  Ok, this is what we will do.  At the same time, the biology faculty has agreed on course learning objectives for this course.  Combining your goals with the department goals, we get:

Required Course Texts: 

                                Wessels, T.  Reading the Forested Landscape.  The Countryman Press.

                                Cain, M.L., W.D. Bowman, S.D. Hacker.  2008.  Ecology.  Sinauer. 

                                                      
You will be responsible for all information in the assigned readings whether I discuss it in lecture or not.  You must read any assigned material prior to class, and come to class prepared to discuss it.

Student Learning Outcomes (= SWBAT = Students Will Be Able To. . . .)

1. Develop deep observation skills and couple these with an understanding of major ecological principles to understand how processes operating at multiple time and spatial scales are connected.
2. Using project-based learning, service-learning and learning-by-doing to develop an understanding of natural history that allows observing, predicting, and possibly mitigating ecological change.
3. Understand the social and personal relevance of what we learn and be able to draw connections with other disciplines.
4. Develop the communication skills relevant for different audiences and different media to disseminate ecological knowledge to others.
5. Develop the ability to form a deep intellectual & emotional connection to place (wherever you are) using ancient skills such as tracking; knowledge of edible, medicinal & useful plants; bird language; reading the landscape; and identification of natural hazards.

If all this sounds like too many words and unnecessarily convoluted sentences, Thoreau said it more succinctly:

I seek acquaintance with Nature--to know her moods and manners. Primitive Nature is the most interesting to me. I take infinite pains to know all the phenomena of the spring, for instance, thinking that I have here the entire poem, and then, to my chagrin, I hear that it is but an imperfect copy that I possess and have read, that my ancestors have torn out many of the first leaves and grandest passages, and mutilated it in many places. I should not like to think that some demigod had come before me and picked out some of the best of the stars. I wish to know an entire heaven and an entire earth. All the great trees and beasts, fishes and fowl are gone. The streams, perchance, are somewhat shrunk. (Thoreau’s Journal, March 23, 1856)

Course requirements

Attendance:  Because of the interactive nature of the class, attendance is expected.  If you will be unable to attend a class, notify me in advance (I check e-mail and voice-mail regularly).  If you do not, it will count against your class grade, as well as losing credit for in-class assignments that day.

Class participation:  You are expected to be engaged and contribute regularly to the class.  Deductions will be made for unexcused absences, failure to contribute to group or class discussions, or for unacceptable work on informal writings.

Final Project:  We will have some kind of big project, to be determined.

Other writing assignments:  There will be regular, shorter writing assignments.  The assignments will include graded writings and informal writings that will not be graded, but will count into the class participation grade.

Quizzes:  There will be about six quizzes throughout the semester. 

Final:  During the final exam time slot, there will be a presentation of your final project.

Grading Scale

Grades will be based on your achievement relative to the five goals identified above.  For each of the goals relevant to the assignment you will be graded on a scale of 0 – 3 as follows:

0 = No evidence of achieving goal.  The work was either not done, or done so poorly that one cannot discern any progress towards achieving the goal.

1 = Approaches goal.  The guidelines of the assignment were followed and the work shows evidence of progress towards meeting the goal.  Nevertheless, it may be unclear, partially incorrect, or reflect misunderstandings.

2 = Meets goal.  The work is performed with no errors or misunderstandings, but does not show strong evidence of analytical ability.  For example, it may be more simplistic, literal and descriptive with less analysis, integration, sophistication or rigor.

3 = Exceeds goal.  Performs the task at the level expected of an experienced scientist.  There are no significant errors or misunderstandings, the work is clear and comprehensive, and it demonstrates sophisticated thinking (insight, analytical ability, integration etc…).

These grades correlate loosely to letter grades as follows:

“A” – meets or exceeds most goals (note that it is would be extraordinarily rare to exceed most goals)

“B” – meets most goals

“C” – Approaches most goals

“F” – No evidence of achieving goals

Academic Honesty: 

All the work in this class must be your own, unless stated otherwise.  Confirmed instances of academic misconduct will result in a zero for that assignment/quiz and referral to the school judiciary system.  Please refer to the Student Handbook for a detailed description of the policies regarding student academic conduct.  If you have a question about what constitutes plagiarism, please ask me. 

Students with disabilities: