Course Assessment
Grading: Letter grades will be assigned using a typical scale of percentage of total available points.
| 100-93 A | 92-90 A- |
| 89-88 B+ | 87-83 B | 82-80 B-
| 79-78 C+ | 77-73 C | 72-70 C-
| 69-68 D+ | 67-63 D | 62-60 D-
| < 60 F |
| Assignment/Assessment | Points | ELO Alignment | Durable Skill
| Two Midterm exams (150 points each | 300 | ELO 2, ELO 3, ELO 4 and ELO 5 (Understand, Apply Knowledge, Explain, and Reflect) | Critical Thinking
| Final exam | 200 | ELO 2, ELO 3, ELO 4 and ELO 5 (Understand, Apply Knowledge, Explain, and Reflect) | Critical Thinking
| Discussion/Class Participation | 100 | ELO 2, ELO 3, ELO 4 and ELO 5 (Understand, Apply Knowledge, Explain, and Reflect) | Critical Thinking, Communication, Teamwork
| Interpretation project | 500 | ELO 1, ELO 2, ELO 3, ELO 4 and ELO 5 (Apply Scientific Methods, Understand, Apply Knowledge, Explain, and Reflect) | Critical Thinking, Communication, Teamwork
| Book/reading assignment | 100 | ELO 2, ELO 3, ELO 4 and ELO 5 (Understand, Apply Knowledge, Explain, and Reflect) | Critical Thinking, Communication
| Total points | 1200 |
Interpretation Project: This assignment will require you to work as a small group to investigate a local ecosystem. Using skills and techniques illustrated in class you will gather data regarding concepts that are found in your ecosystem (scale, proportion, cause and effect, patterns, flow of energy and matter, etc.) we expect that your group will become local experts on your chosen issue and will seek information and answers from a variety of sources. Your sources may include not only primary research articles, but newspaper articles, interviews, agency reports, empirical data etc. The final products for this project will be up to you, but must interpret the problem you investigated for a non-technical audience. Some POSSIBLE products might include: pamphlets, brochures, posters, movies, exhibits, or multi-media presentations. The sky is the limit in terms of what you might produce. Think about what would best communicate your findings to the general public. You will be using every skill you have (reading, writing, artistic, musical, critical thinking skills, etc.), but in the end we think you will find this to be very satisfying work.
Goals: There are several goals for this project:
- To allow you to increase your knowledge about a local environments and issues involved with these areas.
- to begin to understand the complex nature of environmental biology and the difficulty associated with their solution.
- To give you experience looking for cross-cutting concepts in the natural world (e.g., patterns, cause and effect: mechanism and explanation, scale, proportion and quantification, system and system models, flow and cycle of energy and matter, relationship of structure and function, evidence of stability and change)
- To give you experience synthesizing information and presenting that information in a creative way to a general audience
- To give you experience working as part of a collaborative group.
Project Deadlines:
September 18: Topics for Projects: Assignment: a one paragraph description of your proposed topic including: 1) group members, 2) proposed topic, 3) proposed means of gathering and presenting information
September 25: Project Plan: Assignment: a one page detailed project plan including who is going to do what and dates for completion of various parts of the project. In addition, if you are planning any type of data gathering using humans (including surveys) this is the deadline for submission of your proposal to the Institutional Review Board.
October 30: Project Progress Reports: Assignment: a 2 page written description of your progress thus far including: 1) findings thus far, 2) questions still to be addressed, 3) proposed cross-cutting concepts to be addressed, including possible evidence of human intervention, 4) participation rate of each group member.
December 4: Projects due to Instructor
December 11: In class project presentations ALL group members must participate in a presentation of your project for the class
Book Report and Presentation: Read one of the books listed below then write at least a 1,000-word report and give an oral presentation to the class (you will be able to sign up for one of the books in class early in the semester). You can either buy your chosen book or check it out from the library. No digital or audible books are allowed. Your report needs to include the following:
- Begin with a paragraph stating the author's main point,
- Provide at least a dozen annotated quotes (listing the page they are on) from throughout the book that you consider aphoristic, noteworthy or that perhaps support the author's thesis,
- End with a paragraph describing your overall impression of the book.
You will be graded on your writing, your argument, your presentation and the quality of your quotes.
Chose one of the following books to read and report on:
The Serengeti Rules by Sean Carroll
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
The Garden Jungle by Dave Goulson
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Crossings (road ecology) by Ben Goldfarb
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv