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Populations and
Land Use:
Ecological
Concepts for Policymaking
ENV U6110
Summer 2005: June
3-Aug 19
Lectures: Friday, 9:30 AM -
12:00 PM
Pre-Lab: Friday, 1-2 PM
Lab A: Friday, 2-4 PM
Lab B: Friday, 4-6 PM
Instructors:
Kate
McFadden Adjunct
Instructor (Populations) National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 1315
East West Highway, Silver
Spring, MD Tel:
(301) 713-2465 x198 Office hours: by appointment |
Teaching
Assistants: James
Connolly: jjc2119@columbia.edu Miranda
Mockrin: mhm2004@columbia.edu Office
Address: 1305 International Affairs Building Office
Hours: To be determined |
Course Outline
Objective
This course will serve as an introduction
to the applied science of maintaining the earth's biological diversity, its
landscapes, and wilderness. It is targeted at entry-level Master's students.
The course will focus on the biological principles relevant to the conservation
of biodiversity at the genetic, population, and community and landscape levels.
Due to the cross-disciplinary nature of ecology and biological conservation,
some of the social, philosophical, and economic dimensions of biological
conservation will also be addressed. Our focus will be on applications and
problem-solving in conservation biology. Basic and advanced ecology and
evolutionary processes will also be discussed. Students will gain a basic, practical understanding of GIS.
The specific objectives of the course are:
·
To define an
interdisciplinary approach to address environmental problems and conservation
issues.
·
An understanding of the
ways in which biology can contribute to the solution of the kinds of
conservation problems now (or soon to be) facing human society.
·
To develop skills needed
to recognize and analyze the relationships among the scientific, technological,
societal and economic issues that shape environmental research and
decision-making.
·
To prepare environmental management and policy
professionals to use research in a data based decision-making process that is
firmly grounded in current scientific knowledge and methodology.
Course
Structure:
Each
section of the course includes the examination of key questions and concepts
that will be illustrated by lectures, class discussion, required and
supplemental readings, and associated websites.
Course lectures
intend to present a broad overview of the issues in conservation biology
affecting populations and the landscape. I
encourage individuals in class to contribute to discussions in the lecture
period. Students will be expected to do the assigned
reading before class (excluding the synthesis notes which will be available
online at Courseworks after each lecture) and be prepared to discuss the
articles in class. The class will meet for one lecture period (2.5 hrs)
and one lab (2 hrs) per week. The group will be divided into two sections for
the afternoon labs (2-4 PM and 4-6 PM) to make the learning environment more
accessible to all.
Readings and
Text:
The principal
text for this course is "Principles of Conservation Biology" by Meffe
and Carroll, 2nd edition (Sinauer, 1997). You can purchase textbooks online or
in Columbia bookstore. Scientific articles are available either online (if they
are not copyright protected) or on the CourseWorks website (under Class
Files/Shared Files), or the citation is listed and you may download them
individually. Synthesis notes which summarize all lecture material, and often
contain supplemental material, are available after most (but not all)
lectures online at Courseworks: (https://courseworks.columbia.edu/),
also found in the shared files folder.
Grades will be based on the following:
The
course will consist of lectures and discussion/labs once a week, with grading
based on participation in the debates, papers, and general classroom
participation, including attendance.
Article Review (15%): (no more than 2 pages). Students will be
expected to do a significant amount of reading for the course and to contribute
to discussions on readings. Most weeks, a number of
required readings will be assigned. Every few weeks, I will select two readings
from these and ask you to write a two-page review of one of these papers. The
purpose of these exercises is to hone your close reading of the scientific
literature and develop your critical thinking skills. Peer review is a core
part of the structure of scientific community, and a two-page review (while
longer than most peer reviews) is a good length to master. In these reviews,
please provide: a) one paragraph summary; b) discussion of critical strengths;
c) discussion of critical weaknesses. I anticipate the format to be that of a
scientific narrative with transitions between sections, NOT bullets or
disconnected sections under headings.
Group
Project (20%): Groups
of up to five students will explore a geographic area of the world, working
throughout the semester to summarize the status and importance of that region:
what is the biodiversity of that region; why is the biodiversity important
(from different stakeholder perspectives); and what threatens the biodiversity
of that region. Use relevant lecture material &/or supplement your
knowledge using scientific literature or web searches (web searches alone are
not sufficient). Your group paper will include three sections: a biodiversity
summary, stakeholder summary, and threats summary. Specific details on this
project are available under the ‘Assignments’ section of Courseworks.
Your portfolio of summaries will be collected
in class on August 5th, late
papers will be penalized. Group members will prepare a 10-minute presentation
to the class summarizing the main findings of the semester – what is the
biodiversity of the region, why is it important, and what threatens it.
Class Participation and Questions on
Readings (5%): Attendance is not
mandatory, but to do well in this course you should expect to attend class and
read the background material in the text. Since part of this course will
consist of class discussion, and since some of the labs will depend upon
everyone’s participation, my subjective evaluation of your participation
(including attendance, obviously) will account for 5% of your grade. You should
come to class every day having read the material to be discussed or having done
the assignment for lab and be prepared to contribute to the discussion of it. Each week students will prepare two questions for
discussion based on the readings and post those questions on the discussion
section of CourseWorks by the evening prior to the class. If there is a problem
posting questions online, they should be submitted via email to the TA’s.
Questions submitted on Monday AM will not be accepted. Questions should be
designed to elicit discussion, comparing and contrasting or synthesizing
results from different readings. Students will be asked to share either their
own question posted on Courseworks, or their favorite question (which can be
posted by others) during class discussions on readings.
Debates
(25%):
The last class meeting will be devoted to formal debates on topics that are
selected at the beginning of the semester. You will have almost the whole
semester to prepare for your debate, and my intention is that you delve deeply
into the literature on your topic as part of that preparation. Since many
debate topics will have economic, sociological, political ramifications in
addition to biological ones, I’ll expect you to delve into those as well. A
total of 4-6 students will be assigned to each debate, but you won’t know
which side you’ll be arguing for until the actual day of the debate. Thus, you
will have to prepare adequately to argue either side! To help prepare in a
timely manner, you’ll be required to write a 10 pages (or so, double spaced)
essay presenting both sides of the resolution. This essay will be due for
everyone on the last day of class. Here again, you’ll need to prepare not just
your written essay, but also to be prepared to make a brief oral statement of
your side’s position during the debate. The structure of the debate and
potential debate topics can be found under “Assignments” in Courseworks.
Labs
(35%):
Approximately half the labs require some computer simulations and GIS related
exercises, while the other half are ecological calculative exercises based on
data sets collected elsewhere, etc. You should also be aware that some lab
activities might require out-of-class time. Please bring a calculator to all
labs.
Table of Contents
Last updated 05/30/2005
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