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Course Assignments
I. JOURNAL
We expect each student to keep a scientific journal from August 9 through 1 November. During that time, students will make entries at least once per week (At least 2 times per day while we are in Puerto Rico). The entries will include observations (careful descriptions, photos, and drawings), descriptions, hypotheses drawn while in the field, and explanations. Students will carry a field notebook with them at all times while in the field or while making observations of their plots. The information from the notebook will be transcribed and organized into a journal that we will accept on the network (see INTRODUCTION AND POLICIES section IV.A.). If you want to see a good example of a naturalist's journal, read parts of Darwin (1845; The Voyage of the Beagle).
Particularly while in Puerto Rico, we expect that you will consider the following questions:
- Describe the dominant species.
- Describe the dominant geological features.
- Describe climatological features.
- Describe the dominant land use.
This assignment will be 30% of your grade.
II. RESEARCH PAPERS
A. FOREST ANALYSES OF PENNSYLVANIAN AND PUERTO RICAN FORESTS
Each team of students will examine the trees and herbs a 20X50 meter quadrat in a central Pennsylvania forest. They will then examine a quadrat of the same size in El Yunque. The data collected will be interpreted in the context of the Theory of Island Biogeography. Students will compare species richness, and diversity (Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index) between the sites with appropriate inference and explanation. This paper will be due on 20 September. This assignment will be 20% of your grade.
B. SEASONAL SUCCESSION IN A SMALL PLOT
Students will identify a 1m2 plot to observe from 9 August past the first frost (the last entry should be around 1 November). They will make careful observations of the plot on a weekly basis. They will collect data and take observations sufficient to adequately describe the site and seek to explain changes in the context of seasonal succession. This paper will be due on 15 November. This assignment will be 20% of your grade.
III. GRADED DISCUSSIONS:
A. RESPONSES TO READINGS, AND OTHER ASSIGNMENTS.
Twenty percent of your final grade will be based on your participation and positive contribution to the discussions that respond to the readings, field observations, and journal entries.
Prior to each discussion, each group will meet and discuss the material and choose 2 or more questions on which to take a stand. The group will then select a spokesperson who will present the questions which the group judged worthy of a stand and present the group's positions on those questions.
Following the initial group presentation, a general and open discussion will occur. All students are expected to participate in open debate that may defend their position, defend another group's position or challenge another group's position.
B. EVALUATION OF STUDENT DISCUSSIONS:
All students who are present will receive 50% for discussion because I presume that they participated in the initial group deliberations. Each time students speak during the open discussion, I will evaluate their contributions as to whether they are positive, negative, or zero. All positive responses will receive an additional 10%; likewise, all negative responses will receive -10%. Note that it is possible for students to receive negative points for their contributions. However, students will receive points only if they contribute. That means that students must be prepared and speak up.
Just because you speak out 5 times during the discussion does not automatically entitle you to receive full discussion credit. Indeed, not all responses are positive. Some are spoken in anger, and some responses redirect the discussion in unfruitful directions. Consequently, any response that tends to impede the discussion will be given negative credit.
Please confine your responses to concise statements. In the past, some students tended to monopolize the exchange with very long, rambling and convoluted responses. This tended to discourage some students from contributing and, thereby, impeded the discussion. This will be 25% of your grade.
IV. RESPONSE TO READINGS:
On the first day of class (6 May), we will give you a set of questions that will serve as a point of departure for an introductory discussion. Students will then read chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 11, and 14 of Kitcher (1997) to answer the questions as a formal paper for our meeting on 9 August. We require also that students read Gary Larson's There's a Hair in My Dirt in preparation for the answers and discussion. The paper should be adequately supported with other sources as well. This will be 10% of your grade.
V. CITATION FORMAT:
The paper must have ample documentation, a situation which allows
the writer to say volumes in every sentence. All documentation in your papers
will be in the format of Limnology and Oceanography
or the Journal of Phycology. Consult either journal
for any questions about documentation. I will not allow you to cite class
notes or encyclopedias.