Dig into the environmental health journals such as Environmental Health Perspectives. There are a lot of articles in there that can be offered as outside readings.
I used to have students do mosquito monitoring around the campus. You can use this to quantify population size and you can identify different mosquitoes. In my case I was teaching an intro to environmental science course, but I suspect you could run with this. You just get a bunch of plastic drinking cups, glue or attach some kind of dowel rod to it for a stake and then you place the cups out around campus and in likely and unlikely spots to find mosquitoes. They come back in a couple days and look for eggs in the lab. This thing can go in all sorts of directions, and the aspects of the disease cycle combined with the habitats along with the human health component could work very well. If I can find my old stuff, I could email it to you. But I haven't used this in a long time (back in 1997). Certainly, you will want to beef it up. Also, you do the cemetary lab for demographies. You can use human traits for population biology, and frankly, you can even use the human anthropology classes (caucasoid, negroid, mongoloid) to examine geographic variation in body type. Although the last one requires quite a bit of tact to avoid possible misinterpretation of comments as racist. I must admit no one has ever reacted this way in my classes, but maybe its because I recognized the possible problems ahead of time! MLM On Wed, August 15, 2007 7:14 pm, Cheryl Schultz wrote: > I teach the General Ecology course at our campus. This is a required > course > for all biology majors. Often more than 2/3 of the students enter the > biology program with intention to go on in health-related fields > (pharmacy, > pre-med, physical therapy, etc). It has been my experience that the > lectures > the students respond most strongly to are those which show strong linkage > between ecology and aspects of human health. For example, students said > the > lectures that were most memorable to them last year were a lecture on > disease ecology (using simple SIR models to estimate the percent of a > population that would need to be vaccinated to prevent an epidemic) and > one > on climate change (in which I emphasized the potential impact of warming > on > spread of mosquitoes as vectors for malaria and therefore the potential of > climate change to increase disease risk). > > > > As I gear up to teach ecology again, I would love to hear from folks about > lecture topics they have given or have thought about which show strong > linkage between ecology and aspects of human health. > > > > Thanks! Please send responses either to the list or directly to me. If I > get several replies, I will put them all together and post a summary to > this > list. Also, if you have colleagues that might have ideas, it'd be great > if > you could forward this note to them. > > > > Cheers, > > > > Cheryl Schultz > > > > > > ******************************************************************** > > Cheryl B. Schultz > Assistant Professor > School of Biological Sciences > Washington State University Vancouver > 14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave. > Vancouver, WA 98686 > Office: 360-546-9525 Lab: 360-546-9082 > Fax: 360-546-9064 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/sci/schultz.html > > ******************************************************************** > > > > _____ > > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of ECOLOG-L automatic digest > system > Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 9:00 PM > To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU > Subject: ECOLOG-L Digest - 13 Aug 2007 to 14 Aug 2007 (#2007-221) > > > > Skip repetitive navigational links > > > > > <http://www.lsoft.com> L-Soft - Home of the LISTSERV mailing list manager > LISTSERV(R) 14.5 > <https://LISTSERV.UMD.EDU/archives/images/ls2-version.gif> > > > ECOLOG-L Digest - 13 Aug 2007 to 14 Aug 2007 (#2007-221) > > > Table of contents: > > > * Carbon Calculator <> > * Postdoc available: comparative <> ecophysiology of Hawaiian > lobeliads > * ECOLOGY Conservation Principles <> and Transformations Re: hunting > & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation Principles and Transformations Re: > primate watching > * primate watching <> > * field-worthy SUV <> > * Euclidean distances and SAS <> > * Climate Change Positions: Climate <> Adaptation Specialists- > Freshwater and Terrestrial > * Perm Aquatic Ecologist Position <> Yosemite NTPK > * Carbon Calculator (and very <> interesting ocean carbon trials!) > (5) > * Assistantship available <> > * Low GPA; grad school? <> (4) > * Environmental Education <> Internship > * proposed short course in <> adaptive management > * hunting <> & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation Principles and > Transformations Re: primate watching > * microlending/RE: hunting <> & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation > Principles and Transformations (3) > * hunting <> & conservation > * Biogeochemistry in Polar <> Environments at AGU > > 1. Carbon Calculator > > * Re: Carbon Calculator (08/13) > From: "Thomson, David Michael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 2. Postdoc available: comparative ecophysiology of Hawaiian lobeliads > > * Postdoc available: comparative ecophysiology of Hawaiian lobeliads > (08/13) > From: Rebecca Montgomery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 3. ECOLOGY Conservation Principles and Transformations Re: hunting & > conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation Principles and Transformations Re: > primate watching > > * ECOLOGY Conservation Principles and Transformations Re: hunting & > conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation Principles and Transformations Re: > primate watching (08/14) > From: Wayne Tyson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 4. primate watching > > * Re: primate watching (08/14) > From: Dan Tufford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 5. field-worthy SUV > > * Re: field-worthy SUV (08/14) > From: Jim Biardi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 6. Euclidean distances and SAS > > * Euclidean distances and SAS (08/14) > From: Lene Jung Kjaer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 7. Climate Change Positions: Climate Adaptation Specialists- Freshwater > and Terrestrial > > * Climate Change Positions: Climate Adaptation Specialists- Freshwater > and Terrestrial (08/14) > From: Michael Case <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 8. Perm Aquatic Ecologist Position Yosemite NTPK > > * Perm Aquatic Ecologist Position Yosemite NTPK (08/14) > From: Sarah Stock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 9. Carbon Calculator (and very interesting ocean carbon trials!) > > * Re: Carbon Calculator (and very interesting ocean carbon trials!) > (08/14) > From: John Mickelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: Carbon Calculator (and very interesting ocean carbon trials!) > (08/14) > From: Wil Burns <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: Carbon Calculator (and very interesting ocean carbon trials!) > (08/14) > From: Dave Hewitt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: Carbon Calculator (and very interesting ocean carbon trials!) > (08/14) > From: John Mickelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: Carbon Calculator (and very interesting ocean carbon trials!) > (08/14) > From: "Thomson, David Michael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 10. Assistantship available > > * Assistantship available (08/14) > From: "Saunders, Michael R" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 11. Low GPA; grad school? > > * Low GPA; grad school? (08/14) > From: S <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: Low GPA; grad school? (08/14) > From: Malcolm McCallum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: Low GPA; grad school? (08/14) > From: Emily Gonzales <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: Low GPA; grad school? (08/14) > From: Malcolm McCallum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 12. Environmental Education Internship > > * Environmental Education Internship (08/14) > From: Jennifer Schafer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 13. proposed short course in adaptive management > > * proposed short course in adaptive management (08/14) > From: David Inouye <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 14. hunting & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation Principles and > Transformations Re: primate watching > > * Re: hunting & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation Principles and > Transformations Re: primate watching (08/14) > From: "James J. Roper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 15. microlending/RE: hunting & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation > Principles and Transformations > > * microlending/RE: hunting & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation > Principles and Transformations (08/14) > From: WENDEE HOLTCAMP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: microlending/RE: hunting & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation > Principles and Transformations (08/14) > From: "Warren W. Aney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > * Re: microlending/RE: hunting & conservation/was ECOLOGY Conservation > Principles and Transformations (08/14) > From: WENDEE HOLTCAMP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 16. hunting & conservation > > * Re: hunting & conservation (08/14) > From: "Warren W. Aney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 17. Biogeochemistry in Polar Environments at AGU > > * Biogeochemistry in Polar Environments at AGU (08/14) > From: "BAESEMAN, JENNY" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > _____ > > <http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html> > <http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html> Powered by LISTSERV(R) > <http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html> Browse the ECOLOG-L online > <http://listserv.umd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?LIST=ECOLOG-L> archives. > > > Malcolm L. McCallum Assistant Professor of Biology Editor Herpetological Conservationa and Biology [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
