Gary, Here's my recommendation. Film: The Plow that Broke the Plain. 1936. One of the first documentary films; short, about 25 minutes. Made during the height of the Dust Bowl; had government sponsorship; critically acclaimed; award-winnng score by composer Virgil Thomson. Focuses on the ecological disaster caused by overplowing in the Great Plains. It is available for online viewing I believe: http://www.archive.org/details/PlowThatBrokethePlains1 I'm not sure where to find part 2 (which covers the last two minutes).
Book: <http://www.amazon.com/Worst-Hard-Time-Survived-American/dp/061834697X/ref=sr_1_2/105-5548262-3521228?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190823800&sr=1-2>The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan A good combination of the ecological and human consequences of plowing up the prairie. The making of the film, and reactions to it are discussed in the book. Liane Cochran-Stafira At 08:16 AM 9/26/2007, Dr. Gary Grossman wrote: >Dear Colleagues, >At some point in my career I'd like to teach a moderately, large non-majors >oriented course, delineating basic concepts in ecology and resource >management, via film, art and literature. One idea would be to have the >film, etc. illustrate the point which could then be reinforced via a book >chapter or edited journal article so that they would be understandable by >non-majors. Does anyone teach a course like this? If you do, would you >mind sharing your materials? If you don't but have ideas about specific >films, short stories, paintings, sculptures, etc. please let me know and >please also tell us why you would chose that work (i.e. what concept it >illustrates). I have a pretty good background in the visual arts, so help >with literature and film would be appreciated. As an example of what I'm >looking for, I would use the film Dersu Uzala by Kurasawa to illustrate the >role of humans relationship to nature. Thanks for your help. g2 > >-- >Gary D. Grossman > >Distinguished Research Professor - Animal Ecology >Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources >University of Georgia >Athens, GA, USA 30602 > >http://www.arches.uga.edu/~grossman > >Board of Editors - Animal Biodiversity and Conservation >Editorial Board - Freshwater Biology >Editorial Board - Ecology Freshwater Fish *************************** D. Liane Cochran-Stafira, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Biological Sciences Saint Xavier University 3700 West 103rd Street Chicago, Illinois 60655 phone: 773-298-3514 fax: 773-298-3536 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://faculty.sxu.edu/~cochran/
