Ecolog:
If I may build upon this idea, what about having each student "adopt" a
single species, observing it regularly, and gathering data (which should be
gathered in a central location for ease of retrieval), analyzing it, and
writing it up for publication periodically.
Plants are easiest, and they soon lead to animals and how all of the species
connected with a single [plant or other life form, including bacteria,
fungi, cyanobacteria, and other voiceless organisms] species naturally
advance the scholar from a mere collector to an authority on an organism and
all of its connections.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cochran-Stafira, D. Liane" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11:41 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Are humans part of nature?
Thank you for posting this article. It just gave me a great idea for my
natural history course for non-majors. Each student will have to become
very "connected" with one plant species and one animal species as part of
their course assignments. Maybe this way they will become more connected to
the "nature" that surrounds and encompasses them even in a large urban
setting.
Liane
****************************************
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/
<http://faculty.sxu.edu/~cochran/>
________________________________
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news on behalf of SJ
Melles, Environment Canada
Sent: Tue 8/11/2009 8:48 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Are humans part of nature?
There's a very good article in the NY Times (Aug 10, by Carol Kaesuk
Yoon), which may shed some light on this topic. It's called 'Reviving the
Lost Art of Naming the World.'
You can view the full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/science/11naming.html?
pagewanted=1&8dpc&_r=1
The article finishes with the following thoughts:
"Today few people are proficient in the ordering and naming of life. We
are willfully ... losing the ability to order and name and therefore
losing a connection to and a place in the living world.
No wonder so few of us can really see what is out there. Even when scads
of insistent wildlife appear with a flourish right in front of us, and
there is such life always - hawks migrating over the parking lot, great
colorful moths banging up against the window at night - we barely seem to
notice. We are so disconnected from the living world that we can live in
the midst of a mass extinction, of the rapid invasion everywhere of new
and noxious species, entirely unaware that anything is happening. Happily,
changing all this turns out to be easy. Just find an organism, any
organism, small, large, gaudy, subtle - anywhere, and they are everywhere -
and get a sense of it, its shape, color, size, feel, smell, sound. Give a
nod to Professor Franclemont and meditate, luxuriate in its beetle-ness,
its daffodility. Then find a name for it. Learn science's name, one of
countless folk names, or make up your own. To do so is to change
everything, including yourself. Because once you start noticing organisms,
once you have a name for particular beasts, birds and flowers, you can't
help seeing life and the order in it, just where it has always been, all
around you."
I think the meaning in this message is that the idea of whether or not
humans are a part of nature comes back to how our language shapes the way
we view the world around us. I once had Karel Klinka as a guest lecturer
for a UBC forest science field course and he stressed that students should
learn the names and ecology of the plants and organisms around them as
they would their own family. I can't say I have fully embraced his advice,
but I am learning.
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