Hi David, Good luck with the class, I hope it goes well. My advice as an ecologist, science communicator, and sometimes teacher would be the following:
More than anything, you have to keep the students interested. If they are interested, they'll pay attention to and learn anything. Focus on the concepts and use the specific details as a way of reinforcing the concepts, not as stand-alone topics. Do not rely on things like text heavy PowerPoint and keep use of the "standard" biology/ecology texts to the minimum possible. Try to find activities and demonstrations that student can engage in, or at least witness first-hand. Even for majors, let alone for non-majors, concepts are critical. All too often materials are presented as a pile of loosely, or unconnected facts to be learned without any real attempt to properly link them together. Even in graduate school I found classmates who had never gotten the basic concepts, even though they could to all the bits and pieces and recite all the facts without hesitation. Ideas are what engage people and capture their imagination (and nice pictures too, don't underestimate those), not a dusty textbook full of formula and facts. If you engage their imaginations, they'll learn more; they'll ask for more to learn. Neahga Leonard On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Johnson, David R <[email protected]>wrote: > Greetings, > > I am teaching a "contemporary biology" course for non-science majors in > the fall and for the first time I am fortunate to be able to organize the > course at my discretion. Effectively, I can present any material I wish as > long as I hit broad themes such as Cell Theory and Evolution. While this is > certainly doable, I am struggling deciding exactly what content to present. > The course is meant to present the science of contemporary issues that may > be important and/or interesting to the non-science student rather than a > broad survey course encompassing all of biology. There is another such > survey course with a set syllabus that I am not teaching, and there are two > other sections of contemporary biology that are focusing on genetics. I > would like to focus on the many ecological issues that both affect and are > affected by humans. My struggle involves the fact that this may be the only > (or last) biology these students get before we cast them out into the > world. So I want to be sure and cover all my bases. > > I am writing Ecolog with two questions. First, what is the relative merit > of including as much biology as possible as opposed to focusing on fewer > but perhaps more directly relevant ecological topics? These students will > most likely not become scientists, and certainly won't need to memorize the > structure of all the amino acids, for example. On the other hand, would I > be cheating them somehow by not providing enough information to them for > making informed decisions on topics outside of my direct area of expertise, > such as developmental biology and stem cells? > > The other question I have involves textbooks. Is anyone aware of a text > (or perhaps pop-science books) designed for the non-science major that > focuses on ecology, in particular the involvement of humans in ecological > systems? I haven't been able to find something I like and am looking for > recommendations. > > Thanks and I'll circulate a summary response if/when the discussion runs > its course. > > Cheers, > > David > > David R. Johnson PhD. > Postdoctoral Research Associate > Systems Ecology Lab > University of Texas at El Paso > [email protected] >
