Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology
I used the Essential Biology text by Pearson (the older version, with Campbell as one of the authors) a few years ago (~2005) for a non-majors intro course at a community college. I thought it was a decent text, although I wasn't aiming for an ecological focus in particular (but, it did seem to have a solid treatment of evolution). I don't know how similar or different the new edition is, although the price (~$142) and length (544 pages) seem a little more than what I remember. Mark D. From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of Emily Pollina [ec...@cornell.edu] Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2012 10:20 AM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology Hi! That sounds like a very interesting course. I definitely understand the struggle. I taught a non-majors class on climate change last fall, and I had similar difficulty in setting the syllabus- it's hard to know what to cover when you know your class is perhaps the last and only biology (or science) course for these students. That said, I would say that less is more, especially in a non-majors class. My fear is that if you try to cover too many units, students will have a superficial understanding of the topics, which will quickly fade after the final exam. (This might happen anyway, but the more superficial their understanding, the more likely it is.) I think that it would probably better to cover a small number of contemporary issues in more depth. I think the students will benefit more from learning how scientists tackle a problem and how to evaluate scientific pronouncements that they read/hear on the news. (In other words, I'm advocating for a substantial nature of science focus throughout the units you choose, which tends to work better if you do a small number of topics in more depth.) Frankly, I think we as educators have to (reluctantly) accept that we can't cover everything, and so eventually our students will have to find information on their own if they wish to make informed decisions about a particular topic. What we can try to do for them is to help them develop the intellectual tools to make that possible. In addition, I like the idea of focusing more on ecology, because it sounds like the students have many opportunities to learn the molecular biology and genetics side of things in the other courses you describe. But you might consider some integrated units (e.g. the ecology of infectious diseases or the environmental side of cancer), where you could introduce molecular biology/genetics/development topics with ecological topics, and show the students how those two fields can inform and strengthen each other. I wish I could be helpful about textbooks, but I can't really think of a single book. I'm wondering if you want to assemble a list of prospective unit topics, and then send another email out to the list- knowing what topics you are hoping will be included would be a big help. Sometimes the university bookstore will also assemble a course pack of excerpts from different books. That can be expensive, depending on the price of copyright, but it's worth looking into if people can recommend only favorite book chapters. Best wishes, Emily Pollina Ph.D. Candidate On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.eduwrote: 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
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology
David, I used Campbell Essential Biology by E.J. Simon, J.B.Reece and J.L. Dickey. It is a book for non-biology majors that has 20 chapters, all of them with a focus on evolution and examples, and nice drawings and pictures. Twelve of the 20 chapters are geared toward cell-DNA, then three chapters on taxonomy and systematics. The last three include populations ecology, communities ecosystems, and the biosphere. Therefore, you will have to add extra material to recreate those last topics. I created several evolution labs using beans or the web pages below, designed a ppt to introduce Darwin's life and thoughts, and added many lab activities to learn about mark-recapture techniques, estimating population growth rate size, population growth models, climate change, and identifying biomes. Evolution links to check are: http://video.pbs.org/video/1300397304/ http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/devitt_02 I used those as base for the lab activities. Hope this helps. Helena Helena Puche, Ph. D. Adjunct Assistant Professor University of Illinois at Chicago Biological Sciences, 3464 SES, MC 066 845 West Taylor Street Chicago, IL 60607hpu...@uic.edu --- On Fri, 5/25/12, Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.edu wrote: From: Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.edu Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Date: Friday, May 25, 2012, 2:49 PM 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 drjohns...@utep.edu
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology
Good morning, I'm not an ecologist, biologist or any other type of natural science type -- I'm a 63-year-old news editor who has been visiting this and other sites to understand worldwide environmental issues. The main thing I remember from my course 40-plus years ago for non-biology majors is that I don't remember much of anything. We memorized a lot of terms and definitions that we promptly forgot about 30 minutes after the final exam. I agree with Emily that less is sometimes more. I personally would have benefitted greatly from a course that touched on the broad issues facing our world today -- safe water, carbon/methane emissions, waste disposal (I thoroughly HATE all the discarded plastic bottles along the shoulders of highways), sustainable communities, forest protection -- than from a course that spent a lot of time talking about cellular functions or DNA/RNA replication, or memorizing terms like apical meristem or convergent evolution. The non-biology students who sometimes advance in life to become our lawmakers and policy makers would be better served to learn more about the scientific method, so they can understand how a theory is reached and how it becomes generally accepted. They probably would have a greater understanding of scientific principles if they spent a day or two of their instructional time on a bird-banding team or collecting water samples from below the sewage treatment plant. Here's a non-scientific parallel: I minored in economics. Against the advice of my advisor, I took a course called Economics of Black America, and I spent a lot of time going through minority/marginal neighborhoods to learn how they got to be the way they were. The stuff I learned in that one course has benefitted me and my news organization more in the last 40 years than all the other economics courses put together. That's my two cents worth. - Original Message - From: Emily Pollina ec...@cornell.edu To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2012 11:20 AM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology Hi! That sounds like a very interesting course. I definitely understand the struggle. I taught a non-majors class on climate change last fall, and I had similar difficulty in setting the syllabus- it's hard to know what to cover when you know your class is perhaps the last and only biology (or science) course for these students. That said, I would say that less is more, especially in a non-majors class. My fear is that if you try to cover too many units, students will have a superficial understanding of the topics, which will quickly fade after the final exam. (This might happen anyway, but the more superficial their understanding, the more likely it is.) I think that it would probably better to cover a small number of contemporary issues in more depth. I think the students will benefit more from learning how scientists tackle a problem and how to evaluate scientific pronouncements that they read/hear on the news. (In other words, I'm advocating for a substantial nature of science focus throughout the units you choose, which tends to work better if you do a small number of topics in more depth.) Frankly, I think we as educators have to (reluctantly) accept that we can't cover everything, and so eventually our students will have to find information on their own if they wish to make informed decisions about a particular topic. What we can try to do for them is to help them develop the intellectual tools to make that possible. In addition, I like the idea of focusing more on ecology, because it sounds like the students have many opportunities to learn the molecular biology and genetics side of things in the other courses you describe. But you might consider some integrated units (e.g. the ecology of infectious diseases or the environmental side of cancer), where you could introduce molecular biology/genetics/development topics with ecological topics, and show the students how those two fields can inform and strengthen each other. I wish I could be helpful about textbooks, but I can't really think of a single book. I'm wondering if you want to assemble a list of prospective unit topics, and then send another email out to the list- knowing what topics you are hoping will be included would be a big help. Sometimes the university bookstore will also assemble a course pack of excerpts from different books. That can be expensive, depending on the price of copyright, but it's worth looking into if people can recommend only favorite book chapters. Best wishes, Emily Pollina Ph.D. Candidate On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.eduwrote: 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
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology
An intro non-majors biology course should provide a broad overview of the science of biology and its major disciplines. It is very possible to make topics like physiology, anatomy, evolution and cellular biology relevant to 20 year-old students. And I agree that in a non-majors course extra effort should be given to showing students how the biological discipines mesh and why its important for everyone on earth to have an understanding of how biology is important in their lives. The issues mentioned by Bill - safe water, carbon/methane emissions, waste disposal - are more appropriate in an intro environmental studies course. They could be used for an example of an application of ecology, (although loss of biodiversity is perhaps better), but an intro biology course should not focus just on environmental issues. That would not be fair to the students. Thomas Rosburg, PhD Professor, Department of Biology Drake Biodiversity Center and Herbarium Drake University, 2507 University Avenue Des Moines, IA From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] on behalf of Bill Maher [wcma...@windstream.net] Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2012 10:33 AM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology Good morning, I'm not an ecologist, biologist or any other type of natural science type -- I'm a 63-year-old news editor who has been visiting this and other sites to understand worldwide environmental issues. The main thing I remember from my course 40-plus years ago for non-biology majors is that I don't remember much of anything. We memorized a lot of terms and definitions that we promptly forgot about 30 minutes after the final exam. I agree with Emily that less is sometimes more. I personally would have benefitted greatly from a course that touched on the broad issues facing our world today -- safe water, carbon/methane emissions, waste disposal (I thoroughly HATE all the discarded plastic bottles along the shoulders of highways), sustainable communities, forest protection -- than from a course that spent a lot of time talking about cellular functions or DNA/RNA replication, or memorizing terms like apical meristem or convergent evolution. The non-biology students who sometimes advance in life to become our lawmakers and policy makers would be better served to learn more about the scientific method, so they can understand how a theory is reached and how it becomes generally accepted. They probably would have a greater understanding of scientific principles if they spent a day or two of their instructional time on a bird-banding team or collecting water samples from below the sewage treatment plant. Here's a non-scientific parallel: I minored in economics. Against the advice of my advisor, I took a course called Economics of Black America, and I spent a lot of time going through minority/marginal neighborhoods to learn how they got to be the way they were. The stuff I learned in that one course has benefitted me and my news organization more in the last 40 years than all the other economics courses put together. That's my two cents worth. - Original Message - From: Emily Pollina ec...@cornell.edu To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2012 11:20 AM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology Hi! That sounds like a very interesting course. I definitely understand the struggle. I taught a non-majors class on climate change last fall, and I had similar difficulty in setting the syllabus- it's hard to know what to cover when you know your class is perhaps the last and only biology (or science) course for these students. That said, I would say that less is more, especially in a non-majors class. My fear is that if you try to cover too many units, students will have a superficial understanding of the topics, which will quickly fade after the final exam. (This might happen anyway, but the more superficial their understanding, the more likely it is.) I think that it would probably better to cover a small number of contemporary issues in more depth. I think the students will benefit more from learning how scientists tackle a problem and how to evaluate scientific pronouncements that they read/hear on the news. (In other words, I'm advocating for a substantial nature of science focus throughout the units you choose, which tends to work better if you do a small number of topics in more depth.) Frankly, I think we as educators have to (reluctantly) accept that we can't cover everything, and so eventually our students will have to find information on their own if they wish to make informed decisions about a particular topic. What we can try to do for them is to help them develop the intellectual tools to make that possible. In addition, I like the idea of focusing more on ecology, because it sounds like the students have many opportunities to
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology
With sincere respect to all of you in the fields of microbiology, genetics, and other laboratory-based disciplines of the life sciences, I contend the Campbell Essential Biology approach is exactly what is wrong with biology education today. Nearly all undergraduate and high school introductory biology courses are written as if EVERY student is going on to med school, nursing, or a career in a lab-based science. I agree it's important for an undergrad course to make mention of cytology, DNA, photosynthesis, etc., but I question the real value to students of any non-major textbook in which 12 chapters deal with cell-DNA and ecology, ecosystems, and the biosphere are relegated to the last three chapters. My guess is that 95% or more of non-majors will never have any really practical use for information about cell-DNA. It's complicated stuff that their physicians and pharmacists need to know, but what would be of infinitely greater value is for everyone to be familiar with basic principles of ecology, plant-animal interactions, pollination biology, and the like. Knowing about these things will enable students in general to understand how humans fit into and affect the world around them, and such understanding will help them make informed decisions about such things as overfishing, watersheds and wetlands, use of household pesticides and fertilizers--to say nothing of current controversial topics like global climate change, fracking, etc. We all teach what we know, of course, and the vast majority of high school biology teachers know what they learned in an undergrad biology courses taught from the pre-med perspective. I know from 25-plus years in the classroom and lab that for kids not going off to med-school the pre-med approach is often a turn-off to science, while a course that emphasizes ecology, the environment, field work, etc., is a turn-on. I also taught undergrad biology and know such is the case with many college students. Cheers, BILL On May 27, 2012, at 10:48 AM, Helena Puche wrote: David, I used Campbell Essential Biology by E.J. Simon, J.B.Reece and J.L. Dickey. It is a book for non-biology majors that has 20 chapters, all of them with a focus on evolution and examples, and nice drawings and pictures. Twelve of the 20 chapters are geared toward cell-DNA, then three chapters on taxonomy and systematics. The last three include populations ecology, communities ecosystems, and the biosphere. Therefore, you will have to add extra material to recreate those last topics. I created several evolution labs using beans or the web pages below, designed a ppt to introduce Darwin's liand thoughts, and added many lab activities to learn about mark-recapture techniques, estimating population growth rate size, population growth models, climate change, and identifying biomes. Evolution links to check are: http://video.pbs.org/video/1300397304/ http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/devitt_02 I used those as base for the lab activities. Hope this helps. Helena Helena Puche, Ph. D. Adjunct Assistant Professor University of Illinois at Chicago Biological Sciences, 3464 SES, MC 066 845 West Taylor Street Chicago, IL 60607hpu...@uic.edu --- On Fri, 5/25/12, Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.edu wrote: From: Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.edu Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Date: Friday, May 25, 2012, 2:49 PM 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
Re: [ECOLOG-L] : Animal Created Disturbances
look up feral hogs. Malcolm On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 5:52 PM, Michael J. Chips mjc...@pitt.edu wrote: I'm currently examining how vertebrates can cause disturbances that alter biodiversity within forests. For example, the redistribution of leaf litter and soil disturbances sometimes caused by large herbivores or omnivores (e.g., peccaries, deer, turkeys, chowchillas, cassowaries, etc) that occurs while foraging, nest-building, or during sexual displays. I have amassed about 25 peer-reviewed articles on this subject but I am interested in any very old and very recent publications, important book chapters, any publications distributed by any governmental agency or NGO anywhere in the world or unpublished Master's or dissertations. Thanks so much for any help. Sincerely, Mike Chips Michael J. Chips University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences 154 Crawford Hall Pittsburgh, PA 15260 -- Malcolm L. McCallum Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry School of Biological Sciences University of Missouri at Kansas City Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive - Allan Nation 1880's: There's lots of good fish in the sea W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
Re: [ECOLOG-L] : Animal Created Disturbances
I would start with Clive Jones's classic papers on ecosystem engineers (Jones et al Oikos 1994, Jones et al 1997 Ecology, Wright Jones 2006 BioScience). These papers have many references and collectively they have been cited 2000 times, so you should find many references that are appropriate. --- Michael J. Vanni Professor Department of Zoology and Graduate Program in Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (EEEB) Miami University phone:513.529.3192 fax: 513.529.6900 email: vannimj at muohio.edu http://www.muohio.edu/vannilab -- On 5/26/12 6:52 PM, Michael J. Chips mjc...@pitt.edu wrote: I'm currently examining how vertebrates can cause disturbances that alter biodiversity within forests. For example, the redistribution of leaf litter and soil disturbances sometimes caused by large herbivores or omnivores (e.g., peccaries, deer, turkeys, chowchillas, cassowaries, etc) that occurs while foraging, nest-building, or during sexual displays. I have amassed about 25 peer-reviewed articles on this subject but I am interested in any very old and very recent publications, important book chapters, any publications distributed by any governmental agency or NGO anywhere in the world or unpublished Master's or dissertations. Thanks so much for any help. Sincerely, Mike Chips Michael J. Chips University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences 154 Crawford Hall Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology
I agree 100% !! With sincere respect to all of you in the fields of microbiology, genetics, and other laboratory-based disciplines of the life sciences, I contend the Campbell Essential Biology approach is exactly what is wrong with biology education today. Nearly all undergraduate and high school introductory biology courses are written as if EVERY student is going on to med school, nursing, or a career in a lab-based science. I agree it's important for an undergrad course to make mention of cytology, DNA, photosynthesis, etc., but I question the real value to students of any non-major textbook in which 12 chapters deal with cell-DNA and ecology, ecosystems, and the biosphere are relegated to the last three chapters. My guess is that 95% or more of non-majors will never have any really practical use for information about cell-DNA. It's complicated stuff that their physicians and pharmacists need to know, but what would be of infinitely greater value is for everyone to be familiar with basic principles of ecology, plant-animal interactions, pollination biology, and the like. Knowing about these things will enable students in general to understand how humans fit into and affect the world around them, and such understanding will help them make informed decisions about such things as overfishing, watersheds and wetlands, use of household pesticides and fertilizers--to say nothing of current controversial topics like global climate change, fracking, etc. We all teach what we know, of course, and the vast majority of high school biology teachers know what they learned in an undergrad biology courses taught from the pre-med perspective. I know from 25-plus years in the classroom and lab that for kids not going off to med-school the pre-med approach is often a turn-off to science, while a course that emphasizes ecology, the environment, field work, etc., is a turn-on. I also taught undergrad biology and know such is the case with many college students. Cheers, BILL On May 27, 2012, at 10:48 AM, Helena Puche wrote: David, I used Campbell Essential Biology by E.J. Simon, J.B.Reece and J.L. Dickey. It is a book for non-biology majors that has 20 chapters, all of them with a focus on evolution and examples, and nice drawings and pictures. Twelve of the 20 chapters are geared toward cell-DNA, then three chapters on taxonomy and systematics. The last three include populations ecology, communities ecosystems, and the biosphere. Therefore, you will have to add extra material to recreate those last topics. I created several evolution labs using beans or the web pages below, designed a ppt to introduce Darwin's liand thoughts, and added many lab activities to learn about mark-recapture techniques, estimating population growth rate size, population growth models, climate change, and identifying biomes. Evolution links to check are: http://video.pbs.org/video/1300397304/ http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/devitt_02 I used those as base for the lab activities. Hope this helps. Helena Helena Puche, Ph. D. Adjunct Assistant Professor University of Illinois at Chicago Biological Sciences, 3464 SES, MC 066 845 West Taylor Street Chicago, IL 60607hpu...@uic.edu --- On Fri, 5/25/12, Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.edu wrote: From: Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.edu Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Date: Friday, May 25, 2012, 2:49 PM 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
Re: [ECOLOG-L] : Animal Created Disturbances
I know you mentioned you are interested in vertebrate disturbance, but there is good literature about non-native earthworm disturbance of forest ecosystems. Sent from my iPhone On May 27, 2012, at 1:56 PM, malcolm McCallum malcolm.mccal...@herpconbio.org wrote: look up feral hogs. Malcolm On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 5:52 PM, Michael J. Chips mjc...@pitt.edu wrote: I'm currently examining how vertebrates can cause disturbances that alter biodiversity within forests. For example, the redistribution of leaf litter and soil disturbances sometimes caused by large herbivores or omnivores (e.g., peccaries, deer, turkeys, chowchillas, cassowaries, etc) that occurs while foraging, nest-building, or during sexual displays. I have amassed about 25 peer-reviewed articles on this subject but I am interested in any very old and very recent publications, important book chapters, any publications distributed by any governmental agency or NGO anywhere in the world or unpublished Master's or dissertations. Thanks so much for any help. Sincerely, Mike Chips Michael J. Chips University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences 154 Crawford Hall Pittsburgh, PA 15260 -- Malcolm L. McCallum Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry School of Biological Sciences University of Missouri at Kansas City Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive - Allan Nation 1880's: There's lots of good fish in the sea W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
Re: [ECOLOG-L] : Animal Created Disturbances
There is work on grizzly bear digging and its effects on alpine plant communities. I know Jack Stanford of U. of Montana has worked on this, not sure if it was ever published. Cheers, Robert On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 4:52 PM, Michael J. Chips mjc...@pitt.edu wrote: I'm currently examining how vertebrates can cause disturbances that alter biodiversity within forests. For example, the redistribution of leaf litter and soil disturbances sometimes caused by large herbivores or omnivores (e.g., peccaries, deer, turkeys, chowchillas, cassowaries, etc) that occurs while foraging, nest-building, or during sexual displays. I have amassed about 25 peer-reviewed articles on this subject but I am interested in any very old and very recent publications, important book chapters, any publications distributed by any governmental agency or NGO anywhere in the world or unpublished Master's or dissertations. Thanks so much for any help. Sincerely, Mike Chips Michael J. Chips University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences 154 Crawford Hall Pittsburgh, PA 15260 -- Robert N. Schaeffer Ph.D. Candidate Dartmouth College Life Sciences Center 78 College St. Hanover, NH 03755
Re: [ECOLOG-L] : Animal Created Disturbances
There is research that describes how grizzly feeding behavior facilitates nutrient flow through riparian forest ecosystems. Keystone Interactions: Salmon and Bear in Riparian Forests of Alaska James M. Helfield,1,3* and Robert J. Naiman2 http://myweb.wwu.edu/~helfiej/publications_pdfs/Helfield_Naiman_2006.pdf Sent from my iPhone On May 27, 2012, at 6:25 PM, Robert Schaeffer robert.n.schaef...@dartmouth.edu wrote: There is work on grizzly bear digging and its effects on alpine plant communities. I know Jack Stanford of U. of Montana has worked on this, not sure if it was ever published. Cheers, Robert On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 4:52 PM, Michael J. Chips mjc...@pitt.edu wrote: I'm currently examining how vertebrates can cause disturbances that alter biodiversity within forests. For example, the redistribution of leaf litter and soil disturbances sometimes caused by large herbivores or omnivores (e.g., peccaries, deer, turkeys, chowchillas, cassowaries, etc) that occurs while foraging, nest-building, or during sexual displays. I have amassed about 25 peer-reviewed articles on this subject but I am interested in any very old and very recent publications, important book chapters, any publications distributed by any governmental agency or NGO anywhere in the world or unpublished Master's or dissertations. Thanks so much for any help. Sincerely, Mike Chips Michael J. Chips University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences 154 Crawford Hall Pittsburgh, PA 15260 -- Robert N. Schaeffer Ph.D. Candidate Dartmouth College Life Sciences Center 78 College St. Hanover, NH 03755
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology
The problem with biology education today is that there are: 1) no standards for what the major is 2) no accreditation governing what a department should comprise Europe now has accreditation for the discipline and if the US does not follow suit you can watch rapidly as we not only fall behind in biology, but basically fall like a rock in stature. Too many departments just wing it at the whim of the administrations' folly. Accreditation provides the departments with significant support and legitimacy in the face of those administrations that generally care a lot about money and little about quality or students. There are more of those than we care to admit. Look, we can't even agree whether biodiversity concepts belong in an intro to bio class. I find this not only disheartening but also frightening. Where else they going to learn it, English? Most schools don't have an EVS course, and many never will. Malcolm On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 12:09 PM, Bill Hilton Jr. (RESEARCH) resea...@hiltonpond.org wrote: With sincere respect to all of you in the fields of microbiology, genetics, and other laboratory-based disciplines of the life sciences, I contend the Campbell Essential Biology approach is exactly what is wrong with biology education today. Nearly all undergraduate and high school introductory biology courses are written as if EVERY student is going on to med school, nursing, or a career in a lab-based science. I agree it's important for an undergrad course to make mention of cytology, DNA, photosynthesis, etc., but I question the real value to students of any non-major textbook in which 12 chapters deal with cell-DNA and ecology, ecosystems, and the biosphere are relegated to the last three chapters. My guess is that 95% or more of non-majors will never have any really practical use for information about cell-DNA. It's complicated stuff that their physicians and pharmacists need to know, but what would be of infinitely greater value is for everyone to be familiar with basic principles of ecology, plant-animal interactions, pollination biology, and the like. Knowing about these things will enable students in general to understand how humans fit into and affect the world around them, and such understanding will help them make informed decisions about such things as overfishing, watersheds and wetlands, use of household pesticides and fertilizers--to say nothing of current controversial topics like global climate change, fracking, etc. We all teach what we know, of course, and the vast majority of high school biology teachers know what they learned in an undergrad biology courses taught from the pre-med perspective. I know from 25-plus years in the classroom and lab that for kids not going off to med-school the pre-med approach is often a turn-off to science, while a course that emphasizes ecology, the environment, field work, etc., is a turn-on. I also taught undergrad biology and know such is the case with many college students. Cheers, BILL On May 27, 2012, at 10:48 AM, Helena Puche wrote: David, I used Campbell Essential Biology by E.J. Simon, J.B.Reece and J.L. Dickey. It is a book for non-biology majors that has 20 chapters, all of them with a focus on evolution and examples, and nice drawings and pictures. Twelve of the 20 chapters are geared toward cell-DNA, then three chapters on taxonomy and systematics. The last three include populations ecology, communities ecosystems, and the biosphere. Therefore, you will have to add extra material to recreate those last topics. I created several evolution labs using beans or the web pages below, designed a ppt to introduce Darwin's liand thoughts, and added many lab activities to learn about mark-recapture techniques, estimating population growth rate size, population growth models, climate change, and identifying biomes. Evolution links to check are: http://video.pbs.org/video/1300397304/ http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/devitt_02 I used those as base for the lab activities. Hope this helps. Helena Helena Puche, Ph. D. Adjunct Assistant Professor University of Illinois at Chicago Biological Sciences, 3464 SES, MC 066 845 West Taylor Street Chicago, IL 60607hpu...@uic.edu --- On Fri, 5/25/12, Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.edu wrote: From: Johnson, David R drjohns...@utep.edu Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Date: Friday, May 25, 2012, 2:49 PM 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
