Biology 103 Environmental Science Sections and Spring 2015

Transcription

1 Biology 103 Environmental Science Sections and Spring 2015 Professor R. B. Sundrud B208B Wildwood Campus 1 HACC Drive Harrisburg, PA (717) rbsundru@hacc.edu First things first: Now that the course is open for the semester, be sure to log into the Discussion Area and introduce yourself under Raising Hands and Checking the system (something like that). It's a federal requirement (all bow) for attendance, and if you don't post something in the first two weeks, you'll be dropped. Booted. If your computer got bollixed by gremlins, as least give me an to let me know you are still alive. Anyway, welcome to the course. This is a college course that will demand some time and study on your part. It should be rewarding, however. Like everything, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. Want more platitudes? Check here. Now, let s get to work. Course Description and Overview: This course of environmental Science is an online home study course based upon Withgott and Laposata's Essential Environment 4 rd Edition textbook. From fossil fuels to rain forests, from intensive agriculture to industrial pollutants, the course demonstrates how dramatically human activities are influencing the global web of ecosystems. You will study ecological principles, population dynamics, food production, pesticides, energy production and alternatives, air pollution, water pollution, endangered species, etc. This course fulfills the Core C requirement. Objectives: At the end of this online course, you will be able to: Define and describe the basic concepts of ecology, such as food chains, biogeochemical cycles, biomes, succession, predator-prey relationships, homeostasis, productivity, etc. State the dynamics of human population, interpret age-sex diagrams, and current population trends.

2 Relate soil formation and farming practices to food productivity. Describe the Green Revolution with its benefits and limitations. Describe the concepts, benefits, and hazards of pesticides and list their alternatives. List the causes and consequences of extinction, with examples of endangered and vanished species. Describe the basic resources of air and water and their relevant chemistry, phenomena such as hurricanes and air inversions, and list the stages of sewage treatment and green alternatives. Differentiate between fossil fuels, nuclear power, and soft energy alternatives. Describe the formation of fossil fuels and the limits of their reserves. Explain nuclear fission and fusion, atomic isotopes and radioactive decay, the generation of nuclear power with its safeguards and hazards, and the problems with disposal of radioactive wastes. List alternative sources of energy, and describe the physics and feasibility of wind, air, tidal, solar, and biomass energy generation. Cite current issues of public concern in all these areas, and describe the basic science that underlies these issues. REQUIRED MATERIALS: Withgott and LaPosata, Essential Environment: the Science Behind the Stories, 4th edition ISBN (Sorry, earlier editions or other versions won't work. The online study guide is page-specific. If you have a third or a brand-new fifth edition, you'll have to do a lot of hunting and some material will have changed. Not recommended. Get a used 4th edition.) The Study Guide by Professor Sundrud will be posted section by section online* when the course begins. The software for this course is Desire2Learn (D2L)**. When you log into D2L you will see a part of the home page titled STUDENT HELP. Click on that and do the orientation. * I had a student last semester who kept waiting for his Study Guide to arrive in the mail. Nope. It s online. You look at it with your computer. For some people, that s a new concept. Really! **I don t like the title Desire2Learn. Sounds like Tractor Drivers for People s Glory Unite or something. They're going to change it to "BrightSpace" which isn't much better. But the software is pretty decent, so we'll survive. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: To successfully complete the course, each student will be required to:

3 1. Read and study all course material as assigned. 2. Contribute to the assigned topics in the Discussion area. 3. Communicate with the instructor and/or other students via D2L. 4. Sign up at least a week in advance for the three exams using ProctorU 5. Take the exams and quizzes as scheduled. 6. Complete the letter assignment by the date indicated. COURSE ASSIGNMENTS: Letter: Each student is required to write one letter to a public official dealing with an environmental issue for 10 points. The letter should be turned in by the second exam. This cannot be an but an actual printed letter. On paper. You will mail the original letter to the public official using a stamp (old technology); I get a paper copy (just the letter, no envelope, no stamp, unless you decide to mail me the copy rather than using free campus mail). Good ideas for letters can be found by watching the news or reading local newspapers. If you have some environmental issue you're involved with, feel free to suggest in the Discussion area that other students might want to support the same position. There is almost always an ongoing debate about some proposed environmental bill, or perhaps some building project with environmental impact. The letter must be addressed to a person, not "To Whom It May Concern*." A good letter will be brief and to the point, preferably one page. This is not a research paper; there is no benefit in lengthy discussion and it will not influence the person to whom you are writing any more than a concise letter would. Probably less. *I almost hate to say that. Last semester I got two letters carefully addressed to: To Whom It May Concern. No, no, no! I also got one addressed to Rachel Carson, who has been dead lo these many years. Actual living people. The student will mail the original through the US Postal service (not ) and turn in a copy to me, either through campus mail or mailed (postal service, not *) separately by the time of the second exam. The local library or township office will have addresses of public officials, or one can contact the League of Women Voters, or call Information at the state capitol. Any national or local issue can be chosen, but local issues are more responsive to public pressure. All letters will receive ten points, except that one point will be deducted if you begin the letter by stating that you are a student in an environmental science course or that your instructor is having you write a letter (it dilutes the impact). Also, letters received after I have graded the second exams will lose two points but hey, eight points is still worth getting. Otherwise, the spreadsheet marks it 0/10. Not good. *I know I m being redundant about paper copies, but you d be surprised how many questions I get on this matter. Paper. Not . No attachments. The rationale for this assignment is that physical mail with a stamp has much more impact on a person than an that could have been generated by a robot or someone hired in Thailand. In the future, your voice should be heard and paper mail is the most effective way and will continue to be so. You have to open it and you have to handle it and you can't hit DELETE after glancing at the title.

4 Discussion Board: Every time you log in, check the discussion board. Now and then a discussion topic will be opened. You will gain points by posting and responding to others posts*. Be assured that points will never be deducted for stating unpopular opinions or defending positions contrary to your instructor's. Keep up to date on the discussion boards because each discussion will be open only for a certain number of weeks, and will then be closed, usually right after an exam. Total points accumulated for participation will be about 10. *Be civil. Be polite. In other words, do not respond in the manner of most blogs or whatever they're called in If another student disagrees with you, they are not a terrorist child molester alien ogre. Be nice. You don t have to win, just express your opinion politely and let it go. Otherwise, your main efforts will be to study the online study guide, using your textbook to answer any questions posed in the study guide and posting in the Discussion area if you have a question you can t answer. You should have a notebook to take notes as you study. This type of course requires self-discipline and the ability to study alone. Not everyone learns well in this type of course; some do better taking courses like this in a lecture format. By the way, if you log into the course during the first week of class and post in the Course Mechanics area a comment or question containing the word syllabus or "testing" you will get one bonus point, such as: I didn t realize until I read the syllabus that we actually had to read the book, but you must not say why you re posting this or you will get nothing. This is just a really sneaky way to give credit to those who diligently read this syllabus. This is the time for you to find out what type of learning suits you best. We all have different learning styles*. *Actually, recent research contradicts this. Our learning styles are more influenced by how we have had to learn before, not by any innate genetic predisposition. We are very plastic, and our learning styles evolve during the course of our education. By the end of this semester, you'll be an expert on learning by home study! GRADING POLICIES: Three major exams are scheduled during the semester. These will be proctored while you sit at your computer by a proctoring service called ProctorU. You can click here for more information and an overview. This is a cool new service that lets you take exams and not be concerned that other students are unfairly reading their notes or having a friend stand behind them or have hired a smart person to take the exam for them. You will need a webcam and a microphone, and details on how to sign up and take the exams will be provided later. Be sure to sign up a week ahead of time for each exam. ProctorU has already been used with success this past few semesters here at HACC. The old way to provide some integrity was to have timed exams that made the student answer questions so rapidly that they had no time to look answers up. I always thought this was unfair to students and was still not secure. I much preferred paper testing at Test Centers on campus, but those sections were being avoided by students. Math sections still need paper testing it s the nature

5 of the subject. If for any reason you don t have a decent testing environment at home (screaming kids or parents who yodel or you don t have a webcam) you are always free to take any exam at a campus Test Center. Just let me know way ahead of time, and remember, you MUST schedule your exams at least a week ahead of time with ProctorU. These exams will be available for about roughly a four day period, and can be scheduled at your personal convenience online. More details on how the exams will be operated will be posted later. If you have problems or questions, then it's ok to ask in the Discussion Boards and some helpful student will post the proper guidance. I love my students; they're helpful, civil, and make my life easy. Most of your questions should be asked in the Discussion area. Each exam counts for 100 points and will be a combination of multiple choice and short answers. Be aware that any academic dishonesty will result in a permanent zero for that exam. Exams may not be retaken. No extra-credit projects are allowed. Big Hint: questions will be drawn from your online study guide, not plucked at random from the textbook. The total points possible, including the discussion board points, are about 320 plus any extra quizzes. No extra-credit projects are allowed. Grade assignment will be based upon the scale of 90% = A, 80% = B, 70% = C, 60% = D, below 60% = F. A grade of 79% is a C, even if you are my sainted mother. Math is cruel sometimes. Sorry, Mom. No, there is no term paper. What, you want to do a term paper? Fine. Download one from online and send it to me, and I ll forward it to the dean. You didn t want to graduate anyway, right? Some students have no clue how easy it is to match parts of term papers online. If you do a term paper in some other course, you better make it come out of your own head from your own research. Seriously. Please be sure you review the grade policies for the college as listed in your College Catalog or Student Handbook. An incomplete is possible under extenuating circumstances. Any student who fails to take the first exam will be dropped by mid-semester. Attendance in an online course is determined by logging in to the discussion boards and taking the exams. If a student fails to take an exam, and has not logged in for three weeks, they will be dropped with a W for non-attendance*. A student who fails to take the final exam will be given an I (incomplete) which will turn into an F partway through the next semester. See the Student Handbook or College Catalogue for details on how I grades work. *It's odd -- I will sometimes get a student who hasn't taken an exam, but who keeps logging in every week or so. Because they're active, I can't give them a W, but they haven't a chance of passing. I m not their dad, so I m not going to ask them why. I treat my students as adults. EXAMINATION TOPICS:

6 As you go through the study guide, it will be clear which material will be on which exam. However, the course divides into three parts as follows: Exam 1 covers ecological principles, the scientific method, and the laws of energy. Exam 2 covers human population, food production, endangered species, health risks, and pesticides. Exam 3 covers air and water resources, energy, air and water pollution. The last exam, Exam 3, is not comprehensive. INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION: The instructor for this online course is R. B. Sundrud, Senior Professor of Biology. He holds the Master s Degree in Ecology from Brigham Young University and has been teaching environmental science at HACC since He has enjoyed a variety of environmental experiences, including canoeing in the Okeefenokee Swamp, hunting jackrabbit in the sagebrush of Nevada, snorkeling on the Palancar reef near Cozumel, dancing with the Embara natives in Panama, hiking the forests of France and the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica, and supervising the building of a nature trail for the visually handicapped on the southern end of Three Mile Island. Serious. He also writes science fiction, as can be seen here. Office: Blocker 208B Wildwood Campus Phone: (717) Mailing Address: B208B, Harrisburg Area Community College, 1 HACC Drive, Harrisburg, PA HACC rbsundru@hacc.edu will be answered within two business days. Personal note: I believe this course will be a rewarding experience for you, and that you will find the material exciting and relevant to your daily life. Remember that your personal discipline will be the key to success. Don t let the marvelous fall days stand in the way of your study. GOOD LUCK! // STUDENTS IN NEED OF ACCOMMODATIONS:

7 Students with disabilities who are in need of accommodations should contact the campus disability coordinator listed below. Coordinators for each campus are listed here: EEOC POLICY 005: It is the policy of Harrisburg Area Community College, in full accordance with the law, not to discriminate in employment, student admissions, and student services on the basis of race, color, religion, age, political affiliation or belief, gender, national origin, ancestry, disability, place of birth, General Education Development Certification (GED), marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, genetic history/information, or any legally protected classification. HACC recognizes its responsibility to promote the principles of equal opportunity for employment, student admissions, and student services taking active steps to recruit minorities and women. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act ( PHRAct ) prohibits discrimination against prospective and current students because of race, color, sex, religious creed, ancestry, national origin, handicap or disability, record of a handicap or disability, perceived handicap or disability, relationship or association with an individual with a handicap or disability, use of a guide or support animal, and/or handling or training of support or guide animals. The Pennsylvania Fair Educational Opportunities Act ( PFEOAct ) prohibits discrimination against prospective and current students because of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, sex, handicap or disability, record of a handicap or disability, perceived handicap or disability, and a relationship or association with an individual with a handicap or disability. Information about these laws may be obtained by visiting the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission website at If an accommodation is needed, please contact the disability coordinator for your campus: HACC Lebanon Campus and Virtual Learning Deborah Bybee Coordinator, Disability Services 104R 735 Cumberland Street Lebanon, PA Phone: dabybee@hacc.edu