Syllabus

Conservation of Global Environments

Geography 200 Online

Dr. Rachel Slocum (please call me Dr. Slocum or Professor Slocum)

Links to Bookmark Films:https://mediastream.uwlax.edu/UWLMediasite6/Login?ReturnUrl=%2fUWLMediasite6%2fCatalog%2fFull%2fb68b457981804389897379ef398da76321 Class blog: http://geo200.blogspot.com/ D2L page: https://uwlax.courses.wisconsin.edu/d2l/home/2343469 Text: Cunningham and Cunningham, 2011, 6th edition, Principles of Environmental Science: Inquiry and Applications.

This course introduces you to the study of the human-environment relationship. We will explore the local and global biophysical and social forces that shape life on the planet. Your text focuses on biophysical processes. Lectures, films and readings cover the socio-environmental challenges people face and how they have been and might be addressed.

How to do well:

§   Keep up with assignments;

§   Check the D2L home page for all the material linked to what you need to do each week;

§   Make an effort. Show me you’re interested in learning at least some of the material;

§   Do the blog assignments on time;

§   Keep track of the last dates to turn in work;

§   Contact me immediately if you feel overwhelmed.

Schedule

Module 1 weeks 1-4 Please try to complete all work by the end of each week (Saturday) Last date for all uploads and quizzes is Feb 22
Wk	Start date			Lecture Topic		Reading	Blog, assignments		Due date (Saturday)
1	January 26			Introduction		Ch. 1 Introduction	Peter Brown on Ecocide		Feb. 1 midnight
2	Feb 2			Capitalism and Consumption Watch Capitalism a Love Story		Ch. 13 Waste	Ethical consumption and ecological footprints		Feb. 8 midnight
3	Feb 9			Environment and Development Watch Bamako		Ch. 15 pp. 385-388, Ch. 14 pp. 353-362 up to section 14.6 Readings on Mali	Mali blog Mali questions		Feb. 15 midnight Feb. 15 dropbox
4	Feb 16			Population		Ch. 4 Population Re-read pp. 356-7 tragedy of the commons	Population – is it the problem? Economist questions		Feb. 22 midnight Feb 22 dropbox
Complete all quizzes on weeks 1-4 Question on Module 1 and last day I will accept Mali and Economist questions									Feb. 22 11:59 Feb. 22 11:59 dropbox
Module 2 weeks 5-8 Please try to complete all work by the end of each week (Saturday) Last date for all uploads and quizzes is March 24
5	Feb 23			Environmental systems: Watch NOVA video online	Ch. 2 Environmental Systems		Oceanographer ‘Her Deepness’ NOVA questions		March 1 midnight March 1 dropbox
6	March 2			Water FLOW: for love of water, video	Ch. 10 Water		What’s in your water? FLOW questions		March 8 midnight March 8  dropbox
7	March 9			Food and Agriculture	Ch. 7 Food and Agriculture		Local food and food justice		March 15 midnight
8	March 16			No lecture	Ch. 8 Environmental toxicology and health		What’s in your body?		March 24 midnight
Complete all quizzes on weeks 5-8 Question on Module 2 and last date I will accept Nova and Flow questions (please note different date due to spring break)									March 24 11:59 March 24 11:59 dropbox
Module 3 weeks 9-11 Please try to complete all work by the end of each week (Saturday) Last date for all uploads and quizzes is April 12
9		March 23		Energy, watch Gasland	Ch. 12 Energy			Energy	March 29 midnight
10		March 30		Climate Change	Ch. 9 Climate and Air Pollution			Global warming	April 5 midnight
11		April 6		No lecture	Ch. 3 Evolution			Evolution	April 12 midnight
Complete all quizzes on weeks 9-11 Question on Module 3									April 12 11:59 PM April 12 Dropbox 11:59 PM
Module 4 weeks 12-15 Please try to complete all work by the end of the week (Saturday) Last date for all uploads and quizzes is May 10
12			April 13	Environmental Policy	Ch. 15 (Policy) pp. 366-385			OSHA case Pesticide drift questions to upload	April 19 midnight April 19 11:59 dropbox
13			April 20	Environmental Protection	Ch. 5 Biomes and Biodiversity, reread Ch. 1, pp. 18-23			Wetlands regulation	April 26 midnight
14			April 27	Global Conservation	Ch. 6 Forests and Parks and pp. 72-74			Conservation	May 3 midnight
15			May 4	Cities and the environment	Ch. 14 341-352, 362-364 Reread Ch. 13 box on environmental racism.			Hope for a sustainable future	May 10 midnight
Complete all quizzes on weeks 13-15 Question on Module 4 and last date I will accept Pesticide drift questions									May 10 11:59 PM May 10 11:59 dropbox

Grade Scale

            A = 100-93%                         AB = 92-88%                         B = 87-83%                         BC = 82-78%

            C = 77-70%                         D = 69-60%                         F = 59% and below

Grade breakdown

15 Quizzes: 30% (quiz hints, 2 attempts and plenty of time to do the quiz, note each quiz is not worth much so don’t worry if one doesn’t go well)           

15 Blog assignments: 40% (these are important to do on time and well)

5 Short writing assignments: 10% (read or watch a film and answer questions)

4 questions on each module: 20% (critical thinking)

15 Blogs: 40%

Blog discussions on http://geo200.blogspot.com/ will make use of lecture material, podcasts, video clips and/or additional short readings.  Purpose: interact with your peers through material associated with the lecture and text. Answer the assignment comprehensively and carefully.  

Blogs MUST be done by Saturday midnight of each week.

NOTE: The Blog is NOT on D2L.

To participate in the blog

§   Use Chrome, Firefox or Safari to access the blog.

§   Get another email account (gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc.) if you don’t have one already. This account is NOT your UWL account.

§   Log OUT of your UWL account (very important). If you use a program like Thunderbird, Outlook or Mail for your email and keep yourself logged out of D2L most of the time, this log out/log in process will be easy.  You will not be able to post if you don’t log out.

§   Log IN to your new hotmail etc. account

§   Write your blog post in Word and then paste it into the comment box on the blog (so you don’t have to redo if something crashes).

§   New blog assignment: EVERY SUNDAY

§   Your post and a comment on another student’s post due SATURDAY midnight.

§   Keep up with these because they are a significant part of the grade.  The whole point is for you to engage with your peers. If you do the blog assignment late, that point is lost. So even if it’s excellent and late, you won’t get more than half points.

Blog posts will be graded using 0-3 points per post.  

0 = Poor            Not written within the allotted time frame or complete lack of effort

1 - 1.9 = Fair            Unsatisfactory effort or poor engagement with the assignment.  You may have only done part of the assignment or completely missed the point.

2-2.7 = Good.             A well-written discussion of the question posed. Good effort. You may have commented on others’ posts minimally or not at all. A maximum grade of 2.5 (83.33%) is awarded if you have written a good post but you don’t reply to another student.

3 = Excellent.             A post in which a) it’s clear that you understood concepts in the blog assignment b) you did the whole assignment and made a strong effort to articulate your answer c) you considered what others had written and you posted a comment. You’ve done a great job displaying your knowledge of the material, thinking critically and showing interest. Your entry is about a paragraph or two.

15 Quizzes: 30%

å  On D2L

å  I give you quiz HINTS (“you will have a question on”) Listen to them and you make sure you have the answers to those questions.  Then do the quiz.

å  I suggest you do a quiz each week rather than waiting until the last minute

å  You have two attempts with your grade being the highest attempt. After the first attempt you will see your INCORRECT answers. Either accept your grade or take the quiz again.

å  Quiz questions are drawn from the lectures, readings and especially the text. 

å  Quizzes are timed (2 hours more or less for each quiz). I give you 4 minutes/question and there are 20-45 questions or so/per quiz.  This is plenty of time to do the quiz and check your answers.

å  You should NEVER take screenshots or in any way copy the questions.

5 short writing assignments 10%:

Answer coherently and thoughtfully. All questions must be answered completely using ideas and concepts from the reading but put into YOUR OWN WORDS.  If you cut and paste one answer your grade for the assignment will be an automatic zero. This would be plagiarism which is unacceptable.

Week 3: Questions on Mali and Development

Week 4: Questions on Economist article, population

Week 5: Questions on the dvd Flow, water

Week 6: Questions on NOVA program, environmental systems

Week 12: Questions on pesticide drift, environmental policy. This is the hardest one. Please read carefully.

All due at the end of the week (Saturday) for which they are assigned. Your best approach is to do everything associated with each week on time.  If you can’t for some reason, your last chance is at the end of each module.

4 critical thinking questions 20%

One on each of the four modules.

Question 1: What do we need to grasp in order to understand the relationship between people and the environment? 

Question 2: What problems have you learned about in our bodies, food systems, water systems and ecosystems, what big forces causes them, and what are people proposing to change/fix them?

Question 3:  What stands in the way of action on fossil fuels and climate change, what are the costs of continuing to use fossil fuels and what lessons do advocates for change want you to understand?

Question 4: What makes protecting both nature and people so difficult and so complicated and what are the good ideas and actions that would help or have helped?

å  Answer the question incorporating as many of the ideas, concepts and examples from the lectures/extra reading/blogs as you can. The more lecture, video, reading and blog material you can weave into your answer, the better.

å  Your goal is to show me that you understood the ideas introduced in lecture by using the concepts and applying examples.

å  Use terms from lecture but show me you understand by using your own words to explain them.

å  Use the questions associated with each module (see paper guidelines)

å  Your answer to each question should be an argument.  In other words, you will need a thesis statement.

å  Back up your argument with evidence (examples from class).

å  Do not use outside sources

å  Do not use your text

å  Your answer should be single spaced, approx. 1-2 pages

å  Use subheadings to organize your answer. This is a MUST. It’s good for organization and it allows for creativity.

å  Use topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph to guide your argument.

å  Use citations like (Mali cotton) in the body of the paper rather than writing out, “In the case study on Mali…”.  I do not care how you cite but it should be easily clear to me what lecture, reading, blog assignment or film you are drawing on.

å  Make a list of sources used at the end using the title of articles or the lecture name so I can see what you used.

å  Upload to the dropbox.

 

Disability Accommodations: People learn differently. I will facilitate the learning process for those who have documented different abilities. UWL policy on disability accommodation is as follows: Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, or hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the instructor and the Disability Resource Services Office (165 Murphy Library) at the beginning of the semester. It is the student’s responsibility to communicate their needs with the instructor in a timely manner. Please let me know within the first week of class what your needs are.

Academic Misconduct: Representing others’ ideas and knowledge as your own is plagiarism. Plagiarism or cheating in any form will result in an F for the course, and may include harsher sanctions. Please read the code available on the university web site and be sure to understand it.

Academic misconduct is an act in which a student:


(a) Seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another without authorization or citation;


(b) Uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any academic exercise;


(c) Forges or falsifies academic documents or records;


(d) Intentionally impedes or damages the academic work of others;


(e) Engages in conduct aimed at making false representation of a student's academic performance;

(f) Submits the same paper to satisfy course requirements for two courses

(g) Purchases a paper to satisfy course requirements

(h) Assists other students in any of these acts.

http://www.uwlax.edu/studentlife/academic_misconduct.htm - 14.03 For helpful information on how to avoid plagiarism go to http://www.uwlax.edu/murphylibrary/research/plagiarism.html