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2011-12 Undergraduate Index A-Z
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| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters | Open Quarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Bret Weinstein
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | Nearly all of the complexity in the observable universe is due to one process: Selection-natural, sexual and otherwise. And though the basics of evolutionary selection can be summarized in a single phrase ("survival of the fittest"), the details are surprising in the extreme, raising profound questions at every juncture. Why, for example, has a simple, shared drive to increase 'reproductive success' taken aardvarks and spruce trees in such different directions? And why would a peahen choose to burden her sons with a giant handicap to their movement by mating with a male carrying genes for massive tail? We will take a broad approach to selection, studying what is known, but focusing on that which remains mysterious. The adaptive interplay between genetic, epigenetic (regulatory) and cultural traits will be of particular interest. We will also place special emphasis on understanding the tension between selection exerted by mates, and that exerted by environmental factors. Fall quarter will be spent constructing a basic toolkit for evolutionary analysis: What is an adaptation and how can it be recognized? How can we infer function? What is the relationship between a trait's short and long-term adaptive value? We will scrutinize structures; behaviors and patterns found in the wild, and refine our ability to understand them through the language of game theory. During the winter quarter, we will focus on pushing our model of selection to its limits, and beyond, by applying it to the most complex and surprising adaptive patterns in nature, with a special emphasis on adaptive patterns manifest in We will read, have lecture, and detailed discussions. Discussions will be central to our work. Students will be expected to generate and defend hypotheses and predictions in a supportive and rigorous environment. We will go out and look at nature directly when conditions are right. Each quarter, we will take a multi-day field trip to observe thought-provoking patterns in unfamiliar environments. There will be assignments, but the program will be primarily about generating deep predictive insight, not about producing a large volume of work. It is best suited to self-motivated students with a deep commitment to comprehending that which is knowable, but unknown. | biology, medicine, psychology, and public policy. This program will focus on how to think, not what to think. As such, it will be useful to in any career in which critical thinking is important. | Bret Weinstein | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
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Ruth Hayes, Kevin Francis and Amy Cook
Signature Required:
Winter
|
Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | Humans have a complex, intricate, and paradoxical relationship with other species. We are animals and we define ourselves against them. We celebrate our kinship with animals and use them as laboratory specimens. We create animal characters and infuse them with human qualities. We befriend animals and we eat them. In this program, we will integrate perspectives from the arts, sciences and humanities to explore such seeming contradictions in our understanding, representation and treatment of animals. In fall quarter, we will study animal form, function and evolution. Students will practice observational approaches to learning about animals, including drawing, laboratory dissection and field study. They will also study animal morphology, comparative anatomy, and biomechanics as a foundation for animating the locomotion of different kinds of animals. Students will explore evolutionary biology as a framework for understanding the biological parallels between humans and animals. Finally, we will examine how artists and writers have represented animals in images, stories and films. In winter quarter, we will shift our focus to human and animal neurobiology, cognition, emotion, and behaviour. As we study these topics, we will investigate how scientists and artists anthropomorphize animals in their work and explore the implications of this practice. Consider the scientist who empathizes with a chimpanzee's elation or an elephant's sadness or a dog's pain. Does this empathy provide valuable insight into the experience of another species or simply reveal the ability to project one's own sentimental fancies onto another creature? And how do we test these intuitions? Or consider animators who create films populated with animal characters. Why do they select particular species to represent specific human qualities? And how do these fictional representations of animals affect how we treat real animals? In each of these cases, we risk putting ourselves in dialog with anthropomorphized versions of animals without recognizing the full extent of our own narcissism. During both quarters, students will participate in lectures, seminars, labs and writing workshops. They will learn how to analyze several types of media, including books and films, and will be expected to develop and improve their writing through a variety of assignments. This program will also encourage students to reflect on their own assumptions and attitudes about other species. During fall quarter, art workshops will emphasize the development of basic skills in drawing and animation. During winter quarter, students will continue developing these skills and will also explore their own scientific and/or creative approaches to representing animals. | art, animation, science and education. | Ruth Hayes Kevin Francis Amy Cook | Mon Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||
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Alison Styring, Steven Scheuerell and George Freeman
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | S 12Spring | The word environment encompasses multiple meanings, from the natural to the built, from the interiors of our minds to the spiritual. In each case there is a constant interface of environments with one another and with other creatures, each defining and circumscribing our experience of the world. Some of our essential questions revolve around how we define the environment and how we are shaped by as well as how we shape the environment, both natural and built. For example, does the concept of wilderness include humans? Is the ecological niche of a human essentially different from that of other living things? We will explore the habitats we occupy along with other creatures in those environments. We will explore dichotomies that foster dynamic tensions, such as the dichotomy between concepts of "natural" versus "human". We intend to investigate these tensions through our study of psychology, personal biography, biology, environmental studies, ornithology and cultural studies. In fall quarter we will develop the foundational skills in environmental studies and psychology needed to understand and critique the writings and current research in community ecology, animal behavior and conservation biology, and to examine the conscious and unconscious, and the theories of perception and cognition in psychology. We will examine parallels and linkages among disciplines in terms of methods, assumptions and prevailing theories. In winter we'll continue building on this foundation and move ourselves from theory to practice through an emphasis on methodologies, analyses, and their underlying assumptions. In spring quarter we'll implement the skills and knowledge we've developed through specific student-directed projects and our optional field trip. The faculty will foster creativity, experimentation and imaginative processes as means of discovering and bringing a new awareness to our extraordinary world. The students will respond to the themes of the program through individual and collaborative projects. To build our learning community we will use experiential collaboration activities such as Challenge and Experiential Education as a means to develop a sense of commitment and group citizenship. We will use multicultural discussion opportunities such as Critical Moments to explore the politics of identity and meaning. We will develop our observational skills via field workshops and field trips. We will have writing and quantitative reasoning workshops to further develop students' current skills and to develop advanced skills in these areas. Students completing this program will come to a stronger understanding of their personal lives as situated in a variety of contexts. They will develop strategies for engaging in a range of settings to promote social change, in-depth personal development, increased self-awareness, critical commentary and analyses, and practices that promote stewardship of our personal lives, our immediate environment and global communities. | psychology, behavioral sciences and environmental science. | Alison Styring Steven Scheuerell George Freeman | Mon Tue Thu Fri | Freshmen FR | Fall | Fall Winter | |
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Dylan Fischer and Clarissa Dirks
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | The southwestern U.S. is unique in the diversity of habitats that can occur along with dramatic temperature and moisture gradients. Major advances in ecology have been made in these extreme environments, and important work in global change biology is currently being conducted in these systems. This program will use field sites in the Desert Southwest as living laboratories for investigating patterns in ecology, biology, microbiology and evolution. Students will learn about arid environments, plant ecology, field biology, and gain specialized training in microbiology or plant molecular genetics. Students will co-design field projects exploring ecological and co-evolutionary relationships at organism and molecular scales.We will use detailed studies of southwestern cottonwood trees and tardigrades (water-bears) as examples that will let us dive deeply into laboratory and field experiments. We will pair those investigations with broader exploration of southwestern environments to learn about multiple ecosystems and organisms. Early in the program, students will learn to conduct DNS analyses on plants and microscope-based identification of microscopic animals called tardigrades (water-bears). All students will participate in a mandatory two-week field ecology module where they will participate in a major research project examining the effects of desert-tree genetic diversity on ecosystems, learn to identify plant species of the Southwest, keep detailed field journals, conduct research projects, and survey isolated canyons for patterns related to evolutionary history. Along the way, we will visit environmental and culturally significant sites in the Southwest, from cactus forests to canyons and mountain peaks. Finally, at the end of the quarter all students will reconvene for a program conference where students will present their research over the quarter.Our reading list will include major natural history texts related to the Southwest and evolutionary relationships for the organisms we find there. We will emphasize active participation in the scientific process and communication skills. Because of the field component of this program, students should be prepared for extensive time living and working in the field, and should be committed to working through conflicts in group dynamics. | ecology, biology, botany, zoology, microbial ecology and environmental science. | Dylan Fischer Clarissa Dirks | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
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Erik Thuesen
Signature Required:
Fall
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | Erik Thuesen | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||||
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Bret Weinstein
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | Complex systems can fail catastrophically. Resent catastrophic failures (such as the global financial collapse of 2008, the Gulf oil spill of 2010 and the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011) hint at the overall fragility of the systems on which civilization presently depends. Many have wondered if the larger system might be equally vulnerable to a major disruption.This program proceeds from a thought experiment: What if the lights went out and didn’t come back on? What if the gas stations ran dry and no one came to refill them? What if the store shelves went bare and stayed that way?The immediate effect would be unavoidably chaotic, disastrous and tragic. But from the chaos would likely emerge groups of people who had figured out how to provide for themselves.How would those groups be organized? What would they understand? What technologies of the past would they have resurrected, and in what form? What newer technologies would they work to retain? How would they use the rubble of modernity to enhance their lives. What would they eat and drink? How would they stay warm and fed in the winter? Would large-scale social organization arise organically, from the bottom up? How would the answers to these question differ by region?This program will not happen at the front of the room. The faculty will not present answers to these questions. The learning community will confront them together, with analytical rigor proportional to the scenario under consideration. As much as possible, we will attempt to prototype answers in the physical world, and let our successes and failures guide us toward a toolkit for survival.This program is not for passive students, or for those that prefer to stay in the abstract or metaphorical layers. It will require students to be both hard workers and careful thinkers. Students must be bold, collaborative and willing to rise to a serious challenge. | Bret Weinstein | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Heather Heying
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | The natural world exists with or without humanity’s interpretation of it. As observers and users of symbols, it is easy to mistake ourselves for the creators and masters of what we are trying to explain. In this program, we will learn through direct experience of nature: we will learn to trust our own senses. Knowledge and interpretation will also come through writing about nature, and measuring and analyzing aspects of it. We will spend two weeks of the ten on class field trips, and individuals will develop a sense of place by finding and revisiting the same natural site every week throughout the quarter. We will focus on observation as central to a careful, critical and creative understanding of our world. We will learn the disappearing art of unitasking, of clear undivided focus. Readings will come from science, literature, and the philosophy of science; evolutionary explanations for nature’s complexity will be prominent. Students will write every week, both scientific and creative prose. If you are already a skilled writer who loves to write, you will find an outlet here. If you do not enjoy writing, or would like to further develop some basic skills, you will also find this useful, and hopefully pleasant. Similarly, we will do some math in this program. If you find numbers and their manipulation exciting, you will have fun with this. If you are a math-phobe, we will try to reveal some of its beauty and wisdom to you. Words and numbers are symbolic representations of our world; if we do not understand them, they have undue power over us. As we learn to use them as tools that we can master, they allow us to further our own understanding, experience and representation of the world. | biology, communications and field research. | Heather Heying | Freshmen FR | Spring | Spring | ||||
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David Muehleisen and Stephen Bramwell
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | What does it take to start up and run a small-scale agricultural business? Do you know how to grow organic food? Are you interested in contributing to the success of the campus Organic Farm? Join us on the farm for hard work and a wide-ranging examination of these and other questions.In this three-quarter program which begins spring quarter, we will integrate the theoretical and practical aspects of organic small-scale direct market farming in the Pacific Northwest by working on the Evergreen Organic Farm through an entire growing season (spring, summer and fall quarters). All students will work on the farm a minimum of 20 hours per week. The program is rigorous both physically and academically and requires a willingness to work outside in adverse weather on a schedule determined by the needs of crops and animals.Our exploration of critical agricultural topics will occur through a curriculum that is intricately tied to what is happening in the fields as the growing season progresses. The major focus of the program will be developing the knowledge and skills needed to start up and operate a small-scale agricultural operation based on a sound understanding of the underlying science and business principles. At the same time, hands-on farm work will provide the context for developing applied biology, chemistry and math skills.Each quarter, we will cover a variety of seasonally appropriate topics needed to operate a sustainable farm business. In the spring, we will focus on soil science and nutrient management, annual and perennial plant propagation, greenhouse management, crop botany, composting, vermiculture, and market planning. In the summer our focus will be on entomology and pest management, plant pathology weed biology and management, water management and irrigation system design, animal husbandry, maximizing market and value-added opportunities and regulatory issues. The fall quarter's focus will be on season extension techniques, production and business planning, the use and management of green and animal manures, cover crops, and crop storage techniques and physiology.Additional topics will include record keeping for organic production systems, alternative crop production systems, apiculture, aquaponics, urban agriculture, small-scale grain-raising, mushroom cultivation, and techniques for adding value to farm and garden products. Students will learn how to use and maintain farm equipment, ranging from hand tools to tractors and implements. Students will have the opportunity to develop their personal agricultural interests through research projects. Topics will be explored through on-farm workshops, seminars, lectures, laboratory exercises, farm management groups, guest lectures, field experimentation and field trips to regional agricultural operations. Books typically used in the program include by Gershuny, by Mohler and Johnson (eds.), by Wiswall, by Ekarius, by Altieri, and by Coleman. If you are a student with a disability and would like to request accommodations, please contact the instructor or the office of Access Services prior to the start of the quarter. Access Services, Library Bldg. Rm. 2153. Contact Program Coordinator Steve Schmidt, PH: 360.867.6348; TTY 360.867.6834; E-mail: schmidts@evergreen.edu. If you require accessible transportation for field trips, please contact the instructor well in advance of the field trip dates to allow time to arrange this.Students planning to take this program who are receiving financial aid should contact financial aid early in fall quarter 2011 to develop a financial aid plan that includes summer quarter 2012. | farm and garden management; working with non-profit organizations focusing on food, land use and agriculture; State and County Extension; and State and Federal regulatory agencies. | David Muehleisen Stephen Bramwell | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
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Erik Thuesen
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | In this program, students will develop techniques for communicating in several different genres of technical writing, including technical abstracts, scientific research papers, technical instructions, etc. Students from all branches of the sciences are encouraged to take this program to improve their technical writing skills. We will use several different on-line collaborative formats to carry out our objectives. Work will be submitted and edited on-line. Each student will choose a specific topic to research and read ten documents related to the topic. Based on these readings and other sources, each student will also write a technical background report. Students will receive critique from peers and the faculty member. Students will be responsible for editing and critiquing a specific number of papers written by other students in the program in order to develop their editing skills. Clear deadlines for reading and writing assignments will be established for all students at the start of the program to make it easier to stay on track.Credit is expected to be awarded in the specific area of research, technical writing, and technical editing. | all careers requiring advanced writing skills. | Erik Thuesen | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
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Dina Roberts and David Phillips
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | The tropics are the cradle of the world's biodiversity. This program will focus on Costa Rica, emphasizing biological richness, field ecology, the physical environment, statistical analysis of field data, conservation biology and Latin American culture. The first seven weeks of the program will be held on the Evergreen campus, followed by a three-week field trip to Costa Rica. The on-campus portion will include lectures and labs on global patterns of biological diversity, quantification and analysis of ecological diversity, an overview of major taxa of Neotropical plants, insects and vertebrates, and discussions of the physical environment of tropical regions. This material will be integrated with classes in introductory statistics and conversational Spanish.During the Costa Rica field trip, we will visit four major field sites, including coastal habitats, tropical dry forest, cloud forest and lowland rain forest. Students will learn about common plants and animals in each area, dominant landforms and ecological processes, conservation issues and current biological research activities. Students will also learn techniques of field research by participating in quantitative field labs, both faculty and student led. In the evenings there will be a series of guest lectures by research scientists. The field trip will require rigorous hiking and backpacking in remote locations. | environmental studies, ecology, conservation biology, evolutionary biology and Latin American studies. | Dina Roberts David Phillips | Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
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Erik Thuesen
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | S 12Spring | Erik Thuesen | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring |
