August 21, 2006

 

Dear Visualizing Ecology Students,

We hope that your summer is going well and that this letter catches up with you. We are sending this letter to give you a more detailed idea of what to expect in our program next year and to provide a list of the student fees, books, and art supplies that you will need for our program. Books can be purchased from the Evergreen Bookstore or on-line. You may already have received this information in an e-mail sent on August 24.

We plan to hit the ground running. We will assume that by our first week of the quarter every student is well-acquainted with the skills required to succeed in a college-level program and the resources at Evergreen that will help each student build and hone these skills. Toward this end, we strongly encourage students in Visualizing Ecology to participate in Evergreen’s nationally recognized orientation week (September 18-22).

 

You should plan to attend the following events. (Check the orientation web site for locations: http://www.evergreen.edu/studentservices/overview.htm [1].) We encourage you to take part in other activities during orientation week as well.

 

• Program Preview: Monday, Sept. 18, 9-10:30
• Community to Community: Wednesday, Sept. 20, 12:00-5:00. (Faculty from our program will be participating in these activities.)
• Seminar Savvy: Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2:00-4:00 OR Thursday, Sept. 21, 2:00-4:00

 

You should also plan to meet individually with both your seminar leader (Kevin, Lucia, or Steve) and your academic advisor (Haley Lowe). We will assign seminar leaders and coordinate meeting times at the program preview.

Please take some time to look over the information on our website: http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/ [2]. And please feel free to contact anyone from the faculty team if you have questions or concerns as the school year approaches. (E-mail typically works best during the summer.) We are looking forward to a enjoyable and enriching year! Sincerely, Kevin, Lucia, Steve, and Haley

Visualizing Ecology

Fall Quarter 2006

Faculty

Kevin Francis, Sem 2-E 2102, 867-5831, francisk@evergreen.edu [3]

Lucia Harrison, Lab 1-2026, 867-6486, harrisol@evergreen.edu [4]

Steve Scheuerell, Lab 1-2012, 867-7645, scheuers@evergreen.edu [5]

Haley Lowe, Library 2118, 867-6308, loweh@evergreen.edu [6]

 

Program Description

Ecology offers guidance on core questions about humans and nature. How can we understand the web of complex interactions in nature? Where do we fit in this web? And where do we envision our future place in this web? This program addresses such questions through the disciplines of art, history, philosophy, and terrestrial ecology.

 

In fall quarter, we will practice natural history by drawing from observation, conducting field surveys, and learning to identify local flora and fauna. We will visit a cross-section of ecosystems, such as wilderness and managed forests, alpine and sub-alpine meadows, conventional and organic farms, and suburban neighborhoods. We will explore each site through systematic data collection and technical and expressive drawing.

 

In winter quarter, we will focus on the development of modern ecological science. We will examine key concepts in evolution, population biology, community ecology, and nutrient cycling in ecosystems. Our labs will focus on demography, statistical analysis, microbiology, and vertebrate morphology. We will also explore how nature is represented in popular culture such as zoos, museums, film, photography, and other media. We will continue to develop skills in drawing, and learn new skills in painting and/or digital photography. One focus of this quarter will be a research project on a current environmental issue.

 

In spring quarter, we will consider case studies in which people envisioned solutions to environmental problems and worked to implement them. These case studies will examine the avenues people have used to change the environmental status quo and protect habitats such as organizing advocacy groups, creating educational campaigns, consumer boycotts, direct action, and lobbying for legislation. Drawing upon these examples, students will do individual or group projects that integrate the artistic and scientific components of this program.

 

Fall Quarter Schedule

 

This is a general schedule for our program during fall quarter. We will update this general schedule with specific topics and assigned readings each week. We expect students to spend at least 40 hours per week to complete the requirements of this program. This includes work in class and outside of class.

 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Preparation Day	9:00-12:00 Sem 2 D1105 Lecture / Workshop	9:00-12:00 Sem 2 D4107 Drawing Workshop – Group A	9:00-5:00 Field Trip*	9:00-12:00 Sem 2 D4107 Drawing Workshop – Group B 9:00-12:00 Lab 1 3041 Field / Lab Session – Group A
	1:30-3:30 Sem 2 D2107 Sem 2 D2109 Sem 2 D3107 Seminar			1:00-4:00 Lab 1 3041 Field/Lab Session – Group B

* Please note that we will be taking a required three-day field trip from Wednesday, Oct. 18 to Friday, Oct. 20 to Pack Experimental Forest and Mount Rainier National Park. Pack Forest will provide lodging and meals.

Assignments

 

Seminar Preparation: Students will complete seminar readings and should take notes or underline important passages from the readings. Each week students will post a short paper in response to the seminar reading by Sunday at 5 pm and two commentaries on other students’ papers by Monday at 5 pm.

 

Essays: Students will write two essays. One essay is on a student’s personal relationship to nature; the other is a summative essay that integrates several seminar readings.

 

Field Trip: Students are required to attend every field trip, including the three-day field trip to Pack Experimental Forest and Mount Rainier. Students will write a report about each field trip.

 

Lab / Field: Students will keep a notebook with their observations from each lab or field exercise. We will have weekly quizzes on this material as well. Students will also be required to complete one formal lab report.

 

Independent Field Journal: Students will select a field site on The Evergreen State College campus to visit each week and complete a structured series of assignments to reinforce their drawing, observation, and plant identification skills.

 

Drawing: Students will have weekly technical drawing exercises and make field sketches during the field trips. They will also complete weekly expressive assignment. Students will be required to maintain a portfolio of all artwork completed in the program.

 

Student Fees

The student fees for this program will cover overnight field trips, laboratory materials, and communal art supplies. The following fee breakdown reflects our plan to take overnight field trips in fall and spring quarters, but not in winter quarter. (However, we hope to take several day field trips during winter quarter.) They will appear on your tuition bill from the college.

 

Fall Quarter: $125

Winter Quarter: $50

Spring Quarter: $125

Booklist for Fall and Winter Quarters

Books can be purchased from the Evergreen Bookstore or on-line. We recognize that we are asking you to purchase many books for fall quarter; we will continue to use several of these books during winter quarter. We will be supplementing these books with other material. The booklist for spring quarter will be announced at a later date. We will be using the following books throughout the year:

Mark R. Bush, Ecology of a Changing Planet, Third Edition (Prentice Hall, 2003).

ISBN: 0130662577.

 

Jim Pojar and Andy Mackinnon, Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Revised Edition (Lone Pine, 2004). ISBN: 1551055309.

We will read the following books for seminar in fall quarter (in order of appearance):

Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005).

ISBN: 1565125223.

 

Hannah Hinchman, A Trail through Leaves (W. W. Norton, 1999)

ISBN: 0393318850.

Floyd Schmoe, A Year in Paradise (Mountaineers Press, 1999 [1959]).

ISBN: 0898866537.

 

William Cronon, Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (W. W. Norton, 1996). ISBN: 0393315118

 

Robert Michael Pyle, Wintergreen: Rambles in a Ravaged Land (Sasquatch Books, 2001). ISBN: 1570613109.

 

Andrew Kimbrall, Fatal Harvest Reader (Island Press, 2002). ISBN 155963944X.

 

James Howard Kunstler, The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape (Touchstone Books, 1993). ISBN

We will read the following books for seminar in winter quarter (in order of appearance):

Donald Worster, Nature’s Economy, Second Edition (Cambridge University Press, 1994). ISBN: 0521468345.

 

Michael Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma (Penguin, 2006) ISBN: 1594200823.

 

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (Ballantine Books, 1986). ISBN: 0345345053.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Mariner Books, 2002 [1962]). ISBN: 0618249060.

Fall Quarter Art Supplies

 

Alphacolor Char-Kole compressed charcoal – 1 box

Vine Charcoal (soft) - 3 sticks

Charcoal Pencil (medium softness)

Prismacolor Nupastel - 12 color set

T-shirt rag cut into 6-8" squares

Kneaded Eraser

Saddler Plastic Eraser

18" x 24" White Drawing Paper Pad (Canson or Strathmore)

Bull Clips

Single-edged Razor Blade

Sand paper

Plastic Water Containers (yoghurt cups work fine) - 4

Spiral Bound Soft-Cover Sketchbook 8.5 x 11 or 9 x 12 or 3-ring binder with

blank paper (some should be sketchbook quality)

Micron waterproof ink pen (black, size .01)

Micron waterproof brush pen or waterproof black India ink and pointed bamboo brush

Pencils: HB (#2 regular pencil), 4H (hard), and a 4B (soft)

Travel-sized pencil sharpener (optional--we have an electric one in the classroom)

Water bottle (small)

Blue 3M delicate surface painters tape or 3M Safe-Release masking tape

Exacto knife or scissors

Glue Stick

Workable Spray Fixative

 

We will be working in our lab/field journals in color. You may use either watercolor or colored pencil:

Travel size watercolor set: student grade Cotman, Van Gogh or Yarka Set

watercolor brushes size #2, #6 and optional 1"flat

OR

Prisma Color 12 color set of colored pencils

 

Container to hold drawing supplies. You can get a used tackle box or Tupperware box at Goodwill

 

Daypack to carry your field guide, lunch, sketchbook and drawing supplies. Your regular daypack is fine.

 

Portfolio to hold art work. 23” x 31” is a good size. You can also make one out of recycled cardboard.