Visualizing Ecology

Each student is expected to:

1.  Come to all classes and program activities on time and participate in an intelligent and respectful manner that promotes your own learning and the learning of all members of the program.  Regular attendance of all parts of the program and evidence of careful preparation is mandatory in this program.  If you miss any lectures, seminars, work discussions, workshops, labs or field trips, you are in danger of losing credit.

2.  If you must miss a class explain your absence to your faculty ahead of time.  For any missed sessions, you must ask your faculty if you may make up the work, and, if your faculty agrees, arrange with him/her how to make it up.  If you have an emergency, your absence will be excused but you need to document the emergency and make up the work.

3.  Prepare thoroughly for each class and be ready at the start of class for the discussion or activity for that day.

4.  Own your own copy of the required edition of each required reading material.  Purchase the required art supplies.  Bring the supplies/books to the appropriate class.

5.  Speak in seminar, initiating or contributing to serious analysis of the texts and images.

6.  Prepare all written assignments carefully and submit them on time.  Post all web assignments on time. Faculty will not accept late assignments unless you have made a prior arrangement with him or her.

7.  Work collaboratively and carry your full share in assigned group work.

8.  Submit your own work for individual assignments. You are required to include proper citations of all quotes and ideas that are not your own.  (Copying and plagiarizing will result in loss of credit in the program.  If you are ever unsure about what constitutes plagiarism, talk to your faculty and see the attached handout, “Using your Sources” created by the Evergreen Writing Center.

9. Compile and submit an organized portfolio of all work in the program by the deadline in Week 10.

10.  Prepare draft self-evaluations and submit them to your faculty by the deadline in Week 10 of each quarter.  Prepare a final self-evaluation and submit it to the Registration and Records at the end of the program.  You will not receive credit in the program unless you do this.

11.  Prepare a written evaluation of each faculty in the program at the end of each quarter.   Faculty evaluations may be submitted to the faculty during the evaluation conference or to the Program Secretary, Pam Udovich (First Floor Lab I), who will hold them until the end of the program.

12.  Adhere to all college policies, including the Social Contract, Student Conduct Code, and the policy on sexual harassment.  

13.  Adhere to the Art Studio rules, clean up after yourself, participate in program clean-ups, and keep the faculty-provided supplies and books in the classroom.  Do not use illegal drugs or alcohol in the studio.  Obey the music policy—bring your own headphones or play music that is agreeable to everyone in the studio.  If one person objects, change the music.

14.  Field Trips:   Behave on field trips as if you were in class – drug and alcohol free.  Bring the appropriate food, clothing and equipment.  Focus on the tasks assigned by the faculty and do not leave the group.  Do nothing that endangers yourself or others.

15.  Treat all faculty, staff and class visitors respectfully.

16.  Agree to be available for evaluation conferences through Wednesday of evaluation week.

17. Act as a steward of campus and any other areas visited this quarter. The Pacific NW is an incredible place and Evergreen is in a particularly beautiful location. We have all chosen to come here and make this our home for various lengths of time. Let’s celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of this place. Take some ownership and pride in being here—clean up after yourself, pick up after others, and do your part to make your corner of Evergreen sparkle.

Conflicts.  If you have a conflict about academic matters with a faculty member on the team, you should discuss the issue(s) with that faculty.  If that discussion does not resolve the conflict, you may bring the matter to the program team and then to the Academic Dean, Eddy Brown.  Conflicts covered by the affirmative action and sexual harassment policies may be brought to the affirmative action office without prior discussion with the faculty.

Credit Policy  All credit decisions will be made by the faculty team.  Failure to attend class, coming late, submitting assignments that show little work, submitting an assignment late or not at all, failure to work collaboratively in group efforts – each of these things, among others, can jeopardize your credit for the quarter.  Sixteen hours of credit will be awarded for satisfactory completion of program requirements.

Credit is not the same as a positive evaluation.  Students receive credit for fulfilling the minimum requirements and standards.  The evaluation is a statement describing the quality of a student’s work.  It is possible for a student to receive credit but receive an evaluation that describes poor quality work.  It is also possible for a student to attend classes regularly and submit all written assignments yet receive no or reduced credit because of unsatisfactory performance.

Students are expected to make a good faith effort in all components of the program.  Students who do not receive full credit in fall quarter may not be permitted to continue in the program.

If you are in danger of losing credit by the fifth week of the program, your seminar leader will notify you.  However, if you don’t receive a warning and your work declines in the second half of the quarter, you may still lose credit.

Students may be asked to leave the program.  If a student repeatedly disrupts the attempts of others to learn or in any way violates the college’s Social Contract or Student Conduct Code, one or both of the faculty team members will warn the student that continuation of this behavior will result in his or her dismissal from the program.  If the behavior continues, the faculty team will confer and will ask the student to leave the program at once.

Students can expect the faculty to:

•    Make decisions about the nature and extent of the material covered in the program.
•    Come to lectures, labs, field trips, workshops and seminars on time and prepared.
•    Review student’s work to identify problems, determine serious effort, and provide constructive comments and return the work in a reasonable time.
•    Provide a written warning to any student in his/her seminar who is in danger of losing credit in the fifth week of classes.
•    Be available for students who want to discuss program matters.
•    Treat all members of the learning community respectfully.
•    Evaluate in writing each student’s work at the end of each quarter.  The seminar leader will receive appropriate information from other members of the faculty team, but will be responsible for writing the overall evaluation of the student.  The faculty members will hold an evaluation conference with the student during evaluation week and complete and submit student evaluations to the program secretary in a timely manner.
•    Adhere to all college policies.

I am in full accord with the terms of this covenant.

______________________          _________________________             ____________
Student name (Print legibly)                    Student Signature                                  Date

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(Tear off and submit to your seminar leader)

I have read the covenant for Visualizing Ecology for the 2006-7 academic year and I am in full accord with the terms of the covenant.

__________________________      _________________________      _____________
Student name (Print legibly)             Student Signature                                 Date

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Using Your Sources     Created by the Evergreen Writing Center

Good Evidence shows the reader the real phenomena your paper examines and should always be interpreted in terms of your thesis.  You can show your evidence by  paraphrasing, summarizing or quoting. By using evidence well, you will demonstrate your mastery of your researched sources and maintain a strong and consistent writing voice, which will help you avoid plagiarism or misrepresentation.

What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is when you use another person’s words, ideas, notions, or facts without properly citing that person as the originator. Whether it is intentional or unintentional, you are plagiarizing if you:

1)    use another person’s words without putting them in quotation marks,
2)    use another person’s ideas without citing them as a source,
3)    borrow a fact from your source without citing it, or
4)    reprint any tables, illustrations, or charts without documenting the source.

You do not need to cite when you:
1)    use common knowledge (such as the name of the president or the date of WWI),
2)    find the information undocumented in more than four sources,
3)    or write your own ideas or experiences.

Paraphrasing and Summarizing:

When you use evidence or ideas from a source but do not directly quote the original you are paraphrasing. Paraphrasing and summarizing are important because they force you to put information and ideas into your own words. By paraphrasing and summarizing, you will demonstrate a deeper understanding of the material because the process requires you to synthesize the information in the original source.  When using paraphrase or summary, you must also introduce and interpret the information.

When to paraphrase  or summarize instead of quote: 
    -A quote would be too long and distract from your flow.
    -You say it better than the author for your own purposes.
    -The author’s words are not memorable but the information is good.
    -You want to take evidence from several pages and condense it into a few sentences.
    -You are using second source material.

Strategies for Paraphrasing:
1)Imagine you are explaining the idea to a friend.
2)Avoid using the author’s sentence structure, wording, or phrases.
3)Resist the desire to look at the original source when paraphrasing.
4)If you do use any of the original source’s language, put it in quotation marks.

    Example
    Original Source
When the 200th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party was celebrated in Boston, an enormous crowd turned out, not for the official celebration, but for the “People’s Bi-Centennial” countercelebration, where packages marked “Gulf Oil” and “Exxon” were dumped into the Boston Harbor, to symbolize opposition to corporate power in America.
--Howard Zinn, People’s History, page 550
    Paraphrase
A large crowd threw boxes labeled “Gulf Oil” and “Exxon” into Boston Harbor during the 1976 bicentennial celebration of the Boston Tea Party. This unofficial event represented public discontent with the power of corporations in America (Zinn 550).

Using Quotes:

Use direct quotations when:
-a source is particularly clear or has a style of language that the author cannot paraphrase.
-using a primary source or first hand account.
-using facts.
-using statistics.
-quoting from interviews.
   
Quote Sandwich: There are three steps to fitting a quote into your text successfully: introduce it, state it, and interpret it. If the quote is not sandwiched between an introduction and interpretation your reader will have a hard time understanding how it relates to the content of your essay.

1)    Introduction: Introducing your quote provides a smooth transition between your own words and those of your source. When introducing your quote, give the reader an idea of where it comes from and, when appropriate, an idea of how it relates to ideas already present in your essay. For example:
Howard Zinn, in A People’s History of the United States, explains that during the1700s…
In contrast, Russell Kirk argues… claims…admits…agrees…denies…
Doris Kearns Goodwin states… illustrates…implies…insists…writes…thinks…

2)    Stating the Quote: When quoting, use only as much of your source’s words as absolutely necessary. You should omit part of the quote if is not important for making your point, but only when removing that section will not change the author’s original meaning. Replace the removed section with an ellipsis (…) to make your reader aware of the omission. For example:
In The Jungle, a socialist speaker tells his audience that “There are a million people …who share the curse of the wage slave” (Sinclair 255).

3)    Interpretation:  In your essay, interpretations should follow all direct quotes. Interpretation shows the reader why you, the author, included the quote and what the quote’s role is in the overall structure of your argument. Without your interpretation, the relationship between the quote and your original ideas will be unclear to the reader because the reader may not understand the relevance of the quote. Whether you are paraphrasing or quoting, it is vital that you interpret the information.