Syllabus

This course is designed to enrich students’ ability to read scientific articles critically and understand core ecological theories. Readings have been selected by pairing historical and current articles, with the intention of including diverse topics, authors, and perspectives. By the end of the course, students should meet the following objectives:

• Students will understand the seminal theories of ecology

• Students will understand the theory development and adaptation through

historical and current literature

• Students will analyze how successful papers are constructed

• Students will demonstrate self-motivation by choosing supplemental read-

ing exercises that engage and excite them

• Students will evaluate how they benefit from reading

Class will meet weekly for 60 minutes on Thursdays at 10 am in the Library.

• Introduction to Week’s Theme (5 minutes, led by Facilitator)

     When did this topic become important in ecology?

• Core Reading 1 (15 minutes, led by Paper Leader)

• Core Reading 2 (15 minutes, led by Paper Leader)

• Additional Activity (10+ minutes, led by everyone)

• Wrap-up (5+ minutes, led by Facilitator)

You must sign up to be a paper leader or discussion facilitator every week

on the google sheet. If there are more people than papers we can have joint

leaders/facilitators that need to meet beforehand, pull random names out of a

hat, or break into subgroups (paper leaders still meet beforehand).

• Rotating discussion facilitator: As discussion facilitator, you will be expected to have a mastery-level understanding of the day’s reading topic. Rather than presenting your understanding, your task will be to facilitate discussion. You will be expected to prepare a number of points of discussion and/or activities to promote class participation and discussion, potentially including open-ended questions without obvious answers, contentious statements for peers to consider and discuss their agreement or disagreement, and/or whole-class activities that incorporate multiple readings. Your goal will be to encourage your peers to engage with the assigned readings via lively discussion. If it would be beneficial to have a particular faculty member lead a particular discussion, they could fill this role.

• Paper leader: Paper leaders will provide a brief content-based summary of a paper to the group. They will seek to clarify any confusion and address any misconceptions about the selected paper. If there is more than one person leading a paper, then the two people should meet beforehand so they can be on the same page. If the 2 core papers are covered or one of the optional papers is particularly appealing, you can sign up to be a paper leader for one of the supplementary/additional papers as well and will be expected to provide a brief summary of the paper and the take home message.

From the menu of potential assignments below, you will select a weekly assignment to complement the reading and required class participation.

• Take home questions (min 1/max 5/semester):

Write answers in paragraph form:

1) What is the take home?

2) What was insightful?

3) What is a criticism of this paper?”

• Figure evaluation and rewrite (min 0/semester):

Before reading club, submit ideas/drawings of a better, missing, or supplementary figure that deserves special attention

• Find a contemporary article (min 1/semester):

Find a recent paper relevant to the reading. This could be an article that cites the article, takes an opposite point of view, builds on its theory, or is a correction. Summarize this article within the context of the week’s reading and be prepared to present during class.

• Research an author (min 1/semester):

Do some background review on one of the authors of either the core paper or an optional paper you chose to read. Prepare a three minute report that gives background

• Discuss outside of class (min 2/semester):

Take time before the discussion to talk about the paper with a faculty member or a relevant entity and bring their feedback to the discussion.

• Writing the wrap-up blog (min 2/semester):

This could take several forms. One way would be to summarize the papers we read and how they fit together. Then outline the discussions we had and activities people chose to do. What did we take away as a group?

• Edit the Wikipedia page of this week’s theme (min 0/semester):

Review the Wikipedia page and the edit history of the week’s theme. Wikipedia is increasingly used as a first stop for understanding scientific topics. For this assignment you can update the wikipedia page to be more accurate or better sourced. Alternatively, contribute to any ongoing controversy on the talk page. Be prepared report your findings and contributions during class. Be bold!