FRS 002 — Sec. 003 — (2 unit) — CRN 26010 — M 5:10-7:00pm — 366 Briggs
South Africa’s Biodiversity

Instructors: Penny Gullan and Peter Cranston, Department of Entomology, College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences

Description: The course will consist of nine formal presentations on aspects of South African biodiversity, with a strong conservation content. Students will increasingly bring their research to the seminar, through guided use of web-available data sources and some books provided by the instructors. The second hour will contain student short presentations on something topical from the web and, in later weeks, Powerpoint summaries of their term paper research on a selected topic relevant to South African biodiversity. A list will be offered for those that fail to find their own topic in a timely manner. We view this seminar in the same way as that offered in 2003 for Australian Biodiversity, as a stepping stone to subsequent student participation in field experience overseas. To this end, we expect students to learn how to research (by the web and popular documentation, newspapers, activist conservation propaganda etc.) and to present information in formal writing and Powerpoint presentation. We expect students to synthesize information from a remote country by this research and also we encourage active learning about their own country. Writing is important — we have run virtually all our courses as GE, and have studied how best to improve coherence and content in student writing assignments. By asking for early drafts, we can feed back to individual students and to the complete class, and provide comprehensive feedback even to the final submitted term paper. Students are told that their written work is assessed under 5 heads: Style, Coverage, Comprehension, Logic, and use of Referencing and Citation by Quotation. This format encourages student to hone their writing and analytical skills, since we provide comments under each head for every student.

Format: The two-unit seminar will meet for two hours each week for 10 weeks, in Fall 2006. The time will be divided between informal lecture presentations, discussion and student presentations. Powerpoint will be used for presentations by instructors and students. Assigned reading material will be web-available as PDF files behind a password. The second hour every week will consist of discussions and student presentations. In early weeks, discussions will be orchestrated by instructors using selected readings. Later seminars will include student presentations based on their term paper. Each student will be expected to prepare a maximum 6-slide Powerpoint presentation on the subject of their chosen term paper, present it to the rest of the seminar, and engage in a discussion of issues arising. Each week a subset of the students will be asked to research a current topic in South African biodiversity by web browsing. Students then will guide the seminar to specific web-pages (provided on-line in seminar room and projected to screen), and summarize the story in relation to the topics already discussed in class. Term papers will involve research and writing, done outside of formal class time, on a chosen topic in South African biodiversity. Literature research via Google Scholar and less technical web-based learning will be guided by the instructors to allow understanding of the variable quality of electronically available information. Grading: Students will be letter graded on the quality of their contributions to discussions (25%), evidence of having read and understood weekly assigned reading (25%), and predominantly on their 1000 word maximum-length term paper based on their topic chosen from a diverse list (50%). The latter will be assessed 20% for Style, 20% for Coverage, 20% for Comprehension, 20% for Logic, 20% for Referencing and Citation by Quotation.

About the Instructors: Professors Penny J. Gullan (Faculty, Entomology) and Peter S. Cranston (Faculty, Entomology) came to Davis in 2000 from Academic and Government Research positions, respectively, in Australia. Their research interests lie in the biodiversity of insects, but they have wide interests in biodiversity conservation on a global scale. Penny and Peter spend research time in South Africa, recently returned from a 4 month sabbatical at Rhodes University, and will teach a Quarter Abroad for seniors at Stellenbosch University in 2007, and intend to offer the Quarter Abroad program in subsequent years until 2010.