Professor Michael Longan Ph.D.

About Environmental Conservation

This course introduces students to the study of environmental geography.  We begin with an overview of the interconnections between human and environmental systems and focus upon the ways that humans have transformed the Earth’s surface.  We then explore critical questions about population growth, food production, water use, air pollution, energy use, waste disposal, biodiversity, and sustainability.  Throughout the course, we also seek to cultivate an aesthetic appreciation for the natural world and explore the ethical foundations for responsible use and care of the earth.  Environmental Conservation is different than many of the courses you will take in college in that it will help you develop the ability to think across disciplinary boundaries in order to understand specific environments and environmental problems.  Environmental conservation will require you to master interrelated ideas in physical science, social science, and in the humanities.  Specific goals of the course include the following:

After this class is over students will…

Understand major concepts and ideas in environmental conservation including ecosystems, pollution, resources, sustainability, scientific method, regions, environmental justice, etc. 

• Be able to analyze environmental issues from a geographic perspective.
• Be able to understand and critically analyze information on environmental issues that they encounter in the media (newspapers, TV, articles, the Internet, etc.).
• Be able to synthesize knowledge and think in interdisciplinary ways.
• Be able to communicate complex ideas and emotions about human-environment relationships through artistic expression.
• Understand how human welfare is connected with the conservation of the environment.
• Develop their own ethical principles in relation to the environment.
• Be interested in environmental conservation and want to continue learning about the environment and geography.
• Understand the relevance of environmental conservation to their chosen vocations in life whether or not they major in geography, environmental science or another related field.
• Be able to learn about the environment and geography through independent study after the class is over.

Texts Two texts are required for this course and are available in the campus bookstore:

• Withgott, Jay and Scott Brennan.  2008.  Environment: The Science Behind the Stories, 3/E
• Sharp, Zachary, editor. John Allen, editor.  2009.  Annual Editions: Environment 10/11.  Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill.  Make sure that you have the 10/11 Edition. 

Course Web Site and E-mail List The course website has the most up-to date information about the course.  On the website you will find this syllabus, a detailed schedule, links to interesting internet resources, and copies of your homework assignments.  Some of your readings for discussion will be found online.  You will also find lecture outlines that you can print out before class and take notes on during lecture (Note: while I aim to have these outlines available well in advance of class, my ability to do so may be limited during busy times of the semester).  I will use the course e-mail list to send you important reminders or to comment further on material covered in class.  You may also use the e-mail list to extend discussion after class and share some of those important insights and questions that occur to you after class. 

Course Structure  The class is divided into lecture and discussion sessions. Lecture time will be used to examine what you have learned through your reading in more depth, to introduce new concepts, and to provide examples that illustrate and apply concepts and theories.  Discussion sessions will give you a chance to work with the material introduced in the readings and lecture through discussion of specific cases or issues, debates, working through examples, and through hands-on work with real-world data.  Both parts of the class are integrated and attendance in both is vital for doing well in the class.

Course Policies

Late Assignments and Make-up Exams

You must turn in all assigned work on time. Short essays (see below) are to be handed in during discussion on the date due. Question sheets (see below) are due during the corresponding discussion class. I will only accept late assignments in the case of an illness, family emergency, university event, or other events beyond your control. Late assignments will not be accepted via e-mail! If you must be absent the day an assignment is due please make arrangements to hand in your assignment early or to have a friend turn it in for you.  Use my mailbox (shelf) in the faculty suite (KCH room 201) to hand in assignments outside of class time.  Reasonable exceptions to this policy may be granted depending upon individual circumstances.

You must take the exams as scheduled. Plan travel around exams! I will not allow early exams or make-ups to fit your travel schedule. I will not give make up exams except in the case of an excused absence for a university event, illness, or family emergency or obligation. Please take a different class if your travel plans conflict with the final exam for this course.

Expectations and Class Etiquette

Please come to your professor with any questions about course material or for help with difficulties you are having in the course as early as possible.

Please come to class on time and do not leave class or pack up your things until class is finished. I will not intentionally hold you late.  If I should lose track of time do not hesitate to politely interrupt and remind me.

Please keep disruptions during lecture to a minimum.  Do not talk during lecture, except to ask questions or raise points for the entire class.  Please do not read newspapers of non-class related material during class. Please turn of mobile devices during class. Such disruptions distract your classmates and your professor.

The quality of discussion is the collective responsibility of the students in the course.  Please participate to the degree you feel comfortable doing so. Please be respectful of your professor and classmates during discussion, making sure to listen to the contributions of others and contribute in a manner that is not rude, intimidating, or offensive. Students who significantly disrupt discussion may be asked to leave.

 

Assignments

Reading You will need to do the assigned reading before each class meeting. You should also review relevant sections of the text after each class meeting to cement your understanding.  On the course web site you will find a list of concepts and ideas for each reading assignment that you should understand before coming to class.  We may or may not go over these concepts together but you will need to understand them in order to fully understand the material covered in class.  You will need to do more than casual reading to fully understand many of the ideas the text introduces. When reading, first skim the text for important concepts (it is good to make a list) and then do a detailed reading.  Make sure that you pay attention to the diagrams and understand what they mean.  If necessary go back and re-read to make sure that you understand the text.  For discussion sessions, you will be assigned readings either from the Annual Editions book or other sources that will provide the basis for discussion or a lab exercise.  Doing the reading is essential for having successful discussions in class. 

 

Participation Show that you have done some thinking about what you are learning by participating in class discussions and by asking and answering questions during lecture.  You can also boost your participation grade by discussing issues related to environmental conservation with your professor outside of class—either in person or by electronic means (IM, Facebook, or e-mail). 

Attendance I expect on-time attendance for all class sessions.  Many of the assignments for this class will be completed (or at least started) during class. Attendance at all class sessions is therefore very important.  If you must be absent because of an illness, a family emergency or university event please send me an e-mail and let me know so that I may excuse your absence.  Be sure that you inquire about what you missed.  You will lose credit if you fail to inform me of the reason for your absence or if the reason for your absence is judged to be inadequate (I had a doctors appointment, my alarm clock didn’t go off). Chronic lateness may also lower your attendance grade. 

Homework Assignments and In Class Assignments Learning is not just a matter of memorizing course material, but occurs when you are able to apply the course material to understand the world.  Homework assignments will give you an opportunity to work with the class material so that you can fully learn it. There are two types of homework and in-class assignments.

1. On any given day I may ask you to make some observations, find examples, or reflect in writing on ideas we will discuss in the next class period.  These assignments will be vital for discussion in the next class period so do not forget to do them.  They may or may not be graded, but if they are they will be graded on a pass fail basis. 

2.  A second type of homework or in-class assignment will typically ask you to work through examples of material covered in class, to explore web sites, or to respond to questions about readings.  These assignments will be graded.  You can expect to do between four and six of these type assignments during the semester.  Typically you will start the assignment in class and finish it up on your own. 

Case Study Research Paper This assignment will help you to achieve several of the goals for this class including developing the ability to analyze environmental issues from a geographic perspective, critically evaluating coverage of the environment in the media, and synthesizing knowledge and thinking in interdisciplinary ways. For the assignment you will research and write a case study similar to those found in your textbook on an environmental issue or problem of your choosing.  In the paper you will need to use concepts and theories learned in this course to do an analysis of a specific regional case or environmental controversy.  For example you may want to use concepts from environmental conservation to examine the history and implications of a hazardous waste site in Northwest Indiana or the Chicago region (or elsewhere).  You might report on efforts to protect or restore the environment.  You could examine the costs and benefits of alternative energy technologies.  You might examine prospects for sustainable development in a particular country or region.  You could examine implications of policy changes on a particular environmental problem.  Recent changes to rules about National Forest planning, air pollution standards, and funding for Superfund might make good case studies. Those of you with an interest in education may want to do a case study related to environmental education.  You could examine techniques for teaching elementary students about air pollution for example.  For inspiration consider issues discussed in you textbook and the other readings.  Pay attention to reports on environmental issues in newspapers, on the Internet, or on TV.  You are also welcome to discuss possible topics with your professor.  The best papers will help someone who does not know anything about the topic to learn something not just about the case you have chosen but also about environmental conservation in general. 

Specific Requirements

• Your paper will be five to seven pages in length, double spaced, with a 12 point font and 1 inch margins. 
• In addition to an introduction and conclusion, your paper will have two main parts.
• Part One will introduce and explain the concepts needed to understand the specific case or controversy that your paper focuses on.
• Part Two will apply the concepts explained in the first part of your paper to understand the case that you have selected. 
• While you will probably rely on sources from the Internet, you will also need to use academic journal articles, newspaper and magazine articles, and books in order to achieve a high grade.  I will not impose a specific requirement here (five non-Internet sources is probably an absolute minimum), but papers that mostly rely on Internet sources will likely receive lower grades than those that do not.
• You need to cite your sources in the text of the paper and provide a list of works cited.  For your works cited list you will need to provide full citations.  Simply listing the web address of an Internet source is not adequate.  See the Honor Code section below for more information.
• Your paper will be graded both on content and mechanics. 

To facilitate getting the project done you need to observe the following due dates:

• March 2/3 A proposal that includes a general research question, identifies the concepts and theories that you think will be relevant for your case study, a brief description of the case study, and a statement about the sources of data that you plan to employ in writing the paper (ideally an initial list of sources).
• April 3 Initial Draft of Paper completed. Drafts will not be collected, but if you have a draft completed on this date you will be well on your way to successful completion of the project.
• April 24 Final Paper Due (Note that this due date is well in advance of the end of the semester.)

Outdoor Experiences It would be silly to take a course in Environmental Conservation without actually going outside and taking a look at the environment!  Alas, this is a fairly large class and field trips become a bit ungainly.  Besides, with 50 people tromping through the woods, the woodchucks most certainly won’t be chucking wood; even if a woodchuck could chuck wood.  Therefore, I would like you to devise two outdoor experiences preferably with friends (from the class or otherwise) in which you go out and experience nature, or observe the ways that humans and nature interact.  If you go out on your own please do take appropriate care to be safe (for example please don’t walk on the shore ice on Lake Michigan!). The possibilities are endless, but the following is a list of suggestions:

• Visit the National Lakeshore
• Visit Chicago and look for urban nature
• Visit industrial areas in northern Lake and Porter counties and observe instances of environmental “modification.”
• Visit one or more of Valparaiso’s city parks—Rodger’s Lakewood park is particularly “natural” though even the most landscaped of parks is still natural.
• Visit the Tall Tree Arboretum and Gardens
• Visit a farm and observe environmental modification/or talk to a farmer about environmental issues.
• Go skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, camping, or mountain biking.  Go skating at Tower Park in Valparaiso.
• Go visit someplace environmentally interesting during spring break.

 

While you are out in the field, take along a notebook or paper, a pen or pencil, and if you wish some colored pencils or a camera.  Make some specific observations about what you see, hear, smell, and touch.  Take some photographs or sketch some of the plants and animals you see.  Make an attempt after you have been out in the field to determine the names of some of the plants and animals you saw.  See “Keeping a Nature Journal” on the web site for more information.  So that I know you’ve satisfied this requirement you will need to hand in any observations/sketches/photographs you make in the field along with a two page (double spaced) reflection paper talking about what you did, what you saw, and what it might mean for each of the two outdoor experiences.  The best papers will relate your experience to material that we have addressed in class.  Three things to note: First, you may not satisfy this requirement through your participation in an activity for another class (i.e. the field trip for geomorphology doesn’t count).  Second, your outdoor experience must take place during the course of the semester.  Finally, the power plant along the lakeshore in Michigan City is not, I repeat, not, a nuclear power plant.  If you wish you may start your own nature journal and go outdoors on a number of occasions, but to satisfy this requirement you need only to do two outdoor experiences.

Note: Because we have a small class this semester, we may arrange for one or more outdoor experiences for the entire group.

Environmental Art Assignment The study of the environment is an interdisciplinary pursuit.  Understanding the human relationship with the environment requires an aesthetic as well as a scientific appreciation for the environment.  This assignment will give you the opportunity to view examples of contemporary environmental art as well as to create your own environmental art.  More information on this assignment will be provided to you via a handout and on the course web site. 

Exams There will be three midterm exams and a final exam.  The exact format will be announced in class but will likely consist of a mixture of multiple choice and short answer or essay questions.  The midterm exams are not comprehensive.  The final exam will include material from the last part of the class as well as questions addressing the major themes of the course. Please plan to take your exams at the scheduled times.  This includes the final exam.  

Grading Unless circumstances warrant otherwise (an assignment dropped or added due to unforeseen circumstances or opportunities for example), your grade will be determined as follows:

Assignment	%	Points	Your points
Exams (4 at 50 points or 10% each)	40%	200
Homework Assignments	15%	75
Case Study Research Paper	20%	100
Outdoor Experiences (two at 5% each	10%	50
Environmental Art Assignment	10%	50
Attendance and Participation	5%	25
Total	100%	500

The following grading scale will be used unless circumstances warrant otherwise.

A	93-100%	B	83-86%	C	73-76%	D	63-66%
A-	90-92%	B-	80-82%	C-	70-72%	D-	60-62%
B+	87-89%	C+	77-79%	D+	67-69%	F	0-59

 

Authorized Aid and the Honor Code The Honor Code will be upheld in this course.  Authorized aid in this class will be limited to your own personal knowledge during exams and your own work on all written exercises.  When preparing homework assignments you may discuss the assignment with others but your written answers should be your own.  You are encouraged to use the services of the writing center and you should have someone else proofread or offer suggestions on your written assignments before handing them in. 

You must use quotation marks for direct quotes, cite your sources, and include a list of works cited on your case study research assignment. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and may be considered unauthorized aid because you are essentially representing someone else’s work as your own. Many first year students mistakenly believe that it is OK to cut and paste text and graphics from web sites into their papers without providing both quotation marks and a proper citation.  Web sites are no different from any other source and need to be cited fully.  Please refer to a writing guide for details on proper methods of citation (you should have bought one for your freshman core class).  Please ask if you do not understand methods of citation since not citing or improperly citing your sources can lead to Honor Code violations. Finally sharing your papers written for this class with others on the Internet without notifying the professor first or downloading papers written by others to hand in (either in part or in their entirety) constitutes unauthorized aid.