I've decided (tentatively) on a grading scheme for the course. You can find it by following the Overview link above. Since I've never figured out how to give exams in this course, I'll be doing what I've done in past years -- assigning a series of short projects and one long term project.
For the short projects I will pick a fairly narrow topic related to the subjects we have recently covered in class. I'll give you some guidance about papers or other materials you may want to refer to, but I do not expect a comprehensive literature review. I'll be looking for 4-5 pages of text (11-12 point font, double spaced) in which you use the principles we've discussed to answer a small set of directed questions about a particular topic. I'll make the questions as specific as I can, but part of the challenge in conservation biology is learning what questions to ask, so don't be surprised if I expect you to figure out part of what question needs to be answered (or if I throw out some leads I expect you to be smart enough to ignore).
The term project is your chance to explore a topic that you're interested in in greater depth. For this project I am looking for a fairly comprehensiver review of the literature on some topic. That means that you're going to have to narrow your focus quite a bit, since I'm also looking for no more than 15-20 pages of text (not including any figures or tables you decide to include and literature cited). The only restriction on the topic is that it must be germane to the course, i.e., it must focus on conservation biology, not on political or economic issues, and it must focus on conservation biology, not on interesting issues in ecology or evolution without a direct tie to conservation practice. I suggest that you choose a topic and discuss it with me fairly early in the semester so that you have time to do the necessary literature review and so that we agree on a topic that will meet the course requirements, i.e., satisfy me.
Posted by Kent at August 11, 2003 4:40 PM | TrackBack