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HUMAN ECOLOGY & SYSTEMS  

Course Overview

    Course Description:

Although existing in habitats of their own design, humans cannot escape the biological and physical constraints on energy use, food production, population and interactions with other species amid their unique ecosystems. Applying ecological and social system principles, students examine the interactions of the human population, the use of renewable and non-renewable resources and pollution problems and solutions. Course discussions focus on the ecological, economic and political considerations of dealing with environmental problems in the new century.

    Objectives:

  • Understand the basic ecological principles that underlie all life on this planet.
  • Understand how these principles constrain or enhance human activities.
  • Understand the requirements of natural ecosystems for perpetuation and persistence.
  • Understand the historical development of human interaction with world ecosystems.
  • Understand the political, economic and sociological implications of modern human life.
  • Use class material to identify, analyze and report on a current solution to a human ecological proble
Texts & Articles:

(Required Texts) 

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Marten, Gerald G. 2001. Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development . London, UK: Earthscan. ISBN: 978 1 85383 714 2.  (Spanish Online Edition ) (English Online Edition)

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Layzer, Judith A. 2006. The Environmental Case: Translating Values into Policy (2nd. Edition) . Washington, DC: CQ Press. ISBN: 1-56802-898-9.

(Suggested Articles)

Marten, Gerald, Steve Brooks, and Amanda Suutari, 2005, "Environmental Tipping Points: A New Slant on Strategic Environmentalism ," WorldWatch 18(6): 10-14. 

Marten,  Gerald 2005, "Environmental Tipping Points: a New Paradigm for Restoring Ecological Security ," Journal of Policy Studies (Japan) 20: 75-87. 

Marten, Gerald and Donna Glee Williams, 2006, "Getting Clean: Recovering from Pesticide Addiction ," The Ecologist 36(10): 50-53. 

Gerald Marten, 2007, "Eco-Tipping Points: The Fine Art of Environmental Aikido ." 

Suutari, Amanda and Gerald Marten, 2007, "Eco-Tipping Points: How a Vicious Cycle Can Become Virtuous ," Earth Island Journal 22(2):26-31. 

Marten, Gerald and Amanda Suutari, 2007, "Eco-Tipping Points ," Our Planet 17 (December):20-21. 

Marten, Gerald and Amanda Suutari, 2008, "Eco-Tipping Point Reverses Deforestation in Thailand ."

Hardin, G. 1968.   "The Tragedy of the Commons . " Science 162: 1243-1248

Dubos, R. 1976.  "Symbiosis Between the Earth and Humankind ."  Science 193: 459-462.

Odum, W.E. 1982.  "Environmental Degradation and the Tyranny of Small Decisions ."  BioScience 32(9): 728-729.

    Course Requirements and Grading:

Class participation and homework constitutes 50% of the final grade, making class attendance essential to receive a passing grade. (Some accommodation will be made for students who must miss a class due to travel associated with their employment.

A comp exam will be given at the end of the class and it will also count for 50% of the final grade.

Exam answers should be prepared with the same care you would take in writing a term paper. Exams will be graded on the basis of grammatical quality (sentence structure, punctuation, spelling), as well as substantive quality. There will also be a strict page limit. You will have one week to complete the exam. All exam answers must be written in Word or in a Rich Text Format and submitted to the instructor by email at via the Canvas email system. Exam due dates are to be found on the schedule page of this web site as well as on the course Lesson board.

Final semester grades for this course will be based on several criteria. Throughout the semester, grades will be assigned on a numerical basis. Only in determining the final semester grade will the numerical grades be translated to letter grades. The total percentages for the course are distributed as follows:  

 

Course Requirements

Grade Percentage
 

Competency Exam 
 

50% of grade

 

Weekly Homework
 

50% of grade

 

Grading Scale

For students taking this course as a distance learning course, homework submitted later than 5:00 p.m. on the final date of the class session will will be considered late homework and will not be credited toward class attendance and participation. Distance learning courses are considered to operate over a seven day week period. NOTE: For all students, course assignments and schedule, course objectives, and grading criteria, distributions and weights may change as circumstances dictate and at the discretion of the instructor.

Course Homework:

Course homework includes posting answers posed for each of the text discussion questions featured weekly throughout the course. Students are expected to answer these questions and post them on the weekly lesson board prior to each class meeting (if the class is offered as an on-campus classroom offering) or by 5:00 p.m. on the final day of the class week for each session if the course is offered as a distance learning offering (as specified by the dates for each session listed in the course schedule located at the course home page). Late work will not receive credit - period. All written assignments will be graded for substantive content, for care in preparation (grammar, spelling, punctuation), for use of APA citations and references, and, most importantly, for evidence of reflective consideration of the assigned readings. Students are expected to be familiar with the APA citation and reference approach and use such citations for all assignments. If students are unfamiliar with this method, they are expected to become familiar with using the method on their own. Work not appropriately cited or referenced will receive no credit. All homework must be posted electronically in Word or Rich Text Format via Canvas Email. Any work mailed in from any other email source - even if mailed to the instrudctor's Canvas email address - will not be graded, in part because email sent from any external email address (i.e. Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail etc.) simply cannot be recieved at the instructor's Canvase email address. Consequently work sent in frome external web mail addresses will categorically not be accepted or graded. All work must include writing out the questions followed by your answers. Content written into or cut and pasted into the memo-field of the drop box will not be graded. All work must be attached as a Word or rich text format document. The instructor will not accept late homework or exams, homework or exams submitted on behalf of another student, or assignments submitted by a student who does not regularly attend or remain in class after having turned in an assignment. Students will also take two competency exams. Students must successfully complete and return the competency exam one before being afforded the opportunity of taking competency exam two.

Class participation is very important in this course, and includes regular online attendance and the regular submission of complete and well articulated homework responses. In the final grade, homework, attendance and participation, will be calculated under the overall theme of "Course Effort.". Students must receive permission from the instructor to miss a class. Missing more than 3 classes without instructor permission will result in students being asked to withdraw from the class.

Students participating in class sessions will, on a weekly basis, prepare their homework assignments and  post their responses on the course lesson board.  All posted attachments must be in Word or rich text format (.rtf).  The instructor will review the responses and the homework posted on the Lesson board and will make responses on assignments to the entire class over the ANGEL lesson board, based upon the nature of the responses and work provided by students.

Typically, students should be prepared to spend 2 - 3 hours of preparation & study for every 1 hour of classroom time.    This formula, which applies to general time commitment for both classroom and distant learners, should yield approximately 6 to 9 hours of course effort weekly. Some week's assignments may entail less time investment, while other class periods may entail more effort. NOTE: If you have questions or issues that could get in the way of you completing any of your assignments you should contact the instructor by telephone at 239.405.4164. Dr. Wimberley is available virtually any time 24/7 to assist you if the issue you are working with serves as an immediate impediment of your completing your work.

APA Citation & Reference Style

I strongly encourage every student to take the time to complete the following online APA Citation and Reference Tutorial. One of the objectives of this class is that you learn how to use the APA documentation style. You can learn everything you need to know about how to use this method by studying the fmaterial at the following sites. Please understand that any of your discussion questions or your student presentation papers that are lacking in complete APA styled documentation will be returned to you and will not be graded until they are in order.

A Guide for Writing Research Papers in APA Style

Purdue University: Using American Psychological Association (APA) Format

APA Citation Styles - University of Toledo

APA Style Sheet (Cornell)

Quick Guide APA Style (UNC)

APA Guide to Electronic Resources

APA Style for Videos

APA Style for Court Decisions

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding APA Style

Attendance Policy

Attend, participate in class, and submit homework on a regular basis. Students must participate fully during each class session. In every case, students must answer weekly assigned questions and post their responses to all questions before class commences weekly. Students failing to log on to the course lesson board and successfully submit their homework on a weekly basis will be dropped from the course.

From time to time students may be required to attend one or more  personal conferences with the instructor. Whenever feasible, the consultation should happen in person at FGCU. However, if distance proves to be an obstacle then students may be required to meet at an off-campus location or to schedule and attend a telephone conference with the instructor. These conferences contribute toward the student's attendance and participation grade. Students do not have the option of not attending conferences when the instructor so instructs them to. Students failing to attend conferences can expect to experience a significant reduction in credit for their participation and attendance portion of the grade, or may be awarded an incomplete grade that can revert to an F if the student continues to refuse participating in a student/faculty conference.

Finally, it is important for all students to remain cognizant that all of their interactions with the instructor must maintain a civil, respectful and cordial tone. Incivility, rudeness and disrespect directed toward the instructor will not be tolerated. Students may be asked to withdraw from the class if they cannot honor this expectation, and can expect to see significant deductions to the attendance and participation portion of their grade.

Consequently, attendance and participation consists of (1) regular online and weekly classroom attendance in the class (2) regular online and classroom participation in the class as demonstrated by the regular and timely submission of complete homework / exams and the demonstrated capacity to convince the instructor that one has read all text and web assignments and is prepared to discuss them in class, (3) regular and appropriate posting of homework on the Canvas website in the appropriate format, (4) meeting all criteria for homework submission, such as use of APA citations and references, (4) prompt attention to email and telephone messages from the instructor, (5) attendance and civil participation in all scheduled consultation meetings. Failure to comply with any of these factors will result in a reduction in credit for this portion of the course at the discretion of the instructor.

Academic Integrity

All assignments must include citations for each question sufficient enough for the instructor to determine where the answers were drawn from, as well as complete references at the end of each question set. Citations and references must be in APA style. This course includes a strongly suggested reading to assist you with this task (Charles Lipson's (2004) Doing Honest Work in College). You will be deducted significant credit from all of your assignments if you don't learn very quickly how to use APA citations and references appropriately. I will expect every student to be familiar with this approach since it is taught in virtually every middle school and high school in the U.S. So, in the interest of not losing any course credit and to insure you don't find yourself plagiarizing any of your work, you would be strongly advised to purchase this book and learn how to cite and reference appropriately from the onset. 

Answers and questions must be included in homework, to include the correct numbering of assigned questions. Any work that has been copied verbatim from a source or that has been "cut and pasted" as responses to questions will be ignored. Such verbatim responses included in work that is not fully cited and referenced will be considered to be plagiarized and the student will receive an F for the course. All work submitted must be written in the student's own words.