Dear Colleagues, About six months ago I started a blog entitled Fred’s Ecology and Environmental Tales that highlights the newest studies published in two journals: “Ecology” and “Conservation Biology”. I have many reasons for doing so, but I am primarily interested in improving ecological and environmental literacy, hoping to preserve our ecosystems for future generations. My plan is that high school and college instructors will use this blog in the classroom – it can be assigned for homework, or you can simply have students read a post (of your choice or theirs) in class (takes about 10 minutes to read quickly, more to mull over). The site is fredsingerecology.com
My wise daughter argued that I should make this as easy as possible for instructors to use, because most of you are overworked and underpaid. I used to be one of you, and I retain sufficient cognitive residue to recognize (begrudgingly) that she is right, so I am listing some ideas for how you can easily use the blog, with very little or no planning effort. The first series of questions only requires blog access, while the second series requires access to the original paper. Based on your reading of the blog, answer the following: 1. What is the major take-home point of the study? Why is this important? 2. For each figure and data table in the blog, do the following: (a) describe what the data show, (b) describe how confident you are about your answer to question 2a. 3. What assumptions do the authors make, based on the information you are given? 4. What do you think is missing from this study – what do you think the researchers should do next? Then, read the original paper, and answer the following: 1. How do the blog and original paper differ stylistically? 2. Do the authors deal with the assumptions that you described in question 3 above? How? 3. What other assumptions do the authors make? 4, What was the biggest methodological challenge in doing the study, and how was it resolved? 5. For specific figures and data tables in the blog, do the following: (a) describe what the figures/tables show, (b) describe how confident you are about your answer to question 5a. 6. What conclusions do the researchers make? Are these conclusions justified based on the results they present? Explain your answer. Final note: at the very least, feel free to use this blog as a source of original papers that are relatively readable and likely to be of interest to students. Thanks. Fred Singer fredsingerecology.com
