Biology 3068.03B AGROECOSYSTEMS
MW 12:30-13:30 in LSC 206; F 12:30-14:30 in Killam B400
Instructor: Prof. David Patriquin (dp) dp@Dal.ca
Text: Joy Tivy. 1990. Agricultural Ecology
(Addison Wesley Longman Ltd.; $39.33 +7% in Dal Bookstore)

CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE

• THE TWO PHASES
• LEARNING PHASE: DAY BY DAY
• The First Week
• Mondays
• Wednesdays
• Fridays
• OTHER LEARNING PHASE ACTIVITIES & TOOLS
• THE APPLICATION PHASE

THE TWO PHASES

1. The Learning Phase, covering the first 8 weeks
2. The Application Phase, covering the final 4 weeks.

In the Application Phase, the accumulated materials, new expertise, and team work skills will be applied to the task of building an Agroecosystems site on the Web.

Contents 

LEARNING PHASE: DAY BY DAY

In the first week (Jan. 5, 7, 9) we will discuss the class, form Working Groups, and learn to prepare a page with HTML tags using an HTML editor.

One of the tools we are using is WebCT (CT stands for Course Tools). This program makes on-line use of a Web Browser (Netscape) to post notices, accumulate class material, and facilitate on-line chats and other activities within the class. These activities and files are accessible only to class members. In the Learning Phase, we will build up a bank of materials on our WebCT site which we can draw on in the Application Phase. All reports in the class will be submitted as Web-ready pages.

Examples of photos on file on our WebCT site that you can use in Reports

 

Land/Sea interface in PEI. Proposals for mandatory buffer zones on agricultural land, presently before the legislature, are highly controversial

Transplanting rice seedlings in NE Thailand in 1987. The rainy season was unusually late, resulting in transplants that were spindly and chlorotic. Extensive deforestation of the uplands may be contributing to more erratic rainfll patterns.

Contents 

Mondays are PS Days (Problem-Solving Days) on which the routine will be:

1. dp presents a quantitative problem.
2. Students congregate in their Working Groups.
3. One group agrees to be the Reporting Group for the week.
4. Each group discusses the problem and proposes an approach (model) to solve it.
5. The class as a whole discusses the problem.
6. If we find that we need more information to solve the problem or clarify a concept, a student volunteers to find the "Information Needed", and prepares a MIC (Monday Information Card) for one 'Research Credit'.

Contents 

Over the first 9 weeks, we will cover chs. 1-8 of the text, roughly at the rate of one ch. per week. Chapters 1,2, 6,7,8 will be assigned for self study, followed by tests and class discussions of the material. "Guiding Questions" will be provided for each of these chapters to indicate which parts are most pertinent to our class (and to tests). dp will give lectures related to chs. 3,4, and 5 and assign portions of them for self study. We will also make use of the text in our Monday PS sessions as a source of information.

The schedule for the chapters is as follows

• Jan 7: assign chs 1&2
• Jan 14: test on chs 1,2
• Jan 21: lecture on ch 3; assign ch. 6
• Jan 28: test on chs 3,6
• Feb 4: lecture on ch 4; assign ch 7
• (Feb 11: Guest lecture)
• Feb 18: test on chs 4,7
• (Feb 25: Feb break)
• Mar 4: lecture on ch 5, assign ch 8
• Mar 11: test on chs 5, 8

1. At the beginning of the class, a test is given and completed individually (15-20 T/F, MC, SA questions).
2. Students congregate in their Working Groups, discuss the same test as a group, and answer the test as a group.
3. The group tests are marked in class.
4. The rest of the lecture is spent discussing the text material, and the application of the ecosystem concept to agricultural systems.
5. WICs (Wednesday Information Cards) may be assigned.
Contents 

Fridays are Web Days

 
• We meet 12:30-14:30 in Room B400 in the Killam, where there are 20 computers.
• The Reporting Group discusses each member's contribution to the Monday Report, an Overview is written and the report prepared with HTML tags. It is then placed on the WebCT site and reviewed by the class over the next 10 days
• Students who prepared MICS or WICS likewise submit them to the WebCT site.
• This time is available otherwise for students to work on computers in relation to their Special Topics assignments, or to do some "Agroecosystem Web Grazing"

OTHER LEARNING PHASE ACTIVITIES & TOOLS

• Special Topics: Students will choose one or two special topics assignments. These are researched as they would be for a term paper, but the report is made as a Web page.
• Demonstration Lab: Room 6078, next to dp's office will be set up as a demonstration lab which students can access at other times of the week (times to be decided after discussion in class). It will contain demonstration materials, and a computer on which a dynamic modeling tool (Stella) can be run.
• Bulletin Boards: There are two Bulletin Boards: an Ecosystems Board where we will carry on a discussion about the Ecosystem concept and how it can be applied to agricultural systems, and a Banter Board, which will carry everything else.
• Glossary and References. There are glossary and reference functions on the WebCT site, which we will be using once we have worked out a class protocol for doing so.
• On-Line Chat: This function is available at the WebCT site; you may want to try it out early on within your group so you have a sense of how it works, and how you could use it. One possible use: a Working Group or an individual might use On-Line Chat to interview someone in a distant location in relation an Agroecosystems topic.

THE APPLICATION PHASE

This exercise is one that will benefit from both discipline and creativity - the discipline to ensure that what we finally put on the Web is credible, as free of errors as possible etc., and creativity to make it an interesting and useful site. The peer review process that you will have developed in Working groups in relation to the Monday reports and Special Topics will be applied to the building of the Web page.

We will formulate as a class the precise objectives of this exercise, and how we will go about doing it. Here are some of my initial reasons for including this exercise :

• there is not to my knowledge, an equivalent site on the Web, and I do have a sense that there would be considerable interest in it, also in the process by which we do it - it is a worthwhile exercise and one which we will all author
• it provides a focus for the factual learning we do in class, as well as for individual Special Topics work, and Group work
• it challenges us to be creative, which makes the drone part of the learning process easier
• it challenges us to be disciplined in an editorial context.