University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future
Florida Gulf Coast University
Summer 2011 – Session A
Office of Curriculum & Instruction
IDS 3920 – CRN 50118
SYLLABUS
Contact Information:
Instructor:Nora Egan Demers
E-Mail:
Telephone:(239) 590-7211 or (cell) (239) 246-4537
Office Hours:T/R 12-1:00
Office Location:Whitaker Hall Room 218
course website:
Online classroom: elearning.fgcu.edu
Course Description: The University Colloquium brings together students from all five colleges in a series of interdisciplinary learning experiences. These experiences are designed to address the ecological perspective outcome in relations to other university outcomes and guiding principles. Critical thinking and communication skills will be enhanced through field trips, discussion, projects, and a journal to be maintained by each student. (Advisor approval needed for virtual sections only) (Gordon Rule)
Course Credit Hours: 3
Course Meetings times and locations: T/R 8:00-11:25 (or 11:59) AB7 116
Required Texts:
Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R Brown Earth Policy Institute Norton and Companyk, New York available FREE online at
University Colloquium Reader. (2011). Selected Readings for IDS 3920. Available from the FGCU bookstore.
Manatee Insanity by Craig Pittman (2010): Inside the war over Florida's most famous endangered species. University of Florida Press (available at Amazon for $18.15)
Course suppplementary website:
This site has ample resources about the course including historical documents and presentations from prior sessions that you may find helpful as exemplary to help you complete assignments for this class. Additional there are resources for the fieldtrips, journalling hints and current events.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF COURSE:
Student Assessment/Grading
- Writing -- 50% of GradeAssignment Weight Due Date
Version 1 of Research Paper / 20 / 5/26
Version 2 of Research Paper / 15 / 6/16
Colloquium Journal / 15 / 5/31 and 6/14
- Other Graded Activities -- 50% of GradeAssignment Weight Due Date
Final Project & Presentation / 15 (30% due 5/24) / and June 16
Class Attendance and Participation / 25
(Essay 1 5%) / throughout term
Service Learning & Reflection / 10 / with journal
Attendance Policy: As University Colloquium is a seminar/discussion course, your attendance and participation are vital to the class. There are four core field trips that explore fresh water, marine, agricultural and urban environments. Students must attend all field trips. Missing more than 2 classes may result in failure of the class.
Service Learning Component: The Guiding Principles of Florida Gulf Coast University include the conviction that informed and engaged citizens are essential to the creation of a civil and sustainable society. University Colloquium is a Service Learning Course. Because Service-Learning is a critical component of the Colloquium course and serves to integrate experiential learning with course curriculum, all of the 10 required Service-Learning hours must be completed by the last class meeting in order to pass the course. Students who do not complete their Service-Learning activityand do not turn in their signed original Service-Learning form by the last classmeeting will be assigned a grade of “F.” Deferrals are only given due to severe extenuating circumstances. A valid reason must be given and substantiated for a deferral and in this instance, a grade of "I" will be assigned pending completion.
The following link takes you to the Service Learning forms on EAGLESCONNECT (please note that students must fill out the “Verification and Agreement” form prior to conducting Service-Learning): Check the Colloquium web page for additional guided servive learning opportunities arranged specially for this section
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:
Essay 1
Experience and Education
Paper one is due by the beginning of class session two. Submit your paper as a double-spaced word document in the drop box on ANGEL. Be sure to answer ALL the prompts below in your essay. Refer to the rubrics for grading criteria.
What is your educational autobiography?
Read this short except from Dewey's book EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION, then compose your essay.
This should be more than a recounting; it is an opportunity to consider your educational experiences in light of Dewey’s philosophy of experiential education.
Consider your educational experience in light of reading John Dewey:
Integrate Dewey’s principles with your experiences in an academic essay (introduction, body and conclusion) containing precise references to the reading. Connect his philosophical notions to examples from your experience by citing specific language. Be sure to use proper citation techniques.
Reflect upon your own education in both formal (schooling) and non-formal (scouting, church, family, adventures, television etc) settings as it relates to Dewey, and to your experiences to date.
Address the following:
What have been the most important influences in your education? Include reflections from both yoru formal and informal schooling.
Who has shaped your education? How? (Parents, specific teachers, religious leaders etc)
What are the important educational events and or ideas in your life?
What does Dewey mean by “mis-educative”? Have you had such experiences in your education? How and why?
What does Douglas' essay have to do with experiencing the Everglades? What did you learn as a result of reading her essay?
How might these two readings be helping you prepare for this Colloquium based on experiential education?
Minimum of 3 pages
Research Paper directions
The research paper is a minimum 2000 word essay that presents and defends a thesis. An initial draft will be turned in (20%), and a final revised version will be submitted (15%) of the grade.
The paper is to be composed as a college-level essay, using APA citations and references. Do not, however, use cover sheets, running headings or excess margins and spacing. Use 1 or 1.5 spacing and small margins to save paper. Please print on both sides, or print on the back of a used sheet, also to save paper.
At least 10 references from the Colloquium Reader, Plan B (counts as one reference source), "The Earth Charter," and/or "Manatee Insasnity"are required for a grade of "C". More are acceptable, and other outside references are also acceptable, but you must use at least 10 of the readings/books required in this course. Any Internet sources must be properly cited (including URL and date accessed) and annotated with an evaluation of credibility. For an "A" paper you must cite resources in addition to those assigned readings.
In your essay, address one of the following questions:
1) With respect to the challenge you investigated for your group presentation, summarize or describe the challenge, use examples to support your description. How does this challenge relate to sustainability in your life? at your work? at FGCU? How is this challenge exemplified in the other readings? Identify possible solutions or alternative ways of approaching the this challenge and indicate who espouses these options. Evaluate the alternatives that you summarized. Will the alternatives presented work in your life, your job, at FGCU? Are there any other solutions presented in the readings? Are there other alternatives not presented? Be sure to explain and defend your position to the reader using specific examples from the readings and your experience.
2) What is the relationship between people and the environment in the book "Manatee insanity"? How do the characters treat the land (select 3 characters with different relationships with the land to address this question)? How is this a reflection of what Louv is saying? of what Leopold is saying? of what Dewey is saying? Where does your worldview fit? Where does the restoration of the Everglades fit? How do our field trip locations reflect the worldview? How does the FGCU campus design reflect the worldview of the designers? How do the courses in your major reflect the worldview of the University? Use examples from the book, the readings and the assigned websites to support your thesis.
3) David Orr, in his book Ecological Literacy, claims “. . . all education is environmental education. By what is included or excluded, emphasized or ignored, students learn that they are a part of or apart from the natural world. Through all education we inculcate the ideas of careful stewardship or carelessness.” p. 90)
What is the difference between stewardship, conservation, and sustainability? How do Leopold's ideas compare with Orr's? and Louv's? Where and how should ecological literacy and sustainability be taught? What is the role of environmental education in higher education? Where have you experienced it in your higher education? in your major? Does FGCU practice sustainability, conservation or stewardship? Use specific examples from the readings, websites, and your experience to defend your thesis.
Policy Regarding Assignment Completion Deadlines: Deadlines are firm. All assignments must be submitted by due date. Rewrites of some assignments may be allowed if conditions warrant special consideration, but they must be submitted by due date for this opportunity.
Grading Scale:
A=93-100%
A - =90%-92%
B+=88%-89%
B =83%-88%
B - =80%-82%
C+ =78%-79%
C =70%-78%
C - =
D =<69%
F =<59%
University Statements:
Academic Behavior Standards and Academic Dishonesty
All students are expected to demonstrate honesty in their academic pursuits. The university policies regarding issues of honesty can be found in the FGCU Student Guidebook under the Student Code of Conduct and Policies and Procedures sections. All students are expected to study this document which outlines their responsibilities and consequences for violations of the policy. The FGCU Student Guidebook is available online at
Disability Accommodations Services
Florida Gulf Coast University, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the university’s guiding principles, will provide classroom and academic accommodations to students with documented disabilities. If you need to request an accommodation in this class due to a disability, or you suspect that your academic performance is affected by a disability, please contact the Office of Adaptive Services. The Office of Adaptive Services is located in Howard Hall 137. The phone number is 239-590-7956 or TTY 239-590-7930
Student Observance of Religious Holidays
All students at Florida Gulf Coast University have a right to expect that the University will reasonably accommodate their religious observances, practices, and beliefs. Students, upon prior notification to their instructors, shall be excused from class or other scheduled academic activity to observe a religious holy day of their faith. Students shall be permitted a reasonable amount of time to make up the material or activities covered in their absence. Students shall not be penalized due to absence from class or other scheduled academic activity because of religious observances. Where practicable, major examinations, major assignments, and University ceremonies will not be scheduled on a major religious holy day. A student who is to be excused from class for a religious observance is not required to provide a second party certification of the reason for the absence.
Introduction to the University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future:
Conceptual basis for University Colloquium
Adopted January 15, 1997: Dean’s Council Meeting
We have made a commitment as a university to make environmental education an integral part of our identity. One of our university-wide outcomes is that all students will develop “an ecological perspective.” A way to accomplish this perspective is to devise a course, or group of experiences, with an environmental focus that all FGCU undergraduate students must complete, and in which faculty from all five colleges would be involved. Because “ecology” applies to our total living space and interrelationships, human and natural, it is relevant to all our disciplines and professions. Thus, an ecology course would touch on all nine of the university-wide goals and outcomes, and more. Students would not be introduced to FGCU values, they would participate in them.
Goals:
The University Colloquium is an interdisciplinary environmental education course designed to explore the concept of sustainability as it relates to a variety of considerations and forces in the environment. In particular, we will consider ecological, social, ethical, historical, scientific, economic, and political influences. The course goals are:
- To provide a "sense of place" and an understanding of the unique ecological features of the environment of which you are a part,
- To assist in achieving the Florida Gulf Coast University learning goals of developing "an ecological perspective" and a commitment to “community awareness and involvement” in teaching the related outcomes that state that the student will "...know the issues related to economic, social, and ecological sustainability, analyze and evaluate ecological issues locally and globally, participate in projects requiring awareness and/or analysis of ecological and environmental issues;"
- To provide experiences to assist in moving toward achieving the seven other FGCU learning goals and their related outcomes.
- To enable a working understanding of sustainability, of environmental education, and of ecological literacy.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students are expected to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of environmental issues through writing and class participation.
- Critically analyze environmental issues from economic, social, political, and ecological perspectives.
- Describe the unique ecological features of the area and analyze the unique challenges posed to Southwest Florida by rapid growth.
- Demonstrate a working understanding of sustainability, sense of place, and ecological literacy.
Course Schedule:
Please note: Schedule subject to change, changes will be announced in class.
SUMMER 2011
CLASS #1 and #2
CLASS #3 and #4
CLASS #5 and #6
Memorial Day Observed from May 28- May 30 – no classes
CLASS #7 and #8
CLASS #9 and #10
CLASS #11 and #12
During final exam period – check GULFLINE for day and time
Last meeting day for class this week: