Biology 3220: Terrestrial and Aquatic
Ecology Field Course (0.5 FCE)
This
two-week field course on terrestrial and aquatic ecology was held at Algonquin
Park. Together with Dr. Robert Scott, we
developed a comprehensive 60-page field manual for the course where we included
both theoretical and practical components to the study of ecology. We were ambitious (perhaps overly, if the
loss of 10 lbs during the two week period by this instructor is any measure!). The students appreciated our energy and
enthusiasm and that they learned a great deal about both terrestrial and
aquatic ecology.
Environmental Sciences 494: Climate Change
and the Kyoto Protocol (0.5 FCE)
Environmental Science 494G
is designed for Honors’ Students in Biology with Environmental Science. In this
course, students, in consultation with me, present the fundamentals of a topic
to the rest of the class. Once the fundamentals are presented, experts are
invited to present the “state of the art” in terms of scientific understanding
of the topic. From this foundation, we create a forum of critique and debate
that delve into the topics more deeply. Students are evaluated on their ability
to “think on their feet”, through a number of exercises. Students are also
given opportunities to interact with scientists who are actively involved in
research on different aspects of the environmental topic – both formally in the
classroom and, after class, informally at the graduate club at UWO.
Geography 306, Plant Sciences 452 and
Geography 548: Watershed Ecosystem
Analysis (0.5 FCE)
I created a course that
introduces students to ecological analysis of landscapes. Ecosystem science is
a multidisciplinary science, with strong links between biological, geological,
and chemical studies. Specific topics include nutrient cycling, nutrient fluxes
within and across ecosystem boundaries, and the impacts of disturbance and
recovery of nutrient dynamics within ecosystems. This course introduces the basic principles
of ecosystem science and, using distributed simulation models, applies these
principles to ecosystems. No single textbook is appropriate for this course –
lectures are based on chapters from several textbooks and from scientific
papers and laboratories are based on a comprehensive manual that I developed.
This course builds on the foundation provided by Geography 380, and has been
taught both in the Department of Geography (as Geography 306) and Biology (as
Plant Sciences 452).
Geography 380, Plant Sciences 452:
Environmental Modelling (0.5 FCE)
This course was intended to
be one of my regular course offerings. I
was asked to develop an advanced course (i.e. fourth year equivalent) in
Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Developing on experiences I had with similar courses at U. Toronto and
U. Victoria, I designed this course from scratch, investing a significant
effort in developing a web-based course that was housed on the BIOCORE
server. In contrast to undergraduate
students from U. Toronto and U. Victoria, the UWO students lacked some of the
bare essentials required to complete this course (e.g. basic statistics,
spreadsheet analyses, etc.). These
deficiencies in the undergraduate students’ background were not only
experienced in my course, but in other senior undergraduate courses. During this time, there have been internal
and external reviews of the undergraduate program in Geography, and a
restructuring of some of the core courses.
In addition, there has been a continuing critical review of all of the
GIS courses within the undergraduate program in Geography. With the lack of GIS fundamentals required by
students to take this course, I had to redevelop Geog380/PS452 completely for
the following year.
Geography 213: Biogeography (0.5 FCE)
My involvement in this
course was as a sabbatical leave replacement.
I delivered this course once. I was given no course materials and
therefore had to develop the course from scratch. The lectures were power point presentations
and were made available to the students.
Geog9220A Hydrology (0.5 FCE Graduate Course)
A lecture and seminar based graduate course where students in biology,
geography and earth sciences learn about the water balance and the
uncertainties and errors associated with calculating a water balance for a
broad range of systems. Irena Creed coordinated the course. Co-taught with Chris Smart (Geography) and
Brian Branfireun.
Bio9412B Ecosystem Ecology (0.5 FCE Graduate Course)
A lecture and seminar based graduate course where students in biology,
geography and earth sciences learn about lakes, from a physical, chemical and
biological perspective. Charlie Trick coordinated the course. Co-taught with
Irena Creed.
Environment and Sustainability 642/9200:
Interdisciplinary Consulting Project (1.0 FCE, for the course-based MES graduate
program)
The course-based
graduate program in Environment and Sustainability is an interdisciplinary
program that uses project-based learning to enhance skill sets for a career in
the environmental field. I spent a
significant amount of time developing the course curriculum for one of the core
courses, the Interdisciplinary Consulting Course. This is an intense course where students form
a consulting group and work with “real” clients selected from government and
industry sectors. This course teaches
students how to work in a group, how to communicate in a wide variety of forms,
how to develop a response to a Request for Proposals, how to conduct
quantitative and qualitative analyses, how to request Ethics Approval, and how
to develop a project management plan and budget. In addition to developing the curriculum, I
made contacts and developed project ideas with real clients. The students completed major reports (about
100 pages) for the client and made a presentation to the clients and the
Western community at the IDEAS forum (a forum to showcase the consulting
projects) at the end of the course. The
course is a 1.0 FCE, but the workload was remarkably more, with me serving as
primary advisor for the consulting projects.
See Appendix B for course outline.
Biology 512: Global Biogeochemical Cycles:
From Microbes to Gaia (0.5 FCE)
I offered this graduate
course together with Dr. Trick, Dr. Southam and Dr. Rick Bourbonniere. This
graduate course focuses on the interactive impacts of hydrological and
ecological processes in landscapes. This
graduate course consists of seminars and presentations. Course evaluation is
based on two 1-hr seminars given by each student, a project that required both
a report and presentation, and participation. I marked the seminars, the
project and presentation, and participation.
Geography 516: EcoHydrology (0.5 FCE)
I created a graduate course
that focuses on the interactive impacts of hydrological and ecological
processes in landscapes. This graduate course consisted of seminars and
presentations. Course evaluation was based on two 1-hr seminars given by each
student, a project that required both a report and presentation, and
participation. I marked the seminars, the project and presentation, and
participation.
Environmental Sciences 506: Environmental Sciences – A Life Sciences
Perspective (0.5 FCE)
This course was intended to
be one of my regular course offerings. However, with the complete restructuring
of the Environmental Science Graduate Program, I delivered this course
once. I designed this course from
scratch, responding to complaints from graduate students in the Environmental
Science Graduate Program.
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