Monday, June 17 - Thursday, July 11*
1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Room 100 Jeffords Hall
Instructor Contact Information:
Dr. Catherine A.
Paris
308
Jeffords Hall
e-mail:
cparis@uvm.edu
802-656-0426
(office)
802-338-0312 (cell)
*Schedule Note: Class
will not meet on Thursday, July 4 but we will meet
on Friday, June 28. Please plan accordingly.
Course Overview
Welcome to Plant Biology 006, The Green World!
This
course,
designed
for
students
whose main interests lie outside of the life sciences, will
introduce to you the fascinating world of plants. Plants, as
you know, are the basis of our planet’s life support system.
Understanding their use (and abuse!) is fundamental to
understanding human cultures. Over the course of the next
four weeks, we will explore how plants live, grow, and reproduce;
how humans have used plants for food, medicine, clothing, and
shelter; and many other topics of interest today.
The course includes two main topic
areas, Basic Plant Biology and Plants and Human Affairs. We
will spend approximately half the course on each topic.
Textbook
and
Other Readings
The lecture sequence
in this course generally follows Levetin and McMahon's Plants
and Society, ed. 6. A reading assignment is given
for each lecture on the lecture schedule: please prepare for
class by reading the assigned material ahead of time and
completing the pre-lecture assignment on the Blackboard course
page. Because the class is small this summer, I am able to
provide each student with a book to use for the duration of the
course. Books must be returned unmarked at the end of the
course. If you want to own a copy, you can find the book
online (e.g., Amazon). Alternatively, you may purchase an
e-book by going to http://www.coursesmart.com/
and entering ISBN 9780077319564. During the second half of
the course, some assigned readings will be posted electronically
on the course Blackboard page.
Pre-lecture Assignments
A major
component of the course is coming prepared to lecture having read
the assigned material and completed a short pre-lecture
assignment. Keeping up with the assigned reading material is
paramount to your success. Therefore, you must complete 2-3
short answer questions on
each of the assigned chapters prior to coming to
lecture. The assignments are posted on the PBIO 006 course
page (
https://bb.uvm.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp).
Pre-lecture assignments are due online by 12pm (1 hour prior
to the beginning of lecture). The first pre-lecture
assignment is due Monday, June 17.
Blackboard
What is Blackboard? – Blackboard is a software
package that provides students with online access to course
content. We have used it to create a web site for PBIO 006 –
only those students registered for the course can access
it. Students in PBIO 006 are expected to become
familiar with the website and to use it regularly: it is an
integral part of the course.
How will we use Blackboard in PBIO 006? In
many
ways:
to
begin
with,
the
syllabus
and
lecture schedule are posted on the website. It is also where
you will find the slides used in class, extra readings, and your
course grades. Class announcements, reminders about upcoming
exams, occasional quizzes, and other course information will
appear on the web site throughout the semester.
How do I access the PBIO 006 Web site? – It’s
easy! You can access the site from any computer that has an
Internet connection by logging on using your UVM NetID and
password.
Exams
You will take three exams in Plant Biology 006 over the course of
the next four weeks, two hourlies and a final. The final
will be cumulative.
Exam 1: Monday, June 24
Exam 2: Monday, July 1
Final Exam: Wednesday, July 10
Quizzes
A quiz will be posted every day - except for exam days - on
Blackboard. These will be short and will cover recent course
material.
"Plants in the News" Blog Posts
One of the goals of PBIO 006, the Green World, is to
explore the connection between plants, human culture, and the
environment. These connections, upon which our lives
depend, are in the news every day. In order to focus your
attention on the diverse ways in which plants impact our lives,
I ask you to find two articles from the popular or the
scientific press on a topic related to the subject matter of
this course. You will summarize each and post the summary
to the course blog site on Blackboard. Article
sources include science magazines such as Scientific American,
newspapers like the New York Times, and online news services,
e.g., CNN. Article format can be print or digital, but it
must be published after January 2010. For three
different examples of appropriate articles, see: 1) January’s
Science Daily story on extinction rates and plant biodiversity
in California (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130109105928.htm);
2) last April’s article in Nature presenting evidence that
agriculture spread from the Near East to Scandinavia (http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-swedish-farmer-came-from-the-mediterranean-1.10541);
3) and this BBC article on tea culture around the world: http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20120329-travelwise-the-world-in-six-cups.
Each blog post will be an 8-12 sentence paragraph that:
• gives the author, title, and publication
date of the article
• provides a brief summary of the content and
an explanation of how it relates to Green World course content
• describes what you found interesting about
the article
Posting dates for article summaries are as follows:
• First: post between Monday, June 17 and
Thursday, June 28
• Second: post between Monday, July 1 and
Tuesday, July 9
Project
One of the goals of PBIO 006 is to engage you in closer observation
of the green world than you may have done before. To
facilitate that observation, each student will focus on a particular
flowering plant and track it through the four weeks of the
course. More details will be provided soon, but this will get
you started:
- Choose a plant species, herbaceous or woody, that is not yet
in bloom but whose buds are already forming. Make sure it
is in a location where you can visit it daily.
- Each day you will visit your plant and observe how it is
developing. Are the buds opening? Are the stamens
shedding pollen? Is it being visited by insect
pollinators? Are the petals starting to fall as flowering
comes to an end? Is the fruit beginning to form?
Record each day's observation in a small journal purchased
exclusively for this purpose.
- In addition, you will photograph or sketch an individual
flower on your chosen plant, recording its progress through the
various stages of flowering and fruiting. These sketches
or photographs should be made at least three times per week
throughout the course. Make sure each photograph or sketch
corresponds to a journal entry.
- On the last day of class, you will make a short presentation
on your plant to the class. The presentation will include
the following: common and scientific name of the plant,
plant family, geographic range of the species, location of the
individual plant you have been tracking, why you chose the plant
you did, interesting natural history or cultural notes about the
species (brief), and a series of images of your plant. The
presentation can be a power point presentation or you can
display a few of your photos or sketches and use them to
illustrate your talk. You will hand in your journal and
photos or sketches and send your presentation to me as an e-mail
attachment.
Need ideas? Some of the flowering plants that you can look for
include basswood (a tree), clovers and vetches, wild strawberry, and
white campion. Cultivated (garden) plants blooming around this
time of year include certain lilies, clematis, delphinium, foxglove,
tomatoes, and sweet pea. The gardens planted around Jeffords
Hall may contain just the plant you need!
Grading
Your final grade will be
calculated as follows:
Hourly exams (15% each) ---------------- 30%
Final exam
---------------------------------- 25%
Quizzes
-------------------------------------- 15%
Pre-Lecture Homework Assignments
----- 5%
Blog Posts
------------------------------------- 5%
Project
-----------------------------------------10%
Attendance, participation
------------------ 10%
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is expected of all UVM students. The
University of Vermont has a strict policy concerning academic
integrity; violations of this policy will not be tolerated.
Consequences for violation range from a zero on the test or
assignment to expulsion from the University. The UVM policy
on academic integrity can be found at: http://www.uvm.edu/~cses/?Page=ah.html&SM=ahmenu.html
Course Etiquette
Please adhere to the following guidelines:
- Arrive on time
- Turn off your cell phone before you enter the
lab
- Text messaging during class is not allowed except on breaks
Thank you for your participation!
Cathy Paris
