2012-13 Undergraduate Index A-Z
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Natural History [clear]
| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days of Week | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters |
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Adaptation: Evolutionary Patterns in Biological Space-Time
Bret Weinstein anthropology biology botany cultural studies ecology environmental studies natural history zoology |
Program | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | WWinter | Bret Weinstein | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||||
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Biodiversity Studies in Argentina
Erik Thuesen botany ecology field studies language studies marine science natural history study abroad zoology Signature Required: Fall |
Program | JR - SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | WWinter | In the 19th century, well-known European scientists such as Darwin, d'Orbigny and Bonpland traveled in Argentina and brought their knowledge of the flora and fauna back to Europe. The marine, desert and alpine environments of the Southern Cone harbor flora and fauna very different from similar environments in North America. In this two-quarter program, we carry out intensive natural history studies of the unique organisms and ecosystems of Argentina, focusing on those of Patagonia.After an introductory week in Olympia at the start of fall quarter, the study abroad portion of the program will commence with a 4-week intensive study of Spanish language in Buenos Aires to prepare us for our travels and studies in Argentina during fall and winter quarters. We will begin to study the flora and fauna of the Southern Cone through preliminary readings, lectures and class work in Buenos Aires. We will take a short trip to the sub-tropical province of Misiones during October, then move to the coastal and mountain regions of Patagonia in November. We will study the natural history of Patagonia, beginning with field studies on the Atlantic coast and then moving to the Andean Lakes District, taking advantage of the progressively warmer weather of the austral spring.Students will conduct formal field exercises and keep field notebooks detailing their work and observations. We will read primary literature articles related to the biodiversity of Argentina and augment our field studies with seminars.During winter quarter (summer in the southern hemisphere), students will reinforce their language skills with two weeks of intensive Spanish studies in Patagonia, examine montane and steppe habitats, then work in small groups on focused projects examining biodiversity topics. It will be possible to conduct more focused studies on specific ecosystems or organisms, including those in more southern parts of Patagonia, at this time of the year. Clear project goals, reading lists, timelines, etc., will be developed during fall quarter in order to insure successful projects in winter quarter. Examples of individual/small-group projects include: comparisons of plant/animal biodiversity between coastal, desert and alpine zones; comparative studies of the impacts of ecotourism activities on biodiversity; or examining community composition of intertidal habitats along a gradient from north to south, among others. | Erik Thuesen | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Botany: Plants and People
Frederica Bowcutt |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | WWinter | This program investigates people's relationships with plants for food, fiber, medicine and aesthetics. We will examine economic botany including agriculture, forestry, herbology and horticulture. We will also work through a botany textbook learning about plant anatomy, morphology and systematics. Lectures based on the textbook readings will be supplemented with laboratory work. Students will explore how present form and function informs us about the evolution of major groups of plants such as mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants. Students will get hands-on experience studying plants under microscopes and in the field. To support their work in the field and lab, students will learn how to maintain a detailed and illustrated nature journal. Students will write a major research paper on a plant of their choosing. Through a series of workshops, they will learn to search the scientific literature, manage bibliographic data, and interpret and synthesize information, including primary sources. | Frederica Bowcutt | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | |||||
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Drawing from the Sea
Gerardo Chin-Leo and Lucia Harrison aesthetics art history biology ecology environmental studies marine science maritime studies natural history visual arts |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | WWinter | SSpring | This program will examine marine environments and life (The Sea) from the perspectives of science and visual arts. This program is designed for beginning students in either discipline. The Sea accounts for a major portion of the biomass and diversity of life and plays a major role in global cycles. The Sea also is a source of inspiration for artists, and artwork provides insights into the relationships of humans to this environment. Currently, The Sea faces major crises caused by human activities such as habitat degradation and natural resource over-exploitation. Science and art can contribute to effective solutions to these major environmental problems by providing an understanding of natural phenomena and insights into how nature is perceived and valued by humans. We will examine how both visual artists and marine scientists use close observation to study The Sea and produce images to communicate the results of their work. We will also study how scientific findings can provide a foundation for expressive art and how art can effectively convey the implications of scientific findings to how humans relate with nature.Activities will develop concepts and skills of marine science and visual art and examine how each discipline informs the other. Lectures will teach concepts in marine science and aesthetics and develop a basic scientific and visual arts vocabulary. Labs and field trips to local Puget Sound beaches, the San Juan Islands and Olympic Peninsula will provide opportunities to experience The Sea and to apply the concepts/skills learned in class. Weekly workshops on drawing and watercolor painting will provide technical skills for keeping illustrated field journals and strategies for developing observations into polished expressive thematic drawings. Seminars will explore how scientific and artistic activities contribute to solving environmental issues. For example, we will study how the understanding of human relationships with The Sea can be combined with knowledge of the science underlying marine phenomena to promote effective political change (artists and scientists as activists). Other themes that explore the interaction of science and art will include the Sea as: a source of food, a metaphor for human experience, a place of work or medium of transportation, and a subject of inquiry. Most assignments will integrate science and art.In winter quarter, we will focus on marine habitats including estuaries such as the Nisqually River estuary, the inter-tidal zone and the deep sea. Spring quarter will focus on the diversity and adaptations of marine life. Both quarters will include week-long overnight field trips. This program will include an outreach component where students will contribute to environmental education by developing and presenting science and art curriculum to local schoolchildren. | visual arts, education, marine science, biology and ecology. | Gerardo Chin-Leo Lucia Harrison | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | |||
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Earth's Climate, Past and Future
Dennis Hibbert |
Course | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | FFall | Ice, air, water, land, and green growing things—these interact to shape our world's climates. We will study these interactions and how they have changed over time as we follow flows of energy, carbon, and water through the climate system. We will address present changes in climate related to our own activities, the consequences of these changes that we now cannot avoid, and our options for modifying them and for adapting to the world we are bringing about. | Dennis Hibbert | Sat | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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The Fungal Kingdom
Noelle Machnicki and Lalita Calabria |
Program | JR - SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | WWinter | Fungi. What are they? Where are they and what roles do they play in terrestrial ecosystems? How do they get their energy? How do they grow? What do they taste like? How do they interact with other organisms? During this two-quarter long program we will answer these and other questions about fungi. Fall quarter will cover the fundamentals of fungal and lichen biology, fungal and lichen diversity, physiology, and systematics. Students will learn to describe and identify fungi and lichens using chemical and microscopic techniques, along with a wide variety of taxonomic keys. Students will participate in a quarter-long project to curate their own collections of herbarium-quality lichen and mushroom specimens. Several multi-day field trips and day trips will provide students with an opportunity for collecting specimens and studying the natural history of western Washington. During winter quarter, we will explore fungi and lichens through the lens of forest ecology. Forest ecosystems rest on a foundation of fungi, and students will learn about the pivotal roles fungi and lichen play as mutualists to plants and animals, as nutrient cyclers, disease-causing agents, and indicators of environmental quality. Lab work will focus on advanced methods and examining taxonomically-challenging groups of lichens and fungi. Students will also learn about museum curation by organizing and accessioning the class lichen and mushroom collection for submission into the Evergreen herbarium. Students will engage in a two-quarter-long group research project relating to fungi. Research topics may include ecology or taxonomy-focused lab and field studies, cultivation or herbarium research. During fall quarter, students will participate in research and writing seminars and quantitative skills workshops to inform their research. Each group will prepare a concise research proposal including a thorough literature review and a pilot study exploring the most appropriate data collection and analysis methods for answering their research questions. During winter quarter, students will conduct research experiments in the field and/or lab, analyze their data and write a research paper outlining their results. | Noelle Machnicki Lalita Calabria | Mon Mon Tue Thu Thu | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | |||
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Landscapes of Change: Writing & Mapping the Future
Anne de Marcken (Forbes) and Peter Impara |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | WWinter | How do our landscapes shape us and how do we shape them? How can the endeavors of science and art inform our understanding of the changing planet—what can they tell us about its past, and how can they shape its future?Both stories and maps are ways of finding patterns and organizing information: they locate us in time and space and in relation to one another. In this program, using geography and creative writing as methods of inquiry, students will encounter the environment today, discover its past, and imagine its future. Using historical and present-day climate change as a framework, we will investigate the ways cultural and personal identity emerge from the natural landscape and the ways that people, in turn, shape the environment. In the fall, we will focus on the history of the Pacific Northwest landscape and the ways its human inhabitants have shaped and been shaped by it. Looking at cultural, literary and geographic records and at the land itself, we will the story of our physical environment. Using maps and creative writing, we will our own stories of place. Experiential learning is an important aspect of this program, and we begin fall quarter with an extended fieldtrip to Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park in Eastern Washington for a firsthand experience of the interconnectedness of climate, landscape and culture. The focus of winter quarter will be looking to the future. Building on the skills and knowledge gained in the fall, we will use the tools of geography and creative writing to envision and even affect the future of this landscape and how we inhabit it. We will consider and experiment with the ways information and imagination influence our sense of connection to and responsibility for the physical world.Students will develop science skills through interpretation of maps and spatial data, by making their own maps, and through site and landscape analysis. They will cultivate creative writing skills through independent practice and workshop-based critique with an emphasis on creative non-fiction and hybrid literary forms such as image-based essays and interactive texts. Scientific, literary and artistic perspectives, practices, and theories will inform lectures, readings and seminars. Students will use critical and technical skills as they learn to research, analyze and interpret environments through readings and seminars, in writing and computer workshops, and by using the landscape itself as a classroom. | ecology, environmental studies, geography, literature, natural history and writing. | Anne de Marcken (Forbes) Peter Impara | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||
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Mount Rainier: The Place and its People
Jeff Antonelis-Lapp and Lucia Harrison environmental studies natural history outdoor leadership and education visual arts writing |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | Mount Rainier, known locally as "the Mountain" or "Tahoma", dominates the landscape of the Puget Sound region and commands the attention, imagination and respect of its inhabitants. The relationship of people to the Mountain has varied widely: prized by Indigenous Peoples for a variety of activities; seen by European-American settlers as a potentially vast resource for timber and minerals; and visited as a wilderness and recreation destination for Puget Sound inhabitants and tourists from the world over.This 1-quarter program begins with a 3-day on-campus intensive that will provide instruction on keeping an illustrated field journal and thoroughly prepare students for a 9-day field trip to Mount Rainier National Park which immediately follows the orientation. Students must be prepared for primitive campground conditions, sleeping in tents and preparing meals outdoors without electricity. Students must also be fit for strenuous hikes and outdoor service learning work. Field trip activities will include studying the parks's natural history, hikes with and presentations by park service staff and conservation service learning.Once back on campus, we will place Mount Rainier in its historical context by studying the history of the National Park Service and Tahoma's precontact history that reaches back 8,000 years. Each student will select a species of interest to create a thematic series of expressive drawings, conduct a scientific literature review, and write a creative nonfiction essay. Drawing workshops will provide strategies for developing ideas visually and writing workshops will support all phases of the writing process.We will conclude the quarter with a week 10 4-day field trip returning to Mount Rainier (this time staying in cabins) during which students will share their species of interest portfolios. | Jeff Antonelis-Lapp Lucia Harrison | Tue Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Ornithology
Alison Styring and Dina Roberts ecology environmental studies field studies natural history zoology |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | FFall | Birds are the most diverse vertebrates found on the earth. We will explore the causes of this incredible diversity through a well-rounded investigation of general bird biology, the evolution of flight (and its implications), and the complex ecological interactions of birds with their environments. This program has considerable field and lab components and students will be expected to develop strong bird identification skills, including Latin names, and extensive knowledge of avian anatomy and physiology. We will learn a variety of field and analytical techniques currently used in bird monitoring and research. We will take several day trips to field sites in the Puget Sound region throughout the quarter to hone our bird-watching skills and practice field-monitoring techniques. Students will keep field journals documenting their skill development in species identification and proficiency in a variety of field methodologies. Learning will also be assessed through exams, quizzes, field assignments, group work and participation. | Alison Styring Dina Roberts | Tue Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | ||||
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Picturing Plants
Ruth Hayes and Frederica Bowcutt botany field studies media arts moving image natural history visual arts |
Program | FR - SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | SSpring | This program offers students opportunities to learn scientific and creative approaches to representing plants including field plant taxonomy, botanical illustration, observational and expressive drawing, and animation. Through lectures, lab exercises, design problems and field trips, students will learn to recognize the diagnostic characters of common plant families, and use dichotomous keys and field guides for plant identification.In lectures, readings and critiques, participants will study the history of botanical illustration and explore aspects of how plants have been represented by artists and in popular culture. In workshops, students will practice skills in drawing, black and white illustration (pen and ink and scratchboard) and color illustration (watercolor) techniques. As living things, plants grow and change through time, and we experience them in time, so students will also learn a variety of analog and digital animation techniques to represent the temporal dimensions of plants. Students will practice these skills in the execution of a portfolio of illustrations and short animated sequences.Several one-day field trips and one multi-day field trip are the core of this program. Participation in the field trips is required and will provide students access to a variety of habitats including prairie, coniferous forest, oak woodland, riparian woodland, saltwater marsh and freshwater marsh. During and after field trips, students will apply their taxonomy, drawing, illustration and animation skills in exercises and entries in field journals and sketchbooks. | Ruth Hayes Frederica Bowcutt | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | |||||
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Science Seminar: The Universe and Beyond
EJ Zita astronomy environmental studies natural history philosophy of science physics sustainability studies |
Program | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | WWinter | We are interested in symmetries in nature and the universe, and in human understanding and interaction with nature. We will read books and articles on astrophysics, cosmology and/or the environment to explore topics such as these. Physicists have discovered new puzzles which your generation will solve. Why is the expansion of the universe accelerating? What are dark matter and dark energy? Why is there matter, space, and time? Why do these take the forms that we observe?We will read about and discuss the beauty and importance of quantitative study of nature and our place in the natural world. Students will gain a deeper physical understanding of the universe, with little or no math.We will share our insights, ideas, and questions about the readings and our wonder about the universe. Students will write weekly short essays and many responses to peers' essays. Students will meet with their team (of 3 peers) at least one day before each class to complete pre-seminar assignments.Learning goals include deeper qualitative understanding of physics, related sciences and the scientific method; more sophisticated capabilities as science-literate citizens; and improved skills in writing, critical thinking, teamwork and communication. | EJ Zita | Tue Thu | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | ||||
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So, You Think A Sand Wasp Is Important?
Dennis Hibbert |
Course | SO - SRSophomore - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | SSpring | Science comes from someone becoming curious about something in the natural world and working out a way to learn about it. We will see this in action as we read (Darwin), (Tinbergen) and (Ruddiman). The course is based in book seminar; you will write a seminar paper each week as preparation.The course evaluation will be based on participation in seminar and in class, and on any other assignments. All assigned work must be done in order to earn credit for the course. | Dennis Hibbert | Sat | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring |