GEOG/ES&P 330-01 and -02: Syllabus CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH California Ecosystems Fall 2021

Class Information

Ticket numbers:

• Lecture sections:
  • GEOG 330-01 6023
  • ES&P 330-01 6025
• Activity sections (lab and field):
  • GEOG 330-02 6024
  • ES&P 330-02 6026

Meetings face-to-face (pending continued safety in doing so):

• TTh: 2-2:50 p.m. (lecture, PH1-201 and PH1-208)
• TTh: 3-3:50 p.m. (activity, PH1-201 and PH1-208)

Instructor Information:

Instructor: Dr. C.M. Rodrigue

E-mail Address: rodrigue@csulb.edu (please start your message header with "330", so I can find your message in all the spam)

Home Page: https://home.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/

Telephones: (526) 985-4895 or -8432 (e-mail is better)

Office: PH1-233

Mailbox: PH1-210 (and e-mail)

Office Hours: 4-4:40 T and 4-5:50 Th or by appointment (Zoom is a possibility) or e-mail (any time, though I'll probably respond asynchronously).

Catalogue Course Description:

Prerequisites or corequisites: One G.E. Foundation course. One B.2 and one A.1 course recommended.
Introduction to the natural landscapes of California, including field examination of endangered habitats, collection and analysis of environmental data, participation in landscape restoration projects, and reporting of field and laboratory findings.
(2 hours lecture, demonstration activity, 2 hours field and laboratory)

Core Student Learning Outcomes

• Understanding of human-environmental processes that result in vegetative land cover changes, habitat loss, and ecological pressures on threatened and endangered species, focussing on California
• Competence in applying quantitative reasoning skills to the analysis of species distributions, changes in vegetation patterns, and their correlations with various physical and chemical processes
• Proficiency in scientific communication skills (i.e., written communication, graphic communication, and oral communication skills)

Conceptual Goals

Students successfully completing GEOG/ES&P330 should be able to understand, explain, and apply the following concepts and skills:

• the scientific method in biogeography and environmental science and policy
• the basics of evolution and life classification systems
• the major vegetation formations of California
• biodiversity at various scales
• the interconnections and interdependencies of species within an ecosystem
• habitat of a species
• interactions between human society and the rest of the biosphere
• common field methods used in biogeography and ecology
• how to identify plants in the field and lab through the use of keys and floras
• statistical hypothesis testing
• writing and graphic communications skills
• the specific structure of a scientific paper
• team work skills
• effective presentation skills

COVID-19

COVID-19 is probably going to have quite an effect on the operation of this course. Our class is approved for face-to-face operation, which is ideal for the lab and field nature of the course. If the Delta (or newer) variant gets any scarier than it is already with rapid infection and even breakthrough (generally mild) cases among us vaccinated folks, I may elect to mix face-to-face classes with Zoom classes. No matter the mix, however, I'll have assignments turned in on paper with backup data placed on BeachBoard. Given the improv nature of these adjustments, which may be in "real-time" as the semester and the virus evolve, I'll be very receptive to student ideas to improve the class!

The University requirements on COVID-19 are detailed below in the policies section.

Required Course Materials:

• Text: Rundel, Philip W. and Gustafson, Robert. 2005. Introduction to the Plant Life of Southern California: Coast to Foothills. University of California Press.
• Text: Harrington, H.D. 1957. How to Identify Plants. Swallow Press Books, Ohio University Press.

Recommended Course Materials:

• Smartphone app: GPS Status & Toolbox from Eclipsim (available for Android at Google Play app store). I haven't been able to find a directly comparable app for iPhone or Windows phones. If you get GPS Status & Toolbox, here are the appropriate settings:
  • Under Settings, Units & Formatting, Location Format, pick DD.DDDDDD°, and go through all menus to choose metric units; and
  • under GPS & Sensors, make sure that Mean Sea Level altitude is UNchecked so altitude is shown in the default WGS84 datum (datum selection is the feature I can't find on iPhone and Windows apps).
• Open-source software: OpenOffice or LibreOffice (they are, basically, the same FREE open-source office suite: OpenOffice is a little more polished and stable; LibreOffice can do amazing trend-line fitting). We'll do a lot of statistical processing in these, so you might want a free copy of your very own to work on at home. Maybe both packages (I use both all the time). Did I mention it's FREE, by any chance?
• Text: Whichever textbook you used in GEOG 200 or BIOL 260, which you would never even think of selling ;-). A couple of helpful online resources in case you did do the unthinkable after your stats class:
  • Lane, David M. 2013. HyperStat Online Statistics Textbook Available at: http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/
  • McDonald, John H. 2014. Handbook of Biological Statistics. Available at: http://biostathandbook.com.

Grading:

I grade on a modified curve, based on a midterm, final, group project, and a series of lab and field exercises, each of which is weighted equally.

• Midterm, a mix of objective and subjective questions drawn roughly equally from class lectures and readings = 25 weighted points
• Final, a similar mix to the midterm, but not comprehensive = 25 weighted points
• A group project (paper and presentation) discussing the results of an original investigation = 25 weighted points
• A series of lab and field exercises and write-ups, which collectively = 25 weighted points

Tentative Outline of Course Concepts (not necessarily in linear order and sometimes topics are presented in other topics):

The nature of science and the scientific method

Fieldwork basics

Spatial sampling methods

Basic botanical description for the field

Life classification: Linnæan taxonomy and cladistics

Using floristic keys and floras to identify plant species

Analytic basics

Data description and visualization

Formulating hypotheses

Selecting appropriate tests

Reporting test results

Interpreting test results' meaning for your hypotheses

How to structure a scientific report

Evolution

Mutation, natural selection, fitness

Sexual selection

Competitive exclusion

Endemism and invasion

Extinction: background, elevated, and anthropogenic

Ecosystems and communities

Biodiversity

Ecological niche and habitats

Vegetation formations in Southern California

Mediterranean climates and problems they pose for plants

California sage scrub

Chaparral

Woodlands

Riparian vegetation

Grasslands

Wetlands

Deserts

Coastal bluffs and dunes

Human impacts on ecosystems

Agriculture, deforestation, industry, construction

Exotic introductions and invasive species

Vegetation type-conversion/land-cover change

Pollution

Climate change

Acting locally: conservation, restoration, sustainability

Conservation versus restoration

Restoration towards what, exactly?

Active and passive restoration

Suburbs invade habitat: can habitat invade suburbs?

University COVID-19 Policies

Vaccinations: CSULB requires all students to complete the online vaccine certification by August 23, 2021, and the entire CSU system requires students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 30, 2021, unless they have an approved exemption. All members of the campus community have access to an online vaccination certification on the University's single sign-on screen. As part of the certification, you will need to upload proof of having been vaccinated, usually in the form of a JPG or PDF of your immunization card. A screenshot of a digital record is also an option. The form allows you to qualify for a legitimate medical or religious exemption, or you may indicate that you will not access campus facilities this fall. If you have only received the first dose of a two-dose vaccine, you won't be able to submit the certification form yet. As soon as you receive the second dose and your vaccination card is updated, you may then submit the form. If you remain unvaccinated, you will be required to participate in a weekly COVID-19 testing program. See the TESTING area of this website for details.

Face Coverings: Currently, CSULB is requiring everyone on campus to wear an approved face covering in all indoor campus spaces. Accordingly, all students are required to wear an appropriate face covering the nose and mouth in order to participate in this course. Students unable to wear a face covering due to a medical condition or faculty who need a clear face mask for lip reading accommodations should contact the Bob Murphy Access Center by phone at (562) 985-5401 or by email at bmac@csulb.edu.

If a student arrives to class without a face covering, the faculty will offer the student a mask and a reminder that wearing one is mandatory (in case they don't have one with them - extra masks will be provided to department offices). If the student refuses, the faculty may ask them to leave class until they're prepared to comply with university policy and if they continue to refuse, faculty may dismiss class. In this case, the faculty should inform their department chair and fill out the form report a policy violation on the OSCED webpage; Report Student COVID-10 Policy Violations. The Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development will follow up with the student to provide due process and potential disciplinary action. Students may return to the classroom when they are compliant with the face covering policy.

Makeup Policy:

Makeups are possible in the event of a documented unexpected emergency in a student's life (COVID disruptions may be sources of such emergencies these days) or through prior arrangement with the instructor when the student has advance knowledge of a conflict in schedule. These may include jury duty or other governmental obligation; death of a loved one, injury, or serious illness/caretaking responsibilities in the family or partnership; work-related issues; certain University sanctioned activities; or religious obligations and observances. Makeups under these circumstances will not be penalized with prior notice or documentation. Scheduling a plane flight or road trip before the final is not a compelling conflict in schedule and will be penalized. All other makeup requests, especially those requested after the fact or unsupported by documentation, are subject to denial or serious penalty.

University Withdrawal Policy:

It is the student's responsibility to withdraw from classes. Instructors have no obligation to withdraw students who do not attend classes and, because of the bureaucratic difficulty involved, generally choose not to do so. This often catches transfer students by surprise, because community colleges require instructors to drop non-attending students and provide easy and routine mechanisms for them to do so. If you've been "spoiled" by that system, please be aware that it doesn't work that way here.

Here are the various deadlines: http://www.csulb.edu/enrollment-services/key-dates-and-deadlines.

Accessibility:

It is the student's responsibility to let me know at the beginning of the semester if s/he has a disability that may require accommodation. I am personally committed to making my classes accessible and providing accommodations that will help everyone have the same chance at earning success. I need to know about the issue at the beginning of the semester, though, so that we can work out a mutually reasonable and satisfying accommodation. For more information on campus support services for disabled students, please check out http://web.csulb.edu/divisions/students/dss.

Related to accessibility, this course will be set up on BeachBoard to enable convenient contact. You will need to have a CSULB e-mail account to use BeachBoard, however. Announcements and messages from me to the class may come by e-mail. One thing to watch out for, though: BeachBoard has an e-mail and listserver function in it. This is great when I want to spam you. It is seriously not great if you try to reply to BeachBoard e-mail or have a back-and-forth conversation on e-mail. If you want to reply to something I sent around on BeachBoard, make sure to go into your own e-mail, whether student e-mail or your favorite personal e-mail, and write to me directly at rodrigue@csulb.edu. The CSULB Technology Help Desk is available for students, by the way. The URL for the Help Desk is https://csulb.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1993/Portal/Home/. Their telephone number is (562) 985-4959.

Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism:

Written work that you hand in is assumed to be original unless your source material is documented appropriately. Using the ideas or words of another person, even a peer, or a web site, as if it were your own, is plagiarism. Simply changing the wording around so that it's not a direct quotation is still plagiarism if you don't give credit to the source of the ideas. If you use the exact wording of your source, enclose the statement in quotation marks or (with longer quotations) indent and single space it without quotation marks and then cite the source and page. When in doubt, cite: It keeps you out of trouble and it also makes you look professional.

Cheating and plagiarism are serious academic offenses: They represent intellectual theft. Students should read the section on cheating and plagiarism in the CSULB catalogue, which can be accessed at
http://catalog.csulb.edu/content.php?catoid=2&navoid=30

Furthermore, students should be aware that faculty members have a range of academic actions available to them in cases of cheating and plagiarism. At a minimum, I will fail a student cheating or plagiarizing on a particular assignment, but only if I think that there was some misunderstanding about what these offenses are; if I feel that the decision to cheat or plagiarize was intentional, I will fail a student in the course. I also may then refer the student to Judicial Affairs for possible probation, suspension, or dismissal.

When in doubt, please ask me if you worry you might be getting into a grey area. I might be able to help you, and you'll be leaving a favorable impression. Citing your intellectual debts actually gives your work a professional look, so not doing so and then trying to hide your tracks really has no upside -- and it risks getting you into worlds of pain and disrespect. To learn a little more about plagiarism, take a look at this workshop on ethics in science that several faculty in Geography, Geological Sciences, and Chemistry and Biochemistry put together: The second section is about plagiarism. http://web.csulb.edu/depts/geography/gdep/ethics.html.

 

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This document is maintained by Dr. Rodrigue
First put online: 08/26/15
Last Updated: 08/19/21