Leftovers 2010

From the Introduction Page

Field School Objectives: Each participant should be able to:

• Articulate scientific hypotheses about human interactions with plants that emerge from cultural situations, beliefs and practices.
• Discuss clear examples of ancient and modern transported landscapes and their implications for management of biological diversity.
• Define ethnobotany and describe current directions in the discipline.
• Understand what an ethical dilemma is and how to use standards of practice and scientific codes to prevent or resolve problems.
• Articulate a range of ethnographic techniques used by ethnobotanists for identification of research collaborators.
• Demonstrate good voucher specimen production methods and knowledge of how, when and why voucher specimens are produced during the research process.
• Produce a three-part informed consent form that is suitable for submission to an Internal Review Board.
• Demonstrate effective use of a variety of informant consensus research methods.
• Discuss patterns of folk taxonomic systems as they are found around the world.
• Discuss patterns of traditional botanical knowledge and how these are identified by ethnobotanists.
• Describe roles of gardens in maintaining cultural diversity and ethnic identity.
• Demonstrate methods used to gather and analyze data about home gardens.
• Demonstrate methods used to gather and analyze data about markets.
• Demonstrate methods used to gather and analyze data about agroforestry plots.
• Describe a diversity of food traditions from around the world and how plants contribute to the richness of cultural food diversity.
• Describe how human senses relate to descriptions of plants and animals.
• Demonstrate methods used to gather and analyze data about cultural artifacts.
• Demonstrate methods used to gather and analyze data about human activities.
• Describe three major theories of understanding human concepts of health and disease.
• Define ethnopharmacology and describe current directions in the discipline.
• Demonstrate methods used to gather and analyze data using a medicinal plant survey.
• Describe how human activities and perceptions vary across a range of temporal and spatial scales.
• Demonstrate methods used to gather and analyze data about spatial distributions of plants, populations or regions.
• Demonstrate methods used to gather and analyze data about plant population density and diversity.
• Describe roles of ecosystem services for maintenance of life on earth.
• Describe global agreements about intellectual property rights and current conventions on biological diversity as well as issues such as bioprospecting and trade in plant genetic materials.

Students will focus on learning data collection skills and learn the processes of developing and managing research activities. This includes project or experimental design, establishing ecological transects and plots, measuring plant and ecosystem parameters, gathering human community data, and conducting restoration experiments. When possible, activities will include visiting projects that are underway and which serve as models of activities in contemporary conservation ethnobiology. Students will organize and analyze data as it is collected, making corrections to sampling protocols as needed. They will prepare written reports and visual presentations on the projects conducted during the field school training. Since the location and specific projects will vary, the specific content information being learned vary between individuals although the expected skills to be mastered will remain more or less the same. Students will be expected to move quickly through the process of mastering skills and into the process of conducting research and analyzing data.

Curriculum

All students enrolled in the field school will take four courses through the University of Hawai`i at Manoa.

• Courses will last from January 4 through February 12 on Kaua`i.
• Each course has a lead instructor but all four will involve integrated instruction.
• Students may not register for less than four courses.
• Any student who has already taken one or two of the following may contact the instructors for directions to register for one or two alternative courses.

BOT 440: Advanced Ethnobotany (3 semester credits)

BOT 444: Ethnoecology and Conservation (3 semester credits)

BOT 450: Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands (4 semester credits)

BOT 453: Plant Ecology / Environmental Measurement (4 semester credits)

These courses together comprise the day portion of the field school and nothing more is needed to be a registered participant in the field school.

There is also an option of taking Plant Anatomy (BOT 410/410L) which is worth 4 credits. Those wishing to learn more about Botany may register for this additional course which will be taught at night during the field school period (6 weeks) and then continue on O`ahu on the Manoa campus after the field school is completed. This course will last for the entire Spring semester.

Courses

BOT 440: Advanced Ethnobotany

• Lead instructor: Will McClatchey
• Secondary Instructors: Mark Merlin, Rick Stepp, Mark Nickum, Nat Bletter

BOT 444: Ethnoecology and Conservation

• Lead instructor: Tamara Ticktin
• Secondary Instructors: Kim Bridges, Katie Kamelamela

BOT 450: Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands

• Lead instructor: Mark Merlin
• Secondary Instructors: Will McClatchey, Kawika Winter, Al Chock

BOT 453: Plant Ecology / Environmental Measurement

• Lead instructor: Kim Bridges
• Secondary Instructors: Tamara Ticktin, Nat Bletter

Course Facilitation

• David Reedy, David Strauch, Lan Trương

Please check here to monitor the most up to date schedule information.

Color Codes: Black = definite; Blue = tentative

Final Week Schedule