Learning and applying new ways of exploring biology is one of the important tools I hope to pass along. This class is large and you have a single instructor. As noted in the Syllabus, it can be very important to have some colleagues who may be able to help you with course information. Relying on a small group of peers let us work on generating information cooperatively. And, working with peers will help you know how you did on an exam or assignment by discussing it afterwards. These are all activities that will improve your learning, and some of them are activities that you are given points credit for.
In the past, these were GROUP assignments. I did this even though I know first-hand the challenges of doing work as a group, and having it done equitably and to your standards. It was partly because there is learning involved in cooperation, and partly because as one professor I simply cannot attend to so many reports easily. However, in particular with the challenges of the COVID era, I've made these all individual grades -- but you have a team you can rely on for help. I will randomly assign groups of 5-6 as "people you can know are in the class that might be of help" but work with whomever you wish; if a group-person asks for your help, do what you can to support each other.
The grading on these has a VERY SIMPLE RUBRIC (remember, I'm grading ~150 of these so that you don't have the PITA of group assignments!) – do it fully (and thoughtfully) and you get full credit, do it half-way and you get half credit. If you are worried about meeting that standard, check the assignment carefully and check with your groupmates or other peers before turning it in.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if at all possible upload your Unit Assignment document onto eLC as a .pdf since I have to scan them using eLC. Microsoft Word and Google Docs do not play well with eLC; they work but each requires about 15-20 seconds to be converted, and that adds up in time for me to grade so many assignments.
Your first project benefits from you all not being in the same place! You can interact with iNaturalist using your mobile phone, or take digital photos and upload them via a web browser. However, you'll find the mobile phone option far preferable.
Once you have an account with iNaturalist (free), you can join the "Project" called "BIOL 1104 University of Georgia" and it will automatically add your observations to this project, but with a catch: it will only add species that are considered to be native to the state of Georgia.
So, learn how to use iNaturalist to observe an organism - it uploads a photo, using location information, and uses "machine learning" with a massive database (and internet connection) to suggest what that organism probably is. If you know for sure, you can just enter the common name or Latin binomial. Other naturalists may look at your observation and confirm it or suggest another organism; if it is confirmed, that makes the observation "Research Grade" which means it is a reliable data point for analysis of distribution or in some cases even elements of its phenotype.
For Unit One, you should observe and upload 10 observations to iNaturalist. Based on what gets included in the iNaturalist Project listed above, you will have an easy way of checking which species are "native" and which ones are introduced from other parts of the world. You will quickly find out how many of them fall in this latter category.
From this information, write me a paragraph-length paper (200-300 words) explaining what you saw and where (roughly), how many of these observations got confirmed by other "naturalists" (and do you think you agree?), and whether they are native to this area or not. You will see that each identification comes with a link to basic information about that organism including maps of observations, links to Wikipedia, and more. You are welcome to include a summary impression about your observations: did you learn something new? Is one of the organisms super cool or super gross to you? Did you learn something from other observations in the "BIOL 1104 University of Georgia" iNaturalist project?
From your first Unit Assignment, you learned some local biodiversity (and what is native or not) as well as how to use iNaturalist. Now you are going to focus on one of those species and some of their relatives (different species in the same genus, Family, or Order). For example, if one of your iNaturalist photos was of a carpenter bee (Xylocopa sp.), and that is the type of organism you want to know more about, then this project will be on bees (Order Hymenoptera, Superfamily Apoidea). You have some flexibility to focus on the group in different ways.
Now, in that group from the same genus, Family, or Order, you will find 5 species that have a large number of observations in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). By "large number" I mean 100s or 1000s of observations. I will show you in class how to work in the GBIF website environment, and you will use this to examine the distribution of observations of each of those species through time. What is their spatial distribution now in the 2010-2020 decade? What is their spatial distribution in the decade at the end of the last century (ending roughly when most of you were born), i.e. 1990-2000? What was their spatial distribution of records from 100 years ago (the decade of 1910-1920)?
From this exploration, you will report (same length and style as for Unit One!) how much data are available, and what those data tell you about changing distributions or abundances of observed specimens. In addition to your observations, please spend a few sentences interpreting what resolution there is to the data, and what information you would like to have to better think about whether or not those distributions or abundances are changing through time?
This will be the assignment that either makes you hate me, or you'll learn a few things about ecology. I swear, I got the idea from a respected colleague at Columbia University, but I also know that the very introduction and saccharine voice of the narrator of this PBS game will drop my instructor ratings by at least half a point. And I've tried it several times and - I think you'll hate it less once you try it.
I want you to do FOUR things for this assignment.
You should play 4-5 full rounds of the game - what are you trying to do? Somehow build an ecosystem, in this case a mangrove coastal ecosystem that is found in low-salinity coastal areas and contains tremendous diversity. Through trial and error, you will (perhaps) figure out why mosquitoes are important even if you otherwise hate them, and how tricky it is for there to be a balance between PRODUCTIVITY and the different levels of "what-eats-what" (trophic levels).
To the extent possible across your group of peers in the class, compare and contrast your strategies in keeping everything functioning - see what the outcome is of each game (do you feel like the score indicates something? how would you define that?) and keep track of that for your discussion and/or competition. Who was able to "maintain" the system for the longest, and in what condition? What does it take to get a shark in the ecosystem? Where do you AS A GROUP disagree? Where is all of the ENERGY produced?! What other information would you consider relevant to the outcome of different trials?
For your report, write a hypothesis: Because ________________, we predict ________________________. Something like that. That is the first line of your report. Use your observations to identify how well they fit with that hypothesis, AND discuss how you think points are assigned. This is a modeling approach -- in game format -- where each event (an organism gets eaten, an organism runs out of nutrient) has a parameter or value. What is realistic about this simulation and what is not, and how does that affect you testing your hypothesis?
Support your short paper (same length and style as above) with a proper reference (checking for Currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose: CRAAP) that relates to your hypothesis, and again: write a short paper, with references.
You will submit this short set of observations, hypothesis, and interpretation as with the previous assignments.
OH, and mosquitoes do not ‘eat’ mangroves obviously (the game has some quirks as written), but they thrive amidst mangroves - what DO mosquitoes feed on? :)
You will find that this last assignment requires you to integrate information from all 4 Units in this semester of Biology 1104. The assignment is for each of you to watch the Genes to Ecosystems film, which is free and on Vimeo. The film itself is about one hour, and you are encouraged to watch it over the Thanksgiving break from classes but of course can start working on this whenever appropriate. While watching, you should recognize and take notes on elements of the project that is featured that relate to our class – organismal stress and physiology, environmental changes and the experiments performed to understand how organisms will respond, organism life history traits and environmental needs, interactions among all sorts of ecological players - some herbivores, some commensals, and so on – as well as their showcase of evolutionary diversity in these trees.
IT IS AGAIN AN INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT - USE YOUR GROUP MATES AS PEER REVIEWERS.
After watching the Genes to Ecosystems film (and having been through all of 1104), identify an organism – it does not have to be one discussed in the film! – which (one or more of these)
provides ecosystem services (what service)
is a foundation or keystone species (which, and why)
or you have your own attachment to (why)
and based on peer-reviewed information about its physiology, genomic diversity, dispersal or reproductive traits, ecological interactions, and/or environmental tolerances, YOUR turn to teach ME something about how this organism might respond to continued climate warming. It can be hopeful, it may be that you suggest effort humans must put into the response, or perhaps it will be an answer that neither of us are pleased about.
Using writing (please keep to 250-300 words max), drawing, meme-making, comics, photography, your favorite medium, submitted as PDF , 1 page max so photos don’t get lost and eLC doesn’t clunk out on me like it does with .docx and .html. Must cite at least one peer-reviewed resource relevant, using citation style as noted in syllabus.
Use groupmates as peer reviewers if you want to feel good about getting full credit. Rubric is as follows: if you make my life easy/enjoyable grading and supporting your fact(s) with in-text citation (and full citation at end of document), full credit. If you make it more effort for me by making me ponder whether you did the assignment as requested, that is a warning for half credit. Remember I'm grading MANY of these, this is an INDIVIDUAL assignment.
(And of course it is OK if you do not need the points to simply not turn one in.)
Due December 10 at 5pm, no exceptions.