🚀 go-pugleaf

Dear Dr. Brophy;

I'd be interested in being part of a forum on teaching strategy in the
sciences, especially in context of teaching "non-majors". I'm
currently looking for positions in ecology-botany-es, but I've taught as
a TA for many years: botany, plant ecology mostly.

Briefly, I consider activity to be the best forum for these classes. I
like to take students on field trips and introduce them to people working
on conservation or management in our area (near Dallas-FT Worth). I also
take them to a working herbarium  and a Botanic garden where they meet
professionals working in these fields. My most rewarding response I've
received from my students on the way home is, and I quote, "How do I get
his/her job?". Then I know I've made an impression.

In other areas, especially ES, relating the subject matter to everyday
decision making problems, risk assessment, management decisions... that
usually makes the information a tool for the students to use in the
future. I look to environmental reporting to make my point. We read and
critic content and worldview of the topics being reported. Again,
anything that connects the subject to everyday life seems to work. But
I'm not always successful, so I'd love to have feedback on this/these
approach(s).

I look forward to hearing more on the matter...



On Sat, 31 Jan 1998, William Brophy wrote:

> I am currently on  half-time leave from my community college teaching
> position in environmental science and botany, where I have been teaching
> the subject(s) since 1973. In 1973 or so I was teaching Ecology; now I am
> teaching Environmental Science.  Somewhere along the way things changed.  I
> am seeking to make connection with others in the teaching profession who
> work at the community college level or similar, and maybe who have made the
> same transition in the subject matter of our discipline, and who are
> teaching ecology/environmental science to students who generally have
> little or no science background,   I believe that teaching "science" in the
> ecology/environmental-science context is an excellent way of reaching a
> large number of students who otherwise would not think of science as a
> viable alternative.
>
> I would like to find a way of finding, or establishing, a way to
> communicate with others who do this, so that we can discuss Teaching
> Methodology, experiments, textbooks, field experiences,(and frustrations),
> who concentrate on human/environment interface rather than on mainstream
> ecology subject matter. I should clarify.  It is the technique of Teaching
> the materials, and instilling the methods of critical analysis in beginning
> students, that immediately interests me.
>
> I would appreciate hearing from anyone familiar with existing forums that
> deal with this, or with anyone who might be interested in forming such a
> forum.
>
> thanks,
>
> wbrophy
> =============================================================================
> William Brophy
> Division of Science and Mathematics
> Chabot College
> Hayward, CA 94545
>

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Dr. Susan Monteleone                      /   \ ~      /     \
Institute of Applied Science             /^^^^^\ /^\  /^^^^^^^\
Department of Biology                   /       /^^^\/         \
University of North Texas              /       /     \   ~   O  \
Denton, TX 76203                      /       /       \    _/|>
email Susan@ecomod.geog.unt.edu      /                 \   _/ \_
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"It seems to me that the first rule of intelligent tinkering is
    to keep all the parts."        Aldo Leopold