Hi! That sounds like a very interesting course. I definitely understand
the struggle. I taught a non-majors class on climate change last fall, and
I had similar difficulty in setting the syllabus- it's hard to know what to
cover when you know your class is perhaps the last and only biology (or
science) course for these students.
That said, I would say that less is more, especially in a non-majors
class. My fear is that if you try to cover too many units, students will
have a superficial understanding of the topics, which will quickly fade
after the final exam. (This might happen anyway, but the more superficial
their understanding, the more likely it is.) I think that it would
probably better to cover a small number of contemporary issues in more
depth. I think the students will benefit more from learning how
scientists tackle a problem and how to evaluate "scientific" pronouncements
that they read/hear on the news. (In other words, I'm advocating for a
substantial nature of science focus throughout the units you choose, which
tends to work better if you do a small number of topics in more depth.)
Frankly, I think we as educators have to (reluctantly) accept that we
can't cover everything, and so eventually our students will have to find
information on their own if they wish to make informed decisions about a
particular topic. What we can try to do for them is to help them develop
the intellectual tools to make that possible.
In addition, I like the idea of focusing more on ecology, because
it sounds like the students have many opportunities to learn the molecular
biology and genetics side of things in the other courses you describe. But
you might consider some integrated units (e.g. the ecology of infectious
diseases or the environmental side of cancer), where you could introduce
molecular biology/genetics/development topics with ecological topics, and
show the students how those two fields can inform and strengthen each
other.
I wish I could be helpful about textbooks, but I can't really think
of a single book. I'm wondering if you want to assemble a list of
prospective unit topics, and then send another email out to the list-
knowing what topics you are hoping will be included would be a big help.
Sometimes the university bookstore will also assemble a "course pack" of
excerpts from different books. That can be expensive, depending on the
price of copyright, but it's worth looking into if people can recommend
only favorite book chapters.
Best wishes,
Emily Pollina
Ph.D. Candidate
On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Johnson, David R <[email protected]>wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I am teaching a "contemporary biology" course for non-science majors in
> the fall and for the first time I am fortunate to be able to organize the
> course at my discretion. Effectively, I can present any material I wish as
> long as I hit broad themes such as Cell Theory and Evolution. While this is
> certainly doable, I am struggling deciding exactly what content to present.
> The course is meant to present the science of contemporary issues that may
> be important and/or interesting to the non-science student rather than a
> broad survey course encompassing all of biology. There is another such
> survey course with a set syllabus that I am not teaching, and there are two
> other sections of contemporary biology that are focusing on genetics. I
> would like to focus on the many ecological issues that both affect and are
> affected by humans. My struggle involves the fact that this may be the only
> (or last) biology these students get before we cast them out into the
> world. So I want to be sure and cover all my bases.
>
> I am writing Ecolog with two questions. First, what is the relative merit
> of including as much biology as possible as opposed to focusing on fewer
> but perhaps more directly relevant ecological topics? These students will
> most likely not become scientists, and certainly won't need to memorize the
> structure of all the amino acids, for example. On the other hand, would I
> be cheating them somehow by not providing enough information to them for
> making informed decisions on topics outside of my direct area of expertise,
> such as developmental biology and stem cells?
>
> The other question I have involves textbooks. Is anyone aware of a text
> (or perhaps pop-science books) designed for the non-science major that
> focuses on ecology, in particular the involvement of humans in ecological
> systems? I haven't been able to find something I like and am looking for
> recommendations.
>
> Thanks and I'll circulate a summary response if/when the discussion runs
> its course.
>
> Cheers,
>
> David
>
> David R. Johnson PhD.
> Postdoctoral Research Associate
> Systems Ecology Lab
> University of Texas at El Paso
> [email protected]
>
