Week 8, Chapter 15 -- Starting Assumptions Course home | Weekly schedule | Announcements | Instructor Info | Desire2Learn | MasteringBiology® | Honor Code | FAQs | HELP!

Instructions:

Part 1:

Read through the questions below. Write a paragraph, 150 words minimum, in response to one or more of the questions below that interest you. Use D2L's spell checker or your word processor software to spell check your paragraph. (The latter will give you a word count as well.) Proofread it yourself too, because spell checkers don't catch everything. When you are satisfied, post your completed paragraph in the Starting Assumptions forum for this week at the D2L discussion board.

Part 2:

Respond to the Starting Assumptions posts of at least two other students. (If you are the first or second person to post, you will have to check back later to complete this part of the assignment).

• Just as you spell checked and proofread your original post, you should do the same for your responses.
• Please respond to posts with 0 responses first; once every post has at least one response, you are free to choose any post to respond to.
• When you respond, please use the name of the student you are responding to. That is, say "Hi Jessica" or "Hi Paul" so that you can get used to the names of the people in class. (You can find a list of "real" names and preferred names posted on D2L).
• What constitutes a substantive response? This means that you have read and thought about the original post, and that after some reflection, you are extending one or more of the thoughts in the original post or offering an additional perspective as you might in a good conversation. It is not enough to say simply "nice job," "I liked that," "I think you're right about XXXX," "I disagree," etc. It is OK to disagree or agree, but the goal is to thoughtfully add something else interesting and new related to the content of the original post. At a minimum this should be at least 50 words, and 50-100 is preferable. Check out this page for more on the topic of good and bad responses.

After you have posted your paragraph and responded to two other students, go to Desire2Learn and complete the Gradebook Declaration for this week's Starting Assumptions assignment. (Do not declare that you have completed these assignments until AFTER you have made your posts. Your Gradebook Declaration is subject to the Honor Code.)

Here are the questions to get you started:

• Why do you think bacteria, protista, and fungi are not included as categories of threatened or endangered species? Do you think they should be?
• The Monterey Bay Aquarium has used various measured to determine which fish are "safest" for the environment. They have Consumer Guides and even an App you can download for this Seafood Watch. Would these rankings affect your choice of fish to buy at supermarkets or restaurants? Why or why not? Do you support the idea behind this campaign?
• Does it make you sad when you read about species that have gone extinct? Why or why not?
• Is it worthwhile to try and save all endangered species? Why or why not? Does your decision depend on whether or not the impending extinction is related to human activities?
• Biologists believe we are currently in the middle of Earth’s sixth mass extinction. The other five all happened before humans came on the scene. What responsibility do we have as a society to keep this from happening? Do you have any responsibility as an individual? What can you do?
• One basic point of the conservationist movement is that the rate of species extinction is increasing. However, it is possible that biologists will never be able to truly calculate the number of species living on Earth or the number that become extinct. Do you think it is wise to base public policies on the assumption that species are, in fact, disappearing at an increasing rate? Is there any evidence that you would like to see before deciding? Is it likely that such evidence can be collected in the near future?
• Here are some endangered species in Oklahoma: http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlifemgmt/endangeredspecies.htm. Did you know that we have so many? Why do you think species go extinct even in a relatively sparsely populated state like Oklahoma?
• Do you ever think about the ways in which agriculture affects biodiversity? How should we balance the need to produce food with the need to protect biodiversity?
• Do you buy organic produce if given a choice? What does organic food have to do with species conservation?
• Have you heard about the ocean’s enormous “dead zones,” where the waters are virtually devoid of life?
• Visit the Water Footprint Site and navigate to either the Product Gallery and/or the Your Water Footprint Quick Calculator (or you can visit the Extended one if you want a more detailed footprint). What is your reaction to this site?
• How important to you is the conservation of Earth’s remaining wild places, both in the U.S. and elsewhere?
• What, if anything, do you personally do to minimize your impact on the environment (e.g. promote clean water and clean air, save energy, reduce pollution or waste)?

Contemporary Issues in Biology -- BIOL 1003 Mariëlle H. Hoefnagels, Ph.D. © 2004-2015. biology1003 at OU dot edu (at = @, dot =.) Last Updated August 5, 2014 11:02 PM