NSCI 201 Minnesota Ecology and Conservation Biology

General

• Communicate their experiential findings, analyses, and interpretations both orally and in writing.
• Demonstrate quantitative reasoning skills and competency with the use of arithmetic and statistics at a level appropriate for graduates of bachelors degree programs.
• Demonstrate understanding of scientific theories and knowledge in conservation biology at the level necessary for informed citizenship.
• Describe and explain Minnesota¿s natural ecosystems, including forests, prairies, and wetlands, the life histories and adaptations of natives organisms found there, (including the ability to identify on sight at least twenty organisms native to Minnesota), and the issues that affect the past, present and future of natural ecosystems in Minnesota.
• Describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, religious) that are developing in response to environmental and natural resource challenges.
• Evaluate critically environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships, ecosystems, and institutions.
• Evaluate societal issues from a natural science perspective, ask questions about the evidence presented, and make informed judgments about science-related topics and policies.
• Formulate and test hypotheses by performing a field experiment in ecology, including the collection of data, statistical and graphical analysis of results, and an interpretation of its sources of error and uncertainty.
• Propose and assess alternative solutions to environmental problems; Articulate and defend the actions they would take on various environmental issues.
• Use properly the tools that naturalists use, including field guides and keys, hand lenses, microscopes, binoculars, and topographic maps.