Posted 30 Sep 2013 / 2
It is a ritual that most academics hope to be able to participate in, but that does not make it any less excruciating. Where else but academia do we get the chance to argue for our own permanent employment? Where else but academia is the process so exhaustive and complicated? Where else is there so Read More
A Major Post, Department of Mathematics & Science, Higher Education, Pratt Institute, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Survival
Posted 30 Aug 2013 / 0
I am excited to report that my review of Origins of Altruism and Cooperation was just published in the Quarterly Review of Biology. Although it requires some work to get through, this collection presents a really important counter-narrative to the prevailing attitude in evolutionary biology that altruism is simply self-interest in disguise. The book uses Read More
A Major Post, Altruism, Behavior, Books, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Empathy, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Kin Selection, Multilevel Selection, My publications, Primatology, Reciprocity, Social Networks, Social Norms
Posted 13 Aug 2013 / 0
At the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, I first learned about a really interesting initiative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The project –now dubbed EnviroAtlas — is dedicated to creating a free, interactive online tool for exploring the geography of ecosystem services. I had the opportunity to check out a beta version Read More
A Major Post, Biodiversity Loss, Biomes, Bogs & Wetlands, Climate Change, Computer Science, Conservation Biology, Deserts, Ecology, Ecology Education, Ecosystem Services, Educational Software and Apps, Environmental Justice, Freshwater Ecosystems, Geography, Grasslands, Habitat Destruction, Information Design, Invasive Species, Pollution, Ponds & Lakes, Population Pressure, Public Policy, Resource Consumption, Rivers & Streams, Sociology, Sustainability, Teaching, Teaching Tools, Temperate Forest, Temperate Rainforest, Terrestrial, Tropical Forest, Water Supply, Web
Posted 10 Aug 2013 / 10
WARNING: This article is accurate as of August 2013; publishing policies are rapidly evolving and therefore the page charges described below are subject to change. Every scientist wants to have funding to support his or her research, and part of that funding has to be ear-marked for page charges. Page charges? It sounds like an Read More
A Major Post, Ecology, Evolution, Periodicals, Professional Societies, Publication, Science as a career
Posted 26 Jul 2013 / 0
At the end of every semester there is an important ritual that I participate in. In my department, this ritual is initiated by Margaret, our indispensable Assistant to the Chair. She sends out a message requesting that all untenured professors schedule a ten-minute period during each of their classes during which course evaluations can be completed by Read More
A Major Post, Assessment Methods, Course Evaluations, Higher Education, Pratt Institute, Teaching
Posted 25 Jul 2013 / 0
Now that I have made the decision to seriously assess my conceptual teaching, it is time for me to take a look at what might produce student learning. As I described in my previous post, I plan to dramatically overhaul my The Evolution of Cooperation course to optimize the value of everything that makes up my teaching. Read More
A Major Post, Assessment Methods, Concept Mapping, Conceptual Teaching Assessment Project, Evolution Education, MSCI-463, The Evolution of Cooperation
Posted 24 Jul 2013 / 0
I pride myself on being a conceptual teacher: although you will likely learn a lot of interesting facts in my classes, the focus of my teaching is on ideas and concepts. I want my students to understand how things work and why things exist, and both of these pursuits are fundamentally conceptual in nature. Almost all of Read More
A Major Post, Assessment Methods, Concept Mapping, Conceptual Teaching Assessment Project, Cooperation, Course Readings, Evolution Education, Higher Education, MSCI-463, The Evolution of Cooperation, Teaching
Posted 21 Jul 2013 / 0
I have been preparing for next semester’s Evolution of Sex course by looking for new media that might help my students. I just spent a few enjoyable hours checking out Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno series, produced by the Sundance Channel. I have been aware of Rossellini’s rather interesting foray into the world of animal sex and reproduction for awhile Read More
A Major Post, Adaptation, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Biodiversity Loss, Ecology, Film, Television, & Video, Marine Ecosystems, MSCI-362, The Evolution of Sex, Parasitism, Predation
Posted 22 Jun 2013 / 0
Jennifer Verdolin, Dylan Moore, and I created the fieldTest simulator several years ago. This individual-based simulation allows virtual animals with the potential to form social groups that defend territories to interact on landscapes containing different patterns and abundances of resources, and is part of my larger research into group territorial behavior. We presented our results at the 2009 Read More
A Major Post, Behavioral Ecology, Competition, Concept Mapping, Department of Mathematics & Science, Ecological Modeling, Group Territorial Behavior, Individual-based Models, Information Design, Spatially Explicit Modeling
Posted 21 Jun 2013 / 0
I am proud to report that The Sustainable Use of Fisheries, one of the teaching tools that I have developed, is available on the EcoEd Digital Library. Provided as an educational outreach project of the Ecological Society of America, EcoEd provides teachers with a variety of different lesson materials for planning lectures, laboratories, and other classroom activities. Read More
A Major Post, Ecological Society of America, Pratt Institute, Teaching Tools, The Sustainable Use of Fisheries
