BIOL 310, Creating a Nature Journal, on campus

Weekly Assignments

27 Sept. : Review syllabus and course requirements; write preface to journal; practice drawing warm-up exercises.
Continue practicing drawing warm-up exercises at home, do at least six of each type
Practice drawing your pets or other plants or animals that are available
Assemble your field kit for trips starting next week
Field trip paperwork

4 Oct.: Field trip to Rebarrow Forest; Aldo Leopold essay from A Sand County Almanac
Read the essay by Leopold. Write an essay about October in the Grande Ronde Valley.

11 Oct.: Field trip to Hilgard State Park; Peter Bernhardt essay, Trees of Two Seasons, In Wily Violets and Underground Orchids, pp. 3-14, Vintage Books, N.Y.
Peter Bernhardt describes seasonality in a tropical forest. What evidence of seasonality do you see around you where you live? Are most tree species evergreen or deciduous? When do they flower or fruit? How does their ecology fit with the precipitation/temperature regime in the northwest? What animals do you see using these resources? How are they used? Food? Shelter? Other uses? Identify some tree species in your area.

18 Oct.: Field trip to Pumpkin Ridge;

25 Oct.: Field trip to Ladd Marsh
Observe the birds in your yard. What species are around; what are they eating? Keep a species list for the week. If possible, get out of town to look for birds in other habitats. Which species will remain throughout the winter? How can these species survive the winter when so many others move south at this time of year?

1Nov.: Work in lab with invertebrates; practice scientific illustration making detained drawings of invertebrates; read essays by Steinbeck, Chapters 1 and 2 from the Log from the Sea of Cortez; and an exerpt from Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches.

8Nov.: Work in lab with bird specimens; make a drawing of a bird from a specimen and identify all feather groups on your illustation; read exerpt from Darwin's Journal of Researches and essay by John Burroughs, Keeping a Sharp Lookout.

15 Nov.: Work in lab with mammal specimens; Aldo Leopold essay from A Sand County Almanac

22 Nov.: Wallace Stegner essay, Thoughts in a Dry Land, In Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs, Living and Writing in the West, pp. 45-56, Random House, N.Y.
Stegner views scale, color and form as dominant features of the American West. Respond to Stegner's essay with your own impressions of the west. How have you lived in this landscape and how have its features of scale, color and form affected you? Stegner says "The Westerner is less a person than a continuing adaptation." Does this apply to you? How have you adapted to living in the west? Do you think there are ways in which our culture has failed to adapt to living in the west?

Write journal summaries

29 Nov.: Journal self-evaluations; turn in journals