Description | What | Who | How | When | Books | Details

Melbourne Beach, Fl., after three hurricanes, 2004 season, removed several feet of sand dunes. [JVS; 11/2004]

Islands in the Stream is a course is about coastal conservation and current national commitments to protecting natural resources. The seashore is a magnet for people. More than half the nation lives within one hour of the coast and among the fastest growing parts of the country are ocean front communities. Worldwide over half the planet lives in coastal areas where 60 percent of the fishery resources of the ocean are spawned or spend part of their life cycle. The sea’s barrier islands are our vulnerable edge, requiring preservation. The class combines drawing, visual thinking, writing and verbal activities to assess your ideas with respect to community design for coastal settings.

Divided into four parts merging science, geography, policy and ecological design the course explores better ways to live beside the ocean through redesigning vulnerable barrier islands. By understanding the limitations of physical space, the constraints of biological communities and the necessity of assuring human health, participants in designing safer communities on barrier islands are confronted with a need to learn how to balance both seashore biology and ocean physics with social and economic necessities.

Participants have two field opportunities to see first hand preserves and pressures on nearby natural coastal areas during February or March and, in April, attend a retreat in the central Florida Keys. All trips are optional but may afford class members a chance to compare and contrast temperate and tropical coasts in Florida. By this blend of oceanography, marine ecology, coastal conservation policy and ecological design, active learners are acquainted with solving environmental problems in a context of resolving existing resource disputes.

A community engagement aspect of the class actively involves student participants with municipal staff and engineers to stabilize a dune system in nearby Brevard County. Hard hit by hurricanes and winter storms, the county's barrier island beaches are home to the densest marine turtle nesting areas in North America. Those able and interested participants, enrolled in the class can receive credit for working on this project with the instructor.

The goal of the course is to allow students to envision and plan a barrier island thereby demonstrating their skills and what they have learned by combining experiences and the information from our all of the texts.

Syllabus

Readings

Rachel Carson, The Edge of the Sea
Joseph Siry, Marshes of the Ocean Shore
Sim Van der Ryn, Ecological Design
Carl Safina, The Song of the Blue Ocean

Siry, A Study Guide for Seaside projects

Reserves

Brown, Tompkins & Adger, Making Waves
Ian McHarg, Design with Nature
Oren Pilkey, The Beaches are Moving
Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, Urban Design Plans.

What must you do?

item	what?	value
1.	Drawings and interpretation: design due with descriptions and explanations.	5%
	house site, (2 weeks): neighborhoods, (4 weeks): topographic district, (6 weeks).
2.	Design Charette –raised by site survey, plans and texts– essay. (8 weeks)	15%
3.	Attendance: participation in work and walk days, discussing the texts.	10%
4.	Tests and Verbal reports on text books, every three weeks.	30%
5.	Revisions of plans due to community constraints, essay. 8th, 10th & 12th week	15%
6.	field experience portfolio, plans & revisions, report on questions. 11 week	20%
7.	Final, last week, revisions & of team plans from 12th week, & essay.	5%
8.	Total:	100%

All work must be based on the texts, with clear references to other author’s ideas.

Your work must be your own with credit given to others for the ideas you borrow from them, cited in appropriate notes and listing of sources. If you do not do so, you have committed a fraud, which is called plagiarism, which could cause your to fail the assignment.

Any work as a group on any assignment must be approved by me two weeks ahead of the due date. Regardless of the assignment, all work is judged on a person by person basis, there are no group grades.

Groups will be composed of students who can work off campus on the Brevard dune stabilization project and another group of students who are confined to a campus project. These teams review hands-on exercises and present criticisms of neighborhood and district designs so that participants can revise those plans.

Grades: all assignments are graded with careful attention to each of these criteria: {CLIFS}

1. C clarity, coherence, spelling, grammar & logical consistency
2. L length & development of your arguments, ideas, or presentations
3. I information from the class texts, library research, or interviews
4. F frequency of examples from the lectures, journal, notes & readings
5. S subject developed & discussed in a thesis, introduction, summaries, & conclusion.

I reward your consulting with reference librarians, and TJs’ tutors, or peer writing consultants. Work that is late is unacceptable and is severely penalized (loss of 10% of the grade).

Computer graphic of the Santa Barbara, Ca. Coast

Under Construction, dates subject to change

Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays

Calendar (see your syllabus for the correct dates, if these are wrong the syllabus is correct)

August

21 Participating in a community improvement project, course overview & comparing goals.

23 Introductions, The Edge of the Sea pp. xiii- 38. “A strange and beautiful place.”

25 Reading Maps of shores & coastal areas a hands-on exercise 1. Power Point presentation can be obtained on black board.

28 The Seashore as the critical edge and test of conservation & development.

30 Hurricane Earnesto-- day off

8 Submit House Plans, verbally describe three essential features. (Ecological Design book)

September

8 Osceola Lodge, a house by the lake: visitation

11 Rocky shores, The Edge of the Sea, pp. 39-124. Discuss these pages in class.
13 Sand Beaches, The Edge of the Sea, pp. 125-190. Discuss these pages in class.
15 What is the role of a dune system in shoreline protection ? (Ian McHarg, my web site & Olin reserve)

18 Coral Coast, The Edge of the Sea, pp. 191-248. Discuss these pages in class.
20 Verbal reports on food webs & habitats The Edge of the Sea, pp. 249-270. Discuss these pages in class.
22 (23) September is The first beach walk; Satellite Beach, Brevard County Coast. Judging sites for a dune restoration project. A site analysis of dune restoration project. (On Campus: Chapel Garden Restoration Project) optional field trip, Brevard Seashores: comparative study, 9 AM-3 PM.

25 Exam on Rachel Carson's The Edge of the Sea .

27 Reading the landscape & topography of shores & coastal areas a hands-on exercise 2.

29 Marshes of the Ocean Shore, pp. 1-17, Discuss these pages in class.

October

1 Verbal reports on conflict in jurisdictions, give two contrasting examples in a district, (Siry book)
3 Day off in lieu of work days, (9/23 & 10/25) Schedule appointments with instructor, in lieu of class.

Fall Break

13 A Design Charette: group (on Campus | off Campus teams) exercise: individual neighborhood plans formed into a district.
15 Marshes of the Ocean Shore, pp. 18-82. Report verbally and include in your written essay.
Step two: essay: What is a Beach from three perspectives? A four page essay drawn from lectures and texts on resolving disputed problems.
17 Hands-on exercise 3: establishing a site for dune restoration.
22 “the relation of productivity to places and biological diversity” Marshes pp. 83-133. Discuss these pages in class.
24 Third Beach Walk: working on site of dune restoration project, Satellite Beach, Brevard County.

25 Beach work day option
27 Marshes of the Ocean Shore, pp. 134-156. Discuss these pages in class.
29 Marshes of the Ocean Shore, pp. 157-191. Discuss these pages in class. Exam on Test on Marshes of the Ocean Shore.
31 Day off in lieu of work days, (2/25 & 3/25).

November

3 Test on Sarfina Book, fill in and short answers about the places and issues in Blue Ocean

5 reports on a particular error in the formation of knowledge about seashores.
7 Fourth Beach Walk: working on site of dune restoration project : Satellite Beach

8 Last Beach work day option

10 Making Waves, pp. 1-16. & pp. 17-81. Making Waves, pp. 83-129. Making Waves, pp. 131-141.
12 Ecological Design, pp. ix-32. Putting knowing and doing together: Discuss these pages in class.
14 “Redesigning the way we live, work and play along the coastal edge.” pp. 33-56. Resubmit Plans for homes, neighborhoods and topographical districts with dune and shore information. Post your plans on hall bulletin board.

17 Ecological Design, pp. 57-145. What are the five rules of Ecological Design?, Quiz and discussion.
19 Redesign submission: House, Neighborhoods, & District plans put together with the revisions based on earlier (4-14) suggested changes. Ecological Design, pp. 146-159. Discuss themes on these pages in class.

21-23 Florida Keys (Mangroves) [TBA] Marine Study Center: optional field trip ($175 / 2 days)
24 Critique of plans, elements identified for redesign and refine resubmission.
26 Schedule appointments with instructor
28 Schedule appointments with instructor

December

1 Present your final designs for the entire barrier island to the class with how it was changed and why it is more effective now.
Last Day of Classes: reports on designs based on the texts, discussing these pages in class: esp Design, pp. 160-172. Turn in Ending Essay on how best to develop a barrier island.

6 Final Exam: Rehearsed, Verbal presentation based on your Ending Essay on how best to develop a barrier island. Present a brief, practiced and text related, five minute, verbal summary answering the question: What did you learn?

I am here to assist you to do excellent work in this class by correctly interpreting all the texts and writing well crafted and well argued essays. My office time is available to you to discuss assignments and redraft your essays. For every hour we spend in class I would recommend you spend, at least, three hours in studying to prepare for class to do well.

The challenge of the class for you will be to combine visual and written information into a coherent defense of ecological design to repair existing damages to ecosystem services due to bad designs with respect to transportation, homes, communities and public services.

My Intentions in this course are for you to:
To practice both design and writing components of this course, for you to critically think and reflect on all of the texts' contents as you write up summaries of the chapters, verbally present chapter summaries, and defend your design choices, based on material in all of the texts. Besides informal writing, formal writing will require you to rewrite your papers.

Explanations of the six assignments and participation: percentage value for grades

Attendance is participating actively, 10%

This is more than coming to class and taking notes, although notes on that day's activities will gain you points. Participation, alertness and cooperation is rewarded every week. By this I mean students are rewarded equally in terms of your asking text based questions in class, reading my e-mails to the class, checking the postings on the Fox Link home page and responding to questions directed to you in class with the correct answers. You earn one-third of a percent every day you attend class. A full ten days of the semester are activity days you should not miss because the build to your final plans for developing and conserving an island.

Drawings and interpretation: design due with descriptions and explanations. 5%

House, (3 weeks): Neighborhood, (4 weeks): District, (6 weeks). Practice sketching during our hands-on exercises in the field.
Drawings and interpretation: design due with descriptions and explanations.
House 3rd week (2 pages, one page defense from the texts) design a home. 2.8.
Neighborhood 4th week (2 pages, one page defense from the texts and field experiences) place homes together, 2.15 and 2.17.
District 10th week (2 pages, one page defense) settle disputes, due 4.14.

These are essentially a pass/fail exercise that is revised twice for a grade during the tenth week and again for the oral presentation of how you planned to protect the barrier island and its communities at the final exam.

Charette, a 4 page essay is a minimum. 3.17. 15%

At midterm we conduct a design Charette as a role playing exercise where individual homes and neighborhood plans are formed into a district based on discussion questions –raised by the projects, the project team's plans and texts. With a brief supporting summary (one minute) presented verbally to class incorporating the three books we have read so far: carson, Siry and Van der Ryn.
Eighth week (after Spring Break), 3.15-17.

You are assessed on the role play based in part on how you prepare an essay on conflicts using examples from Edge of the Sea, Marshes of the Ocean shore, Ecological Design, & Making Waves. May be a 5-7 page essays double-spaced with notes on sources and bibliography. Use visuals to describe the character of the participants in the conflict. Due 3.17.

Monthly tests with verbal reports on the 4 textbooks, every three weeks: 2.15, 3.1, 4.5, 4.21. 30%

Redraw Barrier Island with Revisions of plans due to constraints, 3 page essay. 15%

Project Team plans are presented in a group meeting called a: Charette, to determine what is added and what is deleted based on group needs.
Every team makes suggestions to alter, amend, and improve existing development based on physical, biological and social constraints and findings. Incorporate constraints in
revisions, make corrections suggested by a series of presentations done on 4.14, 4.19, 4.21 when redrafts are presented based on revisions suggested by project teams and by the instructor.

Your final resubmission of the plans is due on the last week, 5.1,

On 5.3 there is the final essay on: How does ecological design enhance or impede the development process and how does the development of barrier islands create specific physical, biological and social consequences for coastal resources given what we know about sea level rise, weather, water quality, fisheries, geography and human needs?

(the final oral interpretation is based on this final essay accompanied by the resubmission of your plans based on the class and instructor critiques.)

A field experience portfolio consisting of drawings, plan and brief essay on questions. 20%
This is a compilation of your work on three hands-on exercises conducted on sequential weeks based on a field experience, in either Brevard (Indian River lagoon habitats and dune stabilization project) done 1.23, 2.17, 3.17, and 4.7 or the Florida Keys trip (Mangrove of the Tropical Shore, Study Guide) 4.24 portfolio is due. These are essentially a record of your work on projects, revised defense of the project based on critiques and the texts.

Final Exam is a practiced verbal summary presenting the findings of your essay turned in on last class day: 5%

5.5 Final exam presentation: What did you learn? (Five minute rehearsed verbal report).

Late assignments are severely penalized, but going to TJ's, the writing center, & Olin Library is rewarded. (Read more about grades and evaluating your work on my web site.)

Assignments | Writing | Attendance | Grades