Envs 4950
Integrative Seminar in Environmental Studies, Spring 2025
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Policies
last update: January 18, 2025
I. Course Information and Description
ENVS 4950 Integrative Seminar in Environmental Studies
Tuesdays and Thursdays,
11:45am-1:05pm, Lamb Hall 207
This course is a "capstone" experience for
Environmental Studies minors who are preparing to graduate. The purpose is to
help you synthesize what you've learned in the courses you've already taken for
the minor, and to help you identify your own niche, or area of interest, within
the broad field of environmental studies. Students in the class will read and
discuss two books and a range of articles in common. In addition, you will work
with me, individually, to arrange a service activity, project, or placement
related to your area of interest. You will also then select additional readings
(one full-length book, or the equivalent) that relate specifically to your
interests.
II. Instructor Information
Dr. Kevin O'Donnell, http://faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/,
odonnell@etsu.edu 423 439-6679
Office Hours: Tuesdays 10-11:30am; Wednesdays 10am-12pm; Thursdays 1:45-3:45pm
III. Required Texts
- Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jaime Green, editors. The
Best American Science And Nature Writing 2022. Mariner Books, 2022. $17.99.
ISBN: 978-0358615293
- David George Haskell. The Songs of Trees: Stories
from Nature's Great Connectors. Penguin Books,
2018. $18.00. ISBN: 978-0143111306
- Various reading selections posted on the web.
- In addition to the above texts, which we will all read in
common, you will select an another text--typically one
book or a book-length work--related specifically to
your area of interest, and to your service placement. You will choose this
text in consultation with me.
IV. Assignments and Activities
- 20 to 30 hours service activity or project.
- Readings, discussion, and written responses: You will
occasionally write responses to the readings, either as assigned ahead of time,
or in class on the day readings are due.
- Syllabus
and course materials: You will submit a customized syllabus by the fifth
week of class, to be posted on the web.
- Written final project: You will produce approximately 10
pages of formal writing--the form, audience, and purpose of which will be
related to your service project, and which will be determined by you, in
consultation with me.
V. Final Grade Breakdown
- 20 to 30 hours of service work: 30%
- Written final project: 30%
- Midterm
exam: 15%
- Final
exam: 15%
- Weekly assignments, including customized syllabus; reading
responses; reading quizzes; etc: 10%
Grading Scale
A 93-100 C+
77-79
A- 90-92 C
73-76
B+ 87-89 C-
70-72
B 83-86 D 60-69
B- 80-82
VI. Service Placements
For this course, you will spend 20-30 hours, over the course
of the 15-week semester, engaged in a service activity or project related to
your area of interest within environmental studies. You will work with me to
arrange your placement with an institution or group.
I will talk to you during the first two weeks of classes
about which placement could work for you. Here are a few of the groups and
agencies that students have worked with fruitfully in the past few years:
- Appalachian Trail Maintenance (TN Eastman Hiking Club)
- Roan Mountain State Park
- Bays Mountain Park (City of Kingsport)
- Johnson City Parks
- Erwin National Fish Hatchery (US Fish & Wildlife)
- Cherokee National Forest fisheries biologist
- ETSU Sustainability Department