Welcome to Representations of Nature! I am Dr. Mary Isbell, and I’ve created this syllabus to communicate what we’ll learn and how we’ll learn it this semester. I’ve tried to present this information as clearly as possible. I’ve also included the name of a film that was released in 2023 somewhere in this document. Students who find the name of the film will have the pleasure of discussing it with me before our second class meeting.
Contact Me
I love talking to students. Please get in touch often to ask questions, share ideas you’re having about the course, or discuss something interesting you’ve read or watched.
- E-mail: misbell@newhaven.edu
- Office: Harugari Hall, room 300A
- Office Hours: By appointment (via zoom or in my office). Send me an e-mail to set something up!
Course Description
As humans, we create representations of nature in a wide range of media and for many different purposes. Examples in the creative arts include travel writing, landscape painting, field recordings of birds, and wildlife documentaries. Representations of nature for the purposes of scientific understanding include the naming of plant and animal species and illustrations of biological processes. Scientific theories have emerged alongside photographs captured with powerful microscopes and telescopes.
By looking carefully at representations of nature and asking how and why they were created, we will tackle big questions: What are the limits of human perception? Is it only humans who represent the natural world? How has human technology aided us in perceiving and representing other species? These are some of my questions, but I’ve designed this course so it is shaped primarily by the questions that emerge for you about this topic.
There is no requirement that you memorize or become an expert in any of the concepts we discuss, though I suspect we will all leave feeling more aware of the ways humans have represented nature and how those representations shape our experiences of the world. I do strongly recommend that you bring your own interests, experiences, and questions to the work of the course. I have selected works combining visual, written, and sonic elements that we will all explore together, but you will complete your assignments by engaging with representations that you have chosen. My hope is that the work you do in this course enriches future courses in the natural sciences and helps you cultivate your own approach to environmental stewardship.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Describe various forms of creative arts as expressive and material culture in social contexts.
- Examine the respective roles of technique, process, and methodology needed to produce creative artworks in various media forms.
- Draw conclusions about the use and function of a creative art practice and/or specific artworks within historical and/or cultural contexts.
- Articulate how the creative works or concepts discussed in the course are relevant to their lives or career plans.
- Articulate how the methods of inquiry taught in the course are relevant to their lives or career plans.
- Apply theories, methods, and critical perspectives of two or more disciplines to a research question of their own design in relation to course content.
Required Materials
All texts and films assigned in this course will be made available through our Canvas site.
Registrar Forms and Deadlines
The university registrar maintains a webpage in myCharger that includes add/drop and withdrawal deadlines as well as links to the necessary forms. You can access this site at:
https://mycharger.newhaven.edu/web/mycharger/registrar-forms
Major Assignments
- Mid-term & Final Self-Evaluations
- Informal Writing Work (assessed via completion tallies)
- Assignment 1: Natural Phenomena
- Assignment 2: Species
- Assignment 3: The Universe
- Assignment 4: Predators & Invasives
- Final Project
My Approach to Grading
In order to truly learn, I think we all need the freedom to make mistakes. In the past, when I’ve graded student work by assessing its quality, I’ve found myself inadvertently discouraging students who were trying very hard but had made a mistake or gotten stuck on something. While low grades have occasionally motivated my students, I have been troubled lately to find that some students get so discouraged that they stop engaging in the work of the course. I don’t want this to happen ever again.
While I will be providing copious feedback on your work and submitting mid-term and final grades for this course, you will be evaluating your own work this semester. At the middle of the semester, you will write a midterm self-evaluation that reflects on your work to that point. You will complete a similar self-evaluation at the end of the semester. Having your account of your process is a very big part of how I will assign grades.
Informal work is crucial to your success in this course. I will often ask you to read or watch something and prepare a response before class and we will often do activities in class that help you practice a technique or brainstorm ideas. At various points in the semester, I will ask you to fill out a completion tally to chronicle the informal work you have completed to that point. I will read your completion tallies and enter the amount you have completed as a percentage.
After you submit each project, I will prepare feedback on your work (most often in video form). I’ll ask you to read or watch my feedback and respond with any questions or comments you have. After doing this, I will ask you to compose a project reflection and to assign yourself a grade for the assignment. The instructions for each project reflection will be in Canvas and you will submit your reflection in Canvas. The grade you give yourself is the grade I will enter in the gradebook for the assignment. If I don’t have your project when I give feedback for an assignment, you will need to make an appointment to get feedback from me in person before you can write your project reflection and assign yourself a grade (I will enter a zero in the gradebook until you’ve done this).
The only issue I have encountered with this approach to grading is when a student submits an incomplete assignment (usually this is because the student has gotten stuck or misunderstood the assignment). When that happens, I offer guidance and an opportunity for the student to complete the assignment so I can offer feedback. My intention is to help you focus on working in a more organic way, as opposed to working as you think you are expected to. If this process causes any concerns, please send me an e-mail.
Open Pedagogy
One of my highest priorities as an educator is to help you all see that a classroom is a space to collaborate in the pursuit of new knowledge. We all bring knowledge and experience to the classroom and, if we put in the effort to build a collaborative learning community, we all benefit. I draw on strategies known as open educational practices or open pedagogy to help me in this pursuit. You will notice that we take advantage of open educational resources in this course (only when absolutely necessary will I assign a copyrighted text that you have to purchase) and you’ll also notice that some of your assignments invite you to create resources that can be used by future students. I will frequently ask you to complete (brief!) anonymous surveys to share how particular things are working for you and make adjustments based on that feedback. I hope you’ll share ideas even when I don’t explicitly ask. This is your class too!
My Course Policies (read carefully!)
Diversity Statement
I value human diversity in all its richly complex and multi-faceted forms, whether expressed through race and ethnicity, culture, political and social views, religious and spiritual beliefs, language and geographic characteristics, gender, gender identities and sexual orientations, learning and physical abilities, age, and social or economic classes. I respect the value of every member of the class, and everyone in the class is encouraged to share his or her unique perspective as an individual, not as a representative of any category. Multicultural and intercultural awareness and competencies are key leadership skills, and I intend to present material and classroom activities that respect and celebrate diversity of thought, background, and experience.
Attendance
Attendance and participation in our class meetings will enable a much richer experience in this course. If you are unable to attend class for any reason, please let me know in advance so I can make arrangements to record of our class session for you to access after the fact. If I notice you are missing multiple classes and may struggle to complete the course successfully, I will reach out for a conversation. Barbie.
Deadlines
There is no penalty for requesting an extension for any work due in this course. Send me an e-mail if you need more time. You do not need to give a reason for the request.
How We Might Use Zoom
I hope this doesn’t become necessary, but I can shift to offering this course through zoom. If that happens, here are some things you can expect:
- Video: There is no expectation for you to turn your video camera on for this course; you can absolutely join with audio only.
- Audio: For the most part, I will keep everyone muted.
- Our Shared Doc (a Word Online Document): You will be invited to complete class activities in this shared document.
- To protect the privacy of you and your classmates, I will only record short bits of class sessions where I am explaining things.
Please…
- Read the syllabus and/or assignment prompt carefully before contacting me with a question about the course. An e-mail that includes some variation on “I re-read the assignment and I still have a question” is a way of signaling to me that you respect my time (this will work with other professors as well!).
- Include a greeting (Hello, Hi, etc.) and a closing (Thank you, Best, Sincerely, etc.) in all e-mails that you send to me (and all professors!).
Online Tools (to reference as needed)
I will be introducing a number of free online tools for reading, writing, and researching over the course of this semester. I include instructions for each of these tools below and you will see in the course schedule when you should get them set up. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have trouble navigating this technology.
Word Online
Word Online documents are accessible via a link (they live in “the cloud”) and any changes made to them are available in real time. You can use Word Online without downloading Microsoft Office for your computer, but you will need Word when creating formal assignments to be uploaded to Canvas. Instructions for getting set up with Office 365 and downloading the applications for your computer are at this link.
Zotero
Zotero is an excellent free tool for gathering, annotating, and citing sources. I don’t require students to use Zotero, but I encourage you to try it out. Most of my students who have experimented with Zotero wind up using it for research projects in other courses. If you want to use a very quick version of Zotero (better than EasyBib, in my opinion), check out ZoteroBib.
If you want to try out the full application and share your items with our class group, check out the video below for instructions on getting started. If you want to figure it out on your own (skipping my brilliant video), you can register for an account at https://www.zotero.org/user/register/. After you have registered for an account, you can download the application appropriate for your computer and (important!) the browser connector at https://www.zotero.org/download/. Note that once you’ve got Zotero set up on your computer, you will need to e-mail me your Zotero username so I can invite you to join our course group.
The process will be slightly different for each of you depending on your computer and the internet browser you use most often. I am happy to help if you have trouble.
Hypothesis
Adding notes in the margins of the texts you read (annotating) is one of the best ways to understand what you are reading and begin to formulate your own ideas in response. Many of you have probably discovered that it is hard to take notes when reading online. Hypothesis is an annotation tool we will use to annotate readings for this class. When you open an assigned reading in Canvas (including this syllabus!), you’ll notice that when you select text, you are prompted to make an annotation. Please annotate actively as you read and respond to the annotations of your classmates. If you run into any technical issues, please send an e-mail to support@hypothes.is and copy me on the message.
Note: We’ll be using hypothesis from inside Canvas at the start of our class because it makes things simpler in a course setting, but I will introduce you all to Hypothesis “in the wild” when the time is right. Some of you may find that you want to use it as you begin exploring texts that you find on your own.
