The purpose of this report is to distill advances in the science of air pollution thresholds and to describe their use to assess, protect and manage the nation’s ecosystems and the vital services they provide. We focus here on the environmental impacts of nitrogen, sulfur, and mercury and refer to connections to climate change. The discussion draws on the published research of hundreds o...
Students, especially those from the inland parts of a country, tend to have a “terrestrial-centric” view of Earth. For some, exploration of marine ecosystems may occur only during holidays or while watching the Discovery channel. The idea that oceans have pathogens that cause devastating diseases in a variety of organisms is
less familiar to students than human diseases and medical treatment...
Can transgenes be kept on a leash?” ask Marvier and Van Acker in the [attached] review article. “No”, they answer, “the movement of transgenes beyond their intended destination is a virtual certainty”, and furthermore “it is unlikely that transgenes can be retracted once they have escaped”. Would these bold statements engage students, revealing the realities and complexities of gene...
Understanding the complexity of ecosystems at all scales, macro to micro, is challenging for students (and scientists!) to unravel. Sklar and colleagues present the engaging problem of the restoration of the Florida Everglades [attached], including history, biology, hydrology, modeling, and regulatory morasses. Students need to learn how to derive and interconnect biological concepts from the...
The Pathways articles to date were intended to engage faculty in teaching, learning, and assessment, especially
in large enrollment courses. The challenge for many faculty who have changed their courses is to determine if the innovations actually improve student learning. This leads some faculty towards research models that require empirical evidence based on student assessment data. Here we...