Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m., and by appointment

Please Note: It is my pleasure to do what I can to help you meet your goals in this class. If you find yourself having trouble, please send me e-mail, use my office hours, or set up an appointment to see me.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This seminar focuses on the intersection of American environmental history and the history of science in the United States. Some questions we will consider through our readings and discussions include: How have Americans used science to understand and manipulate nature, and what have been the results? In what ways have environmental problems prompted scientific inquiries? How has science been used to ameliorate ecological abuses? How has it been used–knowingly or not–to perpetrate them? Exploring these questions and more will reveal how science and nature connect in U.S. history and culture, revealing influences in political, economic, and social worlds.

As an Honors Seminar, this course is designed to introduce a new topic and explore it broadly and collectively. We will read widely, question actively, and discuss deeply. Firm conclusions and solid answers will be less likely than more questions and new avenues to explore. One measure of success for this course, then, will be the new ideas you encounter and the different questions you leave with.

ASSIGNED BOOKS

I have asked the UI Bookstore to order the following books. You may find them cheaper elsewhere.

· Donald Worster, Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, second edition

· Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, with Related Documents, ed. by David Waldstreicher

· Aaron Sachs, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism

· Robert E. Kohler, Landscapes and Labscapes: Exploring the Lab-Field Border in Biology

· Nancy Langston, Forest Dreams, Forest Nightmares: The Paradox of Old Growth in the Inland West

· Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

· Spencer R. Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming

· Joseph M. Williams, Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, second edition (highly recommended short text on writing)

· Other reading assignments will be placed on reserve or found on the web.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Participation (20%): The seminar is designed for discussion, which only works when students have come prepared, having read the assignment carefully and critically and ready to offer your thoughts, ideas, and questions about the reading. Participation will be evaluated by contributions to discussions, attendance, and in-class assignments, through general observations by professor and sometimes peers. Talking a lot is not necessarily a surefire way to get high grades here (although never speaking is not a positive alternative either). Good participation requires thoughtful listening, intelligent questioning, and careful responses.

Response Papers (3 * 16.67% = 50%): Periodically, you will turn in response papers based on the readings from the previous few weeks. My inclination is not to assign specific questions for you to answer but to allow you to explore the themes that speak most to you from selected readings. (If this is too open-ended, I can come up with questions for you.) I expect these essays to not be simply personal reflections on what you thought were interesting points. Instead, you should use the papers to explore ideas and connections prompted by the readings, dealing seriously with the ideas presented in various works. The essays should be interpretive and contain a thesis. They ought to be at least five pages, typed, double-spaced, and with proper notes.

Research Project (5% presentation + 25% paper = 30%): Undoubtedly, the readings for the course only skimmed over in passing or not at all some topics that will interest you. To give you the opportunity to research into an area where science and nature in U.S. history intersect, you will complete a short, specific research project (six to eight pages) and a brief presentation to the class (15 minutes).

POLICIES

Late Work Policy: Your grade drops one full grade for each day your work is late. This is in effect for the first four days. After that, a completed paper can earn up to 50% of the assigned grade. With legitimate, documented excuses or for absences arranged ahead of time, exceptions can be made.

Grade Challenges: I am willing to entertain grade challenges provided they are submitted in writing and that you wait 48 hours after the assignment is returned before you hand in your objection. You will then need to set up an appointment with me to discuss the assignment and grade. You must initiate this process within one week of the time the assignment was returned to the class.

Plagiarism: To plagiarize is to present someone else’s work as your own. To present someone else’s work as your own means to use someone else’s information, ideas, or writing without explicitly acknowledging with quotation marks and/or citations that the ideas and/or writing are not your own. You may be plagiarizing even if you are not directly quoting. Plagiarism is a serious offense and I will give a 0 to the first assignment in which a student plagiarizes. If a student plagiarizes again, I will fail that student in the course. If you have ANY questions or confusions about plagiarism, please let me know before you turn in your work. It is essential to be using others’ ideas and information; however, you just must provide credit where credit is due. You may find additional information about Academic Honesty (and dishonesty) as part of the Student Code of Conduct: (http://www.students.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=56182).

Accommodations: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Please notify me during the first week of class of an accommodation(s) needed for the course. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations must be approved through Disability Support Services located in the Idaho Commons Building, Rm. 333, 885-7200, or dss@uidaho.edu.

SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Please have the assigned reading read before coming to class on a given day. Course participation depends on your willingness to have read and considered the readings before classes. If changes to this schedule are needed, they will be announced in class and posted on the website.

In addition, I will be assigning articles often to supplement the readings. I will announce those in class and post them with links to UI Library’s Reserve or to the web on my website.

WEEK ONE

Thursday, January 10

Read: Syllabus

WEEK TWO

Tuesday, January 15

Read: Worster, Preface, Parts One and Two

Thursday, January 17

Read: Worster, Part Three

WEEK THREE

Tuesday, January 22

Read: Worster, Part Four and Five

Thursday, January 24

Read: Worster, Part Six

WEEK FOUR

Tuesday, January 29

Read: Jefferson, Preface, Introduction, Documents 4, 5, 8, 11, and 12 (through p. 129); selection from I. Bernard Cohen, Science and the Founding Fathers: Science in the Political Thought of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and James Madison (New York: Norton, 1995) (e-reserve).

Thursday, January 31

Read: Jefferson, Document 12 (from p. 129) and 13

WEEK FIVE

Tuesday, February 5

Read: Richard W. Judd, "A 'Wonderfull Order and Ballance': Natural History and the Beginnings of Forest Conservation in America, 1730-1830," Environmental History 11 (January 2006): online; Benjamin R. Cohen, "Surveying Nature: Environmental Dimension's of Virginia's First Scientific Survey, 1835-1842," Environmental History 11 (January 2006): online.

Thursday, February 7

Read: NA

First Reflection Paper Due

WEEK SIX

Tuesday, February 12

Read: Sachs, Prologue, Ch. 1, Part One and Two

Thursday, February14

Read: Sachs, Part Three

WEEK SEVEN

Tuesday, February 19

Read: Sachs, Part Four, Ch. 10, and Epilogue

Thursday, February 21

Read: Kohler, Preface, Chs. 1-3

WEEK EIGHT

Tuesday, February 26

Read: Kohler, Chs. 4-6

Thursday, February 28

Read: Kohler, Chs. 7-9

WEEK NINE

Tuesday, March 4

Read: Langston, vii-ix, 3-113

Thursday, March 6

Read: Langston, 114-200

SPRING BREAK

WEEK TEN

Tuesday, March 18

Read: Langston, 201-306

Thursday, March 20

Read: No Class; Turn in Second Reflection Paper by e-mail by Friday at 5:00.

WEEK ELEVEN

Tuesday, March 25

Read: Carson, Introduction, Chs. 1-4

Thursday, March 27

Read: Carson, Chs. 5-10; Joshua Blu Buhs, "The Fire Ant Wars: Nature and Science in the Pesticide Controversies of the Late Twentieth Century," Isis 93 (2002): 377-400 (handed out in class).

WEEK TWELVE

Tuesday, April 1

Read: Carson, Chs. 11-14

Thursday, April 3

Read: Carson, Chs., 15-17, Afterword

WEEK THIRTEEN

Tuesday, April 8

Read: Maril Hazlett, "'Woman Vs. Man Vs. Bugs': Gender and Popular Ecology in Early Reactions to Silent Spring," Environmental History 9 (October 2004): 701-29 (online); Linda Nash, "The Fruits of Ill-Health: Pesticides and Workers' Bodies in Post-World War II California," Osiris 19 (2004): online.

Thursday, April 10

Read: Weart, Preface, Chs. 1-5

WEEK FOURTEEN

Tuesday, April 15

Read: Class visit with Matthew Klingle, Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Bowdoin College; Matthew W. Klingle, "Plying Atomic Waters: Lauren Donaldson and the 'Fern Lake Concept' of Fisheries Management," Journal of the History of Biology 31 (1998): 1-32 (online).

Thursday, April 17

Read: Weart, Chs. 6-8, Reflections; Mark Carey, "The History of Ice: How Glaciers Became an Endangered Species," Environmental History 12 (July 2007): online.

WEEK FIFTEEN

Tuesday, April 22

Read: No Class Meeting; Hand in Paper; Prepare for Presentations.

Third Reflection Paper Due

Thursday, April 24

Read: Class Presentations (Caleb and Brad)

WEEK SIXTEEN

Tuesday, April 29

Read: Class Presentations (Elizabeth and Nathan)

Thursday, May 1

Read: Individual Meetings (if desired)

FINAL EXAM

Wednesday, May 7, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

No exam.

Turn in final research paper to my office during the scheduled exam

For additional expectations and course learning outcomes, see website.