Human Ecology

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• Human Ecology
• for 1st Grade BA Students
• Siranush Galstyan, RS, Armenia

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Contents

• General information
• Objectives of the course
• Description of the course
• Teaching methods
• Requirements of the course
• Assessment
• Learning outcomes
• Experience gained
• Enabling Framework
• Constraints/Limitations
• Opportunities

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General information

• Compulsory course
• One-semester long course
• 1st grade BA students
• Being revised

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Objectives of the course

• The main objectives of the course are as follows
• Present anthropoecosystems as an object of human
  ecology with human societies in the center having
  different impacts on and getting impacts from the
  environment
• Show the influence of different factors on human
  societies (natural, social, economic, industrial
  and others)
• Provide information on the impact of human
  societies on the environment (global and local)
• Stimulate environmental thinking of students
  through participatory lectures and discussions.

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Description of the course

• Anthropoecosystem is a spacial system, which
  provides a basis for the formation of main
  social-demographic characteristics of human
  society, such as territorial-gender structure,
  demographic behavior, social-psychological
  status, health condition, spiritual world,
  cultural and national traditions and others
• Factors having impact on human society, including
  environmental factors and pollution
• Main aspects of human-environment interrelation
  and in general the problems caused by human to
  nature due to anthropogenic impact
• Urban and rural ecology.

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Factors having impact on human societies

• Natural environment
• Pollution
• Population
• Economy
• Social conditions, etc.

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Changes in human societies due to the impact of
different factors

• Demographic behavior
• Health quality
• Ecological thinking and awareness
• Professional preferences
• Education level, etc.

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Teaching methods

• Interactive lectures with active participation of
  students including discussions, question-answer
  sessions and others for stimulating a) students
  capacity to express themselves and defend their
  points by logical reasoning and b) environmental
  thinking
• Handouts as visual tool for improving the uptake
  of the material and the overall quality of
  classes

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Teaching methods (continuation)

• Group works for students to deal with an
  assignment discussion in the group, summarizing
  results, presenting to the class
• Presentations by students on different topics
  with following discussion and question-answer
  session
• Field trips to the Museum of the Nature of
  Armenia guided tour in the Museum to see in
  practice what was discussed during classes and
  examples of human-environment interaction.

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First class questionnaire

• Have you heard about Human Ecology as a
  discipline?
• What are the global problems of Human society
  Natural environment interrelations? Provide the
  answer with examples.
• Bring examples of local/national problems of
  Human society natural environment
  interrelations.
• What are the problems of urban population in
  connection with the environment?
• What are the problems of rural residents in
  connection with the environment?

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Requirements of the course

• Attendance
• Participation in discussions/group works
• Performance during review
• Performance during final assessment
• Reading
• Participation in field trip
• Presentation (optional)

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Evaluation by students

• How do you evaluate the course on Human
  Ecology?
• a) Contents and information of the material
  delivered.
• excellent good average bad
• b) Teaching methods and feedback from the
  instructor.
• excellent good average bad
• c) Opportunities for informal learning and
  research activities.
• excellent good average bad
• d) Preparedness of the instructor and material
  delivery.
• excellent good average bad
• Would you like to have a longer course?
• yes no
• Would you like to attend another course by the
  same instructor?
• yes no
• Other comments on the delivery of the course. . .
  . . . . . . . . . .
• Other remarks and comments for the improvement of
  the course contents and delivery in the future .
  . . . . . . . . . .

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Pass-fail assessment

• Assessment includes the following components
• Attendance and active participation during
  classes
• Answer during final assessment
• Review performance
• Participation in field trip
• Presentation is a plus.
• Formative assessment

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Learning outcomes of the course

• At the end of the course students are expected
  to
• Have general view on different components of
  anthropoecosystem
• Know and analyze main aspects of human-nature
  interrelation
• Have stimulated environmental thinking
• Have basic presentation skills and group work
  experience (transferable skills).

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Experience gained

• Interactive classes. The active involvement of
  students in the classes, discussions and
  possibility to express their views make them more
  interested and motivated to attend, learn and
  become a part of the class.
• Group-work assignments. Students positive
  attitude. They become a team defending common
  decision work in smaller groups enables shy
  students to participate.
• Presentations by students. Students positive
  attitude and willingness to make and listen to
  presentation.

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Experience gained (continuation)

• Field trips as recently introduced teaching
  method. Requests to have such trips organized
  also for students from other departments.
• Extracurricular events are rather welcomed and
  well participated by the students. Visits to
  resource centers, sessions on CV writing,
  presentation skills, introduction of
  scholarship/fellowship opportunities and those to
  participate at conferences and get published.

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Enabling Framework

• Support by the Department and Faculty
  administration to both the course and teaching
  methods applied.
• Expression of interest from students to get
  involved and participate in assignments, trips
  and other.
• Support by AFP to have an appropriate level of
  teaching thanks to the availability of teaching
  materials, handouts and others.

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Constraints/Limitations

• The lack of teaching/reading material in Armenian
  language translation work from Russian/English
  sources use of materials in other languages to
  some extent impact the efficiency of intake.
• Big size of the class.

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Opportunities

• To revise the course on the basis of the
  experience gained as well as fellows feedback
  from class audits and CRC/AFP comments/recommendat
  ions.
• To have more group-work assignments and
  presentations by students to ensure their better
  participation and individual work.
• To have more field trips (also with participation
  of students from other departments and lecturers).

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• Thank you for attention!