Chuck Cannon

Your next assignment is to write a short essay (800-1500 words) about one of the assigned readings.  Please do a bit of research as well and find a couple of related papers as references.  Properly cite your references, using the bibliographic style of the paper you are writing about.

Just post these on your own blog by the evening of Aug 1.

We’re having a bit of trouble communicating with everyone over the past few days, so I am putting a white board next to the entrance of the office/lab building that you pass through on the way to the third floor lecture room.  I realize that not everyone has easy access to the internet and this blog.  For that reason, if you read this, please spread the word about the board.  Please pay attention to the announcement board each day.  Thanks!

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I always believe things should be natural and fluid and adaptable.  This means that I have never seen a schedule that I could not modify at the last minute, because things always change.  So, here’s the latest concept for the schedule for that last week or so of our time together.

No lecture tonight.  We will postpone Matt’s talk about using phylogenies in ecology for a few days because of a conflict with one group’s night time activities (no, it is not just a BBQ).  So, you are ‘free’ tonight.

HA!  But, I do have an assignment.  You shall revise your proposals, given the comments that you have received both online and in personal, and upload them as a new topic.  Let’s not try and continue the old ones.

There revised proposals are due by July 28 in the evening.

I will then assign you each to give a peer review of at least one proposal.

Chuck

We’re actually having a bit of problem with the posting page.  Please finish your proposals and we will work out how to post them.

Proposal format

Each proposal should have the following items in this order.

• Title
• Names of team members
• Introduction, including a brief discussion of relevant literature
• Questions to be answered or Hypotheses to be tested
• Methods (should include all of the following, not necessarily in this order)
  • (HINT: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!)
  • describe your sampling protocol and method
  • how many samples are you going to collect
  • where are you going to collect your samples
  • do you have any preliminary data yet?
  • Which data is critical to your question – which data can be considered “additional”
• Schedule (a detailed time line of your activities, answering the following questions)
  • will you collect ‘pilot’ data?
  • Will you have enough time to collect the required data?
  • Estimate how much time you will require analyzing the data
• Discussion
  • What are the potential problems you might face?
  • What are the limitations of your approach?
  • What outputs do you expect?
  • Are you going to require any special assistance completing this project?

Proposal format

Each proposal should have the following items in this order.

• Title
• Names of team members
• Introduction, including a brief discussion of relevant literature
• Questions to be answered or Hypotheses to be tested
• Methods (should include all of the following, not necessarily in this order)
  • (HINT: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!)
  • describe your sampling protocol and method
  • how many samples are you going to collect
  • where are you going to collect your samples
  • do you have any preliminary data yet?
  • Which data is critical to your question – which data can be considered “additional”
• Schedule (a detailed time line of your activities, answering the following questions)
  • will you collect ‘pilot’ data?
  • Will you have enough time to collect the required data?
  • Estimate how much time you will require analyzing the data
• Discussion
  • What are the potential problems you might face?
  • What are the limitations of your approach?
  • What outputs do you expect?
  • Are you going to require any special assistance completing this project?

Hi everyone, I really enjoyed the discussions we had tonight.  Glad to see some of you so interested in these topics.  As you can see from the Live! website, we’ve got a new way to continue these discussions.  I am sorry that Surya had to drag me away tonight but please continue to post your ideas, questions, and comments.

I am sure that everyone is excited about the course and many of you will soon be on your way to Xishuangbanna.  We’ve been very busy (okay, mainly Kari) getting all of the details worked out and to have everything ready for your arrival.  I am confident that the course will be a rich and rewarding experience for all of us.

While the AFEC-X program is focused on ‘fieldwork’, it is becoming increasingly easy to maintain access and connection to the internet and the virtual world-at-large and technology is playing a bigger and bigger role in every aspect of science.  We hope to introduce you to some of these technological advances and maybe even explore some new ones!

One of these technological advances we’d like to explore is the use of blogging and ‘virtual’ interaction to create an exciting record of the course and to allow your friends and families to share your experiences.  One of the best things about the idea is that it is “LIVE” – as you can see from the name – we hope to actively update the site almost every day and we invite you, the students, to contribute your ideas, comments, photos, funny stories, and even criticisms.  As usual, please be polite and considerate in your posts.

I think we are going to have a lot of fun over the next four weeks and I really look forward to getting to know each of you.

Have a safe journey and all the best,

Chuck Cannon