Independent Team Projects

Here you will find information about the about the Independent Team Projects. We will update this page with more details and links to relevant resources, as the semester progresses.

Updated: 25 April, 2009

Justification

Our educational system must respond to the challenges of rapidly changing world. Rather than learning and regurgitating facts, students need to learn concepts, solve problems, and be creative at doing things that machines can't. See the first paragraph of Small Class Initiative.

Description

The video/web project will focus on creativity and team work. Start thinking what video you might create to teach the world ecological concepts and/or how to study nature. Aim at producing 5-15 minutes of video footage, possibly in several short segments.

Steps

  1. Form team of 2-6 individuals with a designated "coordinator."
    Names and contact information must be emailed by to pick@discoverlife.org by 5:00PM, Monday, 9 February. (1 point)
  2. Choose topic on either (1) an ecological concept, (2) how to study nature, or (3) on a focal species of management concern. Email title to Pick by 5:00PM, Wednesday, 11 February (1 point).
  3. Write outline of up to 250 words describing what you plan to do. Email this to Pick by 5:00PM, Friday, 13 February (2 points) or 5:00PM, Monday, 16 February (1 point).
  4. Refine concept and plan with input from advisors and Pick (February - March)
  5. Production (Depending on your topic, when it gets warmer.)
  6. Pre-view due 20 April, 5:00PM (1 point)
  7. Viewing at General Ecology Film Festival -- 26 April (assign remaining points).

Planning

The following should not restrict your creativity but might help you in planning a project:

  • Potential groups of organisms include (but are not restricted to) birds, freshwater insects, freshwater mussels and those listed here. Also consider plants such as Chinese Privet, English Ivy, Kudzu, Japanese Honeysuckle, Elaeagnus; fire ants, and many more invasive species.
  • Ecology, Science Standards, Georgia Department of Education. The pdf for Ecology, linked under "Science: New Course Standards," has 9 pages. The most helpful parts of this document are on pages 4-6 and 8-9. Also consider aspects of the standards for Botany, Entomology, and Zoology, if you wish to focus your project taxonomically.
  • Vision, One Laptop per Child. Do the children or Peru speak English? You could do your project in English and another language too.
  • ECOL 3500's Media Wiki. If you decide to use this technology, for technical support please contact Joe Carley, dl@discoverlife.org -- 706-542-6676.
  • testing your project locally by working with local schools. See Explore Your Schoolyard, particularly Cedar Shoals High School [contact Ms. Stella Guerrero, guerreros@clarke.k12.ga.us ] and Tree identification activity, Gaines Elementary School.
  • making a video, with voice over -- for examples, see
    • Discover Life workshop -- click on "Discover Life Workshop - Online Video" at the bottom of the page.
    • Videos, then link to "Bromeliads and poison dart frogs."
  • possible ideas:
If you decide to do an independent project, your team (or team's spokesperson) must meet with Pick and/or Mindy Edelson, medelson@uga.edu , his graduate student, to get input and make sure that your project is appropriate. At this meeting, we will set a date of the team's choosing between 18 February and 22 April for when the project should be completed. Assuming that your project is approved, a short electronic outline of it will be due a week after your meeting.

How to rent a video camera from UGA

Video cameras are available from the Center for Teaching and Learning, which is located below the Psychology-Journalism instructional plaza. Call 706-542-1582 to inquire. If a faculty member or TA arranges to take responsibility, then a digital camera is available at no cost. CTL also offers support services, and we will be able to help you with editing as well.

Contact Information

John Pickering -- pick@discoverlife.org -- 706-542-1115 -- 538 Biological Sciences Building (northeast corner of building)

Teams

  • English Ivy: The Silent Invader
    • Brandon Ruddell (coordinator) brandonruddell@gmail.com
    • Adam Joyave
    • Wesley Garland wgarland@uga.edu
  • Salamanders -- Advisor: Sam Droege sdroege@usgs.gov
    • Courtney Cripps (coordinator) ccripps@uga.edu
    • Jessica Goulding
    • Alex Alzheimer aalzheim@uga.edu
  • Frogs -- Advisors: Anna McKee mckeea@warnell.uga.edu; Robert Horan rvhoran@uga.edu
    • Joe Carley (coordinator) joe4@uga.edu
    • Jessie Lehrich
    • A. J. Limardo
    • Emily Norris
    • Brett Parker
  • Bees
    • Adam Jenks (coordinator) ajenks101@knology.net
    • Daniel Wills
    • William Hoffman
    • Andre Rose
    • Corey Gunn
  • War on Invasives: Chinese Privet and War on Invasives: Fire Ants
    • Meg Hubbard (coordinator) dancndog@uga.edu 404-444-5538
    • Emily Rosenblum erose@uga.edu 404-797-2065
    • Thu "Misa" Nguyen misan@uga.edu 678-977-7658
    • Rachael Childress rchil967@uga.edu 478-951-9248
    • Ojo Ajayi seunojo@gmail.com 229-869-7872
    • Stevenson Desforges saintd@uga.edu 404-432-5504
  • Disease Ecology -- Mosquitoes and Mosquito Larvae Guide
    • Cristina Basulescu (coordinator) cbasules@uga.edu
    • Nisha Patel patnisha@uga.edu
    • Amanda Doan adoan123@uga.edu
    • Lauren Bailey lbailey4@uga.edu
    • James Ashford jash08@uga.edu 706-296-7272
  • Water Quality and Conservation -- Aquatic Macroinvertebrates
    • Austin Todey (coordinator) todey4@uga.edu 770-289-2320
    • Alex Ward alexward@uga.edu 706-836-1807
    • Caroline Clary caro310@uga.edu 404-401=3464
    • Meredith Turpin mereturp@uga.edu 706-832-7665
    • David Fey davf3y@uga.edu 404-641-5874
  • Freshwater mussels -- Advisors: Art Bogan; Laurie Fowler fowler.laurie@gmail.com
    • Reema James (coordinator) reema329@uga.edu 404-451-6469
    • Bridget Staab bstaab@uga.edu 912-571-6518
    • Candace Betts crbetts@uga.edu 706-540-2142
    • Jen L Benoit jlb@uga.edu 404-931-2829
    • Dylan Radford dylanr@uga.edu
  • Crayfish -- Advisor: Alan Covich alanc@uga.edu 706-542-6006
    • Jane Hettinger (coordinator) jch88@uga.edu
    • Ethan Dean ewdean@uga.edu
    • Austin Martin
    • Patrick Tu
  • Ladybugs
    • Monica Sohani (coordinator) mlsohani@uga.edu 678-427-6074
    • Kelsea Croteau kcrote1@uga.edu 301-514-2314
    • Mike Dumaine mdumaine@uga.edu 678-458-3350
    • Jia Lee jialee@uga.edu 706-631-5776
    • Cole Wyatt coltrane@uga.edu 478-279-0900
    • Ryan Carty wrcarty@gmail.com 678-357-3288
  • Drosophila
    • Andrew Bernstein (coordinator) aberns@uga.edu 770-362-0984
    • Chris Beaumont cbeaumo@uga.edu 770-639-6811
    • Shahin Kashef skashef@uga.edu 404-429-1695
    • Max Sands smax86@uga.edu 518-275-7175
    • Khurram Qureshi kqureshi@uga.edu 404-409-8033
  • Athens Nature
    • Kevin Parsons (coordinator) hunt46@uga.edu
    • Robert King
    • Jordan Brown
    • Drew Cleary
    • Sarah Tew
  • "Mussel'ing in on Someone Else's Niche -- Zebra Mussel
    • Jessica Johnson (coordinator) jessijo@uga.edu 770-584-5925
    • Corey Tost ctost@uga.edu 770-375-0961
    • Violet Stamper vistamper@bellsouth.net 706-799-7658
    • Tiffany Stephens tstephe1@uga.edu 423-413-8485
    • Jessica Hall jessica@uga.edu 404-218-8473
  • Ticks as vectors of Lyme Disease
    • Meagan Grant (coordinator) mgrant89@uga.edu 229-834-7689
    • Martha Sanderson mes9788@uga.edu 678-777-7079
    • Whitney Triplett whit06@uga.edu 678-598-7464
    • Shayla George shaylaw2005@yahoo.com 706-495-7686
    • Muhammad Ally allymi@uga.edu706-296-5617
    • Andrew Lainhart jujujr3@uga.edu 706-498-2436
  • Kudzu
    • David Shuster (coordinator) dmshust@gmail.com
    • Ryan Harkins rharkins@uga.edu
    • Anna Carroll
    • Zac Doegg
  • Beach Succession
    • Dextor Mattox (coordinator) 7dmatto@gmail.com 912-223-1377
    • Allie Veltri veltri@uga.edu
    • Eamonn Green emgreen5@uga.edu
    • Gunter Bullock gbullock@uga.edu
    • Doug Weathers dougmw@uga.edu
  • Tree Diseases
    • Jonathan Chestnut (coordinator) jchest@uga.com
    • Johana Polanco jpolanco@uga.edu
    • Chris Wilson cwils0n@uga.edu
    • Jeff Nasworthy
    • Simone Moore mooresm@uga.edu
  • Tree Sampling
    • Andrew Keith (coordinator) wakeith1@uga.edu
    • Beau Martin martin12@uga.edu
    • Andrew Lainhart jujujr3@uga.edu
    • David Lyskowski dvl787@uga.edu
  • Slime Molds
    • Andrew Johnson (coordinator) amjohn87@uga.edu
    • Kanwal Kapadia
    • April McDaniel
    • Alicha Haire alhaire@gmail.com
  • Chinese Privet
    • Haresh Modha (coordinator) hsmodha@uga.edu
    • Anshul Acharya anshul@uga.edu
    • Arun Kanjirathingal
  • Forest Succession
    • Linh Quach (coordinator) quachld@uga.edu
    • Jessica Oakley jloakley@uga.edu
    • Charles McCoy
    • Ken Avila kuyapnoy@uga.edu
    • Ibtesam Haider
    • Phillip Nowicki pnowicki@uga.edu
    • Jarrett Cook jcook161@uga.edu 229-254-3547
  • Ants
    • Melissa Cook (coordinator) mcook@uga.edu
    • Bryan Bardash bardash9@gmail.com
    • Katie Hill kateh@uga.edu
    • Hasanthi Piyasena hpiya@uga.edu
    • Morgan Dawson mkdawson@uga.edu
  • Mushrooms
    • Brittany Gilmore (coordinator) brittanygilmore@gmail.com
    • Rachael Gaas rach1203@uga.edu
    • Meghan Goyette meghan.goyette@gmail.com
    • Jim Lifsey jlifsey@uga.edu
    • Josh Wright jmw3235@uga.edu
    • Brandon Kryak bkryak88@uga.edu

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