BIO 101B FIU Environmental Socioeconomic and Public Health Questions

BIO 101B is an approved General Education and Distribution course, and as such meets the learning goal for Physical/Biological Sciences described below. This course is also an approved Quality Enhancement Program course and as such meets the Personal Social Responsibility goal described below. Students will meet these goals by: 1) interpreting the data from a scientific paper; 2) applying what they have learned in class to their own personal behaviors so as to demonstrate personal and social responsibility regarding environmental issues. Learning Goals for the Discipline Personal Social Responsibility Learning Goal Outcome(s)/ Assignment Rubric GENERAL EDUCATION/DISTRIBUTION/PSR ASSESSMENT CHART All courses which satisfy the University General Education/Distribution requirements in Physical/Biological Sciences meet the following learning goal(s): To develop an understanding of scientific concepts with emphasis upon scientific observation, scientific methods, analytical thinking, and scientific literacy. Engaging Diverse Perspectives: Goal 1: Students gather, analyze, and thoughtfully use evidence and multiple perspectives to support their own ideas. To demonstrate scientific literacy, scientific observation, a comprehension of scientific methods and applied analytical thinking, the students will read the abstract and analyze a data figure from a scientific paper from the primary literature. The students will use the knowledge they have gained in the class to discuss the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on them, as well as the ways in which they can help alleviate the problem. The student’s papers will be graded for clarity, organization, writing, as well as scientific content and scientific accuracy. A detailed grading rubric will be provided. Satisfactory demonstration of this outcome will be indicated by a score of 3 or higher on the assignment rubric. The rubric for this assignment, including both General Education/ Distribution and PSR traits, is attached. The assignment is to be submitted through Canvas by Tuesday October 25, 2022 at 11:59pm. No late submissions will be allowed. The assignment will not be graded if it is submitted through email. The assignment is taken from the source below: Chen, et al. (2011) Rapid range shifts of species associated with high levels of climate warming. Science 333: 1024-1026. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1206432 Read the following abstract and data figure from a research paper, and answer the following questions relating to the figure: Abstract: The distributions of many terrestrial organisms are currently shifting in latitude or elevation in response to changing climate. Using a meta-analysis, we estimated that the distributions of species have recently shifted to higher elevations at a median rate of 11.0 meters per decade, and to higher latitudes at a median rate of 16.9 kilometers per decade. These rates are approximately two and three times faster than previously reported. The distances moved by species are greatest in studies showing the highest levels of warming, with average latitudinal shifts being generally sufficient to track temperature changes. However, individual species vary greatly in their rates of change, suggesting that the range shift of each species depends on multiple internal species traits and external drivers of change. Rapid average shifts derive from a wide diversity of responses by individual species. Fig. 2 Observed latitudinal shifts of the northern range boundaries of species within four exemplar taxonomic groups, studied over 25 years in Britain. (A) Spiders (85 species), (B) ground beetles (59 species), (C) butterflies (29 species), and (D) grasshoppers and allies (22 species). Positive latitudinal shifts indicate movement toward the north (pole); negative values indi cate shifts toward the south (Equator). The solid line shows zero shift, the short-dashed line indicates the median observed shift, and the long-dashed line indicates the predicted range shift. 1. What hypothesis are the researchers testing with these data? 2. Describe the results presented in the figure—what do you conclude from interpreting these data? Do you think the researchers’ hypothesis was correct? 3. Explain how anthropogenic climate change will have (or has had) direct negative effects on you personally, and describe the ultimate causes of anthropogenic climate change. 4. Describe specific actions you can take (or have taken) to lessen your contribution to anthropogenic climate change. FORMAT: • Your paper must be 500-700 words long, with no cover sheet. • Scientific names must be italicized or underlined. The genus should be capitalized, the species should not be capitalized. ex: Thalassia testudinum. • There should be no spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors. • The paper will be graded according to the rubric shown below. Be sure to read the rubric carefully so you know exactly what is expected of this assignment. • Please have your name and date submitted on the paper. • Papers must be submitted via upload to the Canvas course site by the due date indicated in the syllabus. Assessment Description of research hypothesis (20 pts): o Is the hypothesis written clearly? o Does the hypothesis make sense based on the data given? Description and interpretation of results (20 pts): o Is the conclusion written clearly? o Is the conclusion accurate based on the data given? o Does the student use the results to correctly determine whether the authors’ original hypothesis is supported or not? Effects of climate change (20 pts): o Does the student give specific examples of ways in which climate change will personally affect them? o Does the student demonstrate an understanding of the causes of climate change? Demonstration of personal/social responsibility (20 pts): o Does the student give specific examples of actions that will lessen their environmental impact related to anthropogenic climate change? o Does the student explain how these actions will lessen their environmental impact? Grammar, spelling, format (20 pts): o Are there no grammatical or spelling mistakes? o Has the student used his/her own words? o Are scientific names used properly? TOTAL SCORE: Excelle nt Good Fair Poor Unsatisfact ory 20 15 10 5 0 20 15 10 5 0 20 15 10 5 0 20 15 10 5 0 20 15 10 5 0