Syllabus for Prairie Ecosystems

• March 27th, Intro day "How to save the world, First steps" Lecture NotesPrairieIntro.ppt

Section 1: Prairie, A Natural History

• March 29th, The dominant plants of the North American prairie Chapters 1 and C (WhereIsHere1.ppt) and EncyclopediaChicagoHistory
• March 31th (Sat), local walks and first photos (for more details see Naturalist Guide on Assignments page) Try local Burnham Praire 49th/Cornell
• April 3rd, Digging into the Past Chapter 2 (DiggingIntoPast.ppt and movies tecall1_4.avi, NDVIglobemovie.mov)
• April 5th, The Geography of Grasses Chapter 3 GeographyofGrass.ppt
  • Naturalist guide Part A due (5 pictures and your account)
• April 7th (Sat) Midewin Prairie 
• April 10th, Fire and Secrets of the Soil chapter 4SectetsOfSoil.ppt Note on Garlic Mustard! original paper  or review GarlicMustard.pdf
• April 12th, Abiotic Soil types, Home on the Range chapter 5, Animals of the prairie, Role of disturbance from herbivores HomeOnTheRangea.ppt
• April 14th (Sat), Morton Arboretum Leave 7:45am Quad Gate on 57th. also Step it Up! 12-2 Daley Plaza.
• April 17th, Prairie waterways and wetlands Chapter 6 (sorry it was a bit depressing DeadZone!)WaterOfLife.ppt
• April 19th, Oak Savannas Chapter 7Quercus.ppt
• April 21st (Sat), Earth Day! many options, what do you suggest? Green Festival at McCormik Place Sat or Sunday
• April 24th, Farming and looking ahead Chapter 8-9AgricultureandPrairies.ppt
• April 26th, Midterm exammidtermResults.ppt - old school style short answer Midterm.doc in class results
• April 28th (Sat), Indiana Dunes National Park confirmed prairie tour
• May 1st, Thomas Whitlam "Community and ecosystem consequences of climate change using our work on poplars and pinyon pine"
• Mueller et al. 2005 Journal of Ecology.pdf Gitlin et al. 2006 Conservation Biology.pdf Brown et al. Science 2001.pdf
• May 3rd, Ecological Succession, Chicago Wilderness article Henry Chandler Cowles of the University of Chicago 1899 Botanical Gazette Cowels.ppt
• May 5th (Sat FieldTrips) Indiana Dunes Succession tour confirmed 10am-12pm leave 8:45am 57th Uni gate.

Section 2: Agriculture and development and Sustainability

• May 8th, What's in the Eco Footprint? How can we reduce it? How does yours compare to your family? to other countries? Early paper ecofoot.pdf
  • UChicago Sustainability and full report lectureecofootprintJB.ppt
• May 10th, Biofuels lecture Biofuel.ppt details biofuel
• May 12th (Sat) open, May 13th (Sun) consider Laurie Garden Millenium Park tour 10am
• May 15th, Farm Bill (Geoff Morris) article by Michael Pollan
• May 17th, Local Prairie Birds, migration, habitat etc. Aaron Turkewitz (MGCB)
• May 19th (Sat), open
• May 22nd, Campus garden walk Richard Bumstead (campus species list) lets press him about this proposalPRAIRIE GARDEN.pdf
• May 24th, 10min project PRESENTATIONS Bucky, Green Roof group, Matt. April
• May 26th (Sat), open May 27th (Sun) Trip with Liam Heneghan to Mettawa with some brush cutting! SEE THE Cicadas from Mettawa
• May 29th, 10min project PRESENTATIONS Francis, David, Janine, Araba, Aaron, Kate Norland, Andrew , Kat
• May 31th, 10min project PRESENTATIONS - Jim, Amanda, 63rd group, Julia