BIOL * 4040 – Natural Resources Policy W (3-0) [0.50]

This course involves a lot of group work. There are 4 or 5 group projects in total, all of them to be presented to the class with an accompanying briefing note. There is also a final individual assignment to be submitted at the end of the year. Marks are based on the professor's and fellow classmate's assessment of the presentation and briefing note. There is also a group mark assigned anonymously by fellow group members for each assignment. The professor does not teach the course in a lecture style, preferring to have all the topics to be taught to the class through peer presentations. This has advantages and disadvantages, as you learn an extensive amount on the topic you are researching, but also makes it difficult to learn the other group's topics in any depth since the presentations and briefing notes are very limited by time and length constraints. The content of the presentations is also not reviewed by the professor prior to presentations, which can sometimes call into question the accuracy of the information being presented to you. Instructions are sometimes difficult to understand or follow, but the course also gives students a good chance to hone their presentation skills, teaches them how write a good briefing note and forces them to learn to be succinct.