Academic Program: HWS Queensland Program

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Lecturer Profiles
  3. Course Descriptions
  4. Guest Lecturers
  5. Field Work
  6. Additional Information on the HWS Queensland Term
  7. Resources: Biodiversity and the Australian Environment

Introduction

Three courses made up the formal academic program of the 1994 HWS Term in Queensland. The course titles were: (1) The Biology of Australian Plants and Animals, (2) Biodiversity, and (3)Applied Statistics. Two faculty from the University of Queensland, Dr David Yates of the Department of Botany and Dr Ian R Tibbetts of the School of Marine Science, provided the core of lectures for the first two courses. These lectures were supplemented by individual guest lecturers presenting material on various topics. The statistics course was taught by Dr Kevin Mitchell of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Hobart and William Smith.

Lecturer Profiles

Dr Ian Tibbetts

Raised in the south west of England, Ian spent his early years fossicking on the shores of the English Channel. He pursued his interest in marine life by taking an honours degree in Marine Biology at the University of Wales and then travelled to Australia to commence a Ph.D. in Zoology.

Alongside the research for his thesis, Ian became involved in teaching marine biology, both to undergraduate students and to visitors to Australia. Various opportunities led to him to continue his involvement with community and undergraduate education, and work for the Australian Government fisheries research organization. For a period, Ian was involved in the management of educational travel programs with the TraveLearn unit at The University of Queensland.

Upon completion of his PhD studies on the biology and ecology of garfish he took a lecturing position in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Queensland where he currently administers the business of the School, gives undergraduates lectures on marine biology and supervises postgraduate students in fish biology and ecology.

Marine zoologist Ian Tibbetts discusses a type of jellyfish with students on the beach near Pt Lookout on North Stradbroke Island.

He is currently the Secretary of the Australian Coral Reef Society and Editor of the Australian Marine Science Bulletin. He lives near the shores of Moreton Bay with his wife Wendy and their three children, Daniel, Hannah and Rachel.

Dr David Yates

David Yates has been a member of the Botany Department at The University of Queensland for 17 years and a university teacher for over 20 years. He holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and Doctor of Philosophy Degrees from The University of Melbourne and has almost completed a Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Further Education and Training).

David is a keen teacher and teaches science and agricultural science students in a variety of subjects relating to plants and their environment, aspects of plant ecophysiology and rainforest biology. His doctoral research related to the importance of the angle of sunlight on the leaves of crop plants. His current research interests include aspects of the microclimate of rainforests and how light interacts with plant leaves.

He lived and worked in Indonesia for two and a half years and has returned there several times. He recently returned from conducting his second Indonesian Study Tour for botany, ecology and agricultural science students.

David is married to Jill who works teaching English to newly arrived migrant children for the Queensland Government. She also acted as a leader of the Indonesian Study Tours. They have two sons, one of whom is taking the second year of a Bachelor of Engineering degree, and the other is still in High School.

Botanist David Yates discusses a particular species of tree with students at Mt Coot-tha.

Students developed a very close relationship with both Yates and Tibbetts (first name basis), which was fostered by the field trips. It was clear that Yates and Tibbetts had the needs of the HWS students foremost in the design of the program. Both were genuinely interested in teaching which is not rewarded in a university setting in the same way that it is at the Colleges.

Course Descriptions

Biol 231: Australian Plants and Animals
The flora and fauna endemic to the Australian continent were the primary foci of the course. Through the four major field trips, habitats such as the Great Barrier Reef, rainforests, and the Bush were were studied in detail. The plants and animals course was reorganized as an Australian marine and terrestrial biology course since each of the field trips had a distinct marine or terrestrial focus which always included a plant and an animal component.

Assessment: Grading for the course was based on a poster project describing the climate of a selected Australian city or town, a report based on field exercises carried out at Stradbroke Island, and a final project described below.

The final project: The material for this may be drawn from any material presented in lectures, field trips, books or papers you have read, or indeed any reliable source. The aim of this exercise is for you to integrate and apply some of the information you obtain. This will require you to think! The primary tasks you will undertake in the essay are described below.

Where you draw on material you have read, this must be referenced in a proper fashion. Whilst you may share resources and sources with other students, the work must be your own.

Bids 319: Biodiversity
Biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms: the different plants, animals and microorganisms, the genes they contain, and the ecosystems they form. This living wealth is the product of hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history. In places as ancient as Australia, this history can still be seen today in 'living fossils' whose origins date back hundreds of millions of years. Evolution implies that the pool of living diversity is dynamic: it increases when new genetic variation is produced, a new species is created or a novel ecosystem formed; it decreases when the genetic variation within a species decreases, a species becomes extinct or an ecosystem complex is destroyed. The concept emphasises the interrelated nature of the living world and its processes. The course examined diversity at three different levels: genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity.

Assessment: Grading for the course was based on two reports based on replicate samplings done at Stradbroke and Lady Elliot Islands, an hour exam covering the theoretical basis and methodologies of biodiversity, and a final project described below.

The final project: Choose a particular system (ecosystem, habitat or community) and prepare a report (actual or hypothetical) concerning the biodiversity and management of the system. The report should include: a description of the system; a methods section, in which you describe how you would measure actual biodiversity and the capacity of the system; a data analysis section, in which you describe how you would treat the data (or if it is an actual study, how you treated the data and what you found); a description of the anthropogenic pressures impinging on the system; appropriate management measures/responses; illustrative examples from other areas (drawn from your own experience, reading or lectures); and, a section detailing national and international treaties which might be used in support of your management recommendations.

Math 251: Applied Statistics
For students who have not had any course in statistics, this course with its emphasis on nonparametric statistics will offer a sound introduction to the subject. Nonparametric statistics are an especially effective way to learn about "statistical thinking" because the statistics themselves are often very intuitive and for small samples they can usually be calculated "by hand".

For students who have had some statistics before, it is quite likely that you spent much of the time working with parametric statistics using statistical tests based on the normal distribution and its relatives. While these test are very powerful, the underlying assumption of the "normality" of the data set can be hard to verify for the small samples that students often collect. Nonparametric statistics provide a useful alternative in such cases.

For all students, the use of nonparametric statistics provides an environment where the concepts of hypothesis testing and confidence levels are central and calculations are relatively simple.

Text: Gottfried E. Noether: Introduction to Statistics -- The Nonparametric Way.

Topics: The main topics of the course were:

Assessment: There will be three exams in the course each worth 25%. The final 25% will come from homework and other short projects or reports.

Guest Lecturers

Though Yates and Tibbetts were in charge of the biology and biodiversity courses, much of the lecturing in Brisbane was carried out by guest lecturers (17 in all). The local staff lectured on areas of their own particular expertise, so students had a wonderful opportunity to hear first-rate people. The complete list of guest lecturers and their topics, including those at field locations, follows.

John Kirkwood:
Introduction and History of Biodiversity; Biodiversity of Antarctic Ecosystems; Conservation of Global Biodiversity
Julia Playford:
Concepts of Biodiversity; The Ancient Flora of Australia; Genetics of Biodiversity
David Lamb:
Measurement of Biodiversity; The Ecology of Australian Plants
Tim Hamley:
The Ancient Fauna of Australia
Jack Greenwood:
Moreton Bay; Species Filters in Estuaries
Liz Smythe:
(Consolidated Rutile Limited sand mining company representative) Sand Mining and Land Rehabilitation
Judy O'Neil:
Marine Productivity: Algae and Plankton
Paul Forster:
Plants of the Scenic Rim: Threatened Species
Yvonne Ross:
Regeneration in Rainforests
David Doley:
Australian Forests
Anita Smythe:
Birds and Animals of the Rainforest (at Lamington)
Eric Dumdie:
Pharmacology & Biodiversity
Tom Cribb:
Biodiversity, Symbiosis, and the Species Concept
Frank Carrick:
Marsupial Biology (at the University of Queensland Veterinary Farm)
Alan Cribb:
The Marine and Terrestrial Fauna of the Great Barrier Reef; Food Plants of Australia
Joan Cribb:
Medicinal Plants of Australia
Darcelle Hegarty:
Australia's Marine Resources
Lloyd Hancock:
Geology and ecology of Carnarvon Gorge, Aboriginal and Early European use of the Land (at Saddler Springs)
Gavin Enevra:
(Queensland National Park Service) Aboriginal Culture in Central Queensland

Anita Smythe leading a morning bird walk at Lamington.

At Battleship Spur overlooking Carnarvon Gorge, Lloyd Hancock led a discussion on Aborigines' relationship to and use of the land.

Park Ranger Gavin Enevra led a discussion on Aboriginal culture and religious beliefs at "The Tombs" in the Mt Moffat Section of Carnarvon National Park.

Field Work

The cornerstone of the HWS Queensland Term was field work. The field sites were the laboratory facilities for the program, not just "add ons" or excursions. Included in the program were four major working field trips.

1. A five day trip to North Stradbroke Island

Students collected data to determine area-species curves behind the dunes near 18 Mile Swamp on North Stradbroke Island.

2. A five day trip to Lamington National Park

In the humid shade beneath the forest canopy, sturdy branches and tree trunks host a diverse array of orchids and ferns. On the forest floor, a complex community of ferns, sedges, saplings, mosses, fungi, and vines compete for space, water, nutrients and light. An explosion of growth occurs wherever a stream, a trail, or fallen tree provides an extra measure of light.

3. A seven day trip to Lady Elliot Island

Jeanne Classen '96 and Kjerstin Todd '95 collecting species diversity data in the reef flat at Lady Elliot Island.

4. A six day trip to Carnarvon Gorge (Saddler Springs, Mt. Moffat)

The trip to Carnarvon featured a two day hike in the low bush country near Battleship Spur.

For each trip, there were preparatory and/or on site lectures. At each location, human pressures on the particular ecosystem and management of resources were discussed. We tried to take maximum advantage of the time spent at the various locations. The time spent "on task" during the day at a field site was occasionally quite long, with instruction and data collection exercises extending over a 10 to 12 hour period.

There were two shorter half-day excursions included in the program. The first of the trips was to Mt Coot-tha, in the outskirts of Brisbane. It is a 20-minute drive from the University of Queensland campus. Our work there consisted of a series of data collection exercises (measuring tree diameters by species and location, measuring the variation in light intensity along a transect and over time, etc.) that introduced students to techniques that they would use later in the program. The data were also used in the statistics course. The second half-day excursion was to the University of Queensland Veterinary Farm for a lecture on marsupial biology and some "hands on" interaction with koalas.

Carl Seashore '95, Amanda Fantauzzo '96, and Carol Ann Clark '95 collect data at Mt Coot-tha on tree species diversity and diameter according to location.


Additional Information on the HWS Queensland Term


Resources: Biodiversity and the Australian Environment


Author: Kevin Mitchell (mitchell@hws.edu)
Last Update: 24 January 1996