Course Descriptions

1. Introduction to Soil Science. FES. Term paper entitled, "Soils of the Bayleaf Palm in Rio Bravo Conservation Area, Belize."
2. Latin American Peasantries. Anthropology Department. A study of the history, political science, sociology, and anthropology of peasantology in Latin America and movements such as indigenismo. Term paper entitled, "Value Conflicts in the Implementation of Small-Scale Outsider Development Education Projects in Rural Latin America."
3. Introduction to Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences. Sociology Department. Introductory statistics. Term paper entitled, "Judging Public Sympathy for Foreign Aid Spending."
4. Cultural Ecology. Anthropology Department. Taught by the master Harold Conklin. How the environment affects cultural formation. Term paper entitled, "Amaizing effects of corn fields on the settlement patterns of a Zinacanteco hamlet."
5. Masters Project Course. I wrote up my masters project-working paper in both English and Spanish. The title is "Implementation of a Participatory Rural Appraisal in an Ecuadorian Farming Community". Not exciting, but descriptive.
6. Environmental Writing. FES. A short course on how to write for popular magazine market.
7. Role of Policy in Economic Development. Economics Department, Yale College. Student presentations of papers on various aspects of economic development. Term paper entitled, "Harvesting for the Long Term" (viability of Brazilian extractive reserves).
8. Managing Strategic Change. School of Management (business school). The issues of managing change and organizational behavior in any management situation. Our group project analyzed the management and leadership of the Tropical Resources Institute of FES.
9. Attitudes: Theory and Development. Psychology Department. A survey of the literature of attitude and behavior change research. Term paper entitled, "A Proposal to Disaggregate the Perceived Behavioral Control Component of the Theory of Planned Behavior."
10. Ecosystem Management. FES. Taught by Bill Burch. A double course combining literature from the social and natural sciences and humanities. It offers a holistic, systems theory approach to management, culminating in a major group project analyzing information flows throughout the entire West Rock Ridge State Park system (third largest state park in Connecticut). This paper, entitled "Black Holes and Butterflies: Problems of Information Flow and Community Dis-Integration of West Rock Ridge State Park," was an extraordinary success, since it allowed us to work in a timeframe and scope similar to a real consulting firm. In fact our real client was the state park service.
11. Botanical Resources of the Tropics. FES. Taught by research scientists from the New York Botanical Gardens. A survey of many issues and types of botanical resources in the tropics. Term paper entitled, "Tracking the Orchid Trade."
12. Environmental Education. FES. Taught by Stephen Kellert. Survey of the literature, methods, and approaches of environmental education. Term paper entitled, "Toward a Unified Conservation Education in Zoos Using an Integrated Ecosystem Management Approach."
13. Foundations of Natural Resource Policy and Management. FES. Taught by Tim Clark and Andy Willard of the Yale Law School. A holistic policy science approach to any policy issue dealing with humans which covers most of them. Term paper entitled, "Dilemma of Dignity" (how community of Pululahua can escape a dilemma that compromises their dignity).
14. Anthropology of Development. Anthropology Department. Covered general concepts and problems of development. I weaseled my way out of the term paper with a last-minute audit.
15. Program Evaluation. School of Management. A quantitative survey of evaluative tools used to evaluate a wide range of social programs in the profit, non-profit, and public sectors. Term paper entitled, "Evaluating Evaluation" (a proposal to evalute the Wildlife Conservation Society's training programs in Venezuela and Colombia).
16. Survey Research. Sociology Department. Methods course in survey design, critique, and implementation. The final project was the creation of a survey instrument. Mine was part of the above proposal for the Wildife Conservation Society.
17. Project Course in Writing. Independent project about the role wilderness has had on zoo design and its utility in conservation. Final paper probably will be called, "Wilderness Facade" (effect of the American concept of wilderness on zoo conservation).