Natural Resource Use, Technology, and Policy: Course Syllabus
APEC 457/657 Spring 2006
Tues. and Thurs. 3:30-4:45pm A105 Poole Agricultural Center (P&AS)
Department of Applied Economics and Statistics Clemson University
Office Hours: M 2:30-3:30pm, W 2-2:30pm, Th. 2-3pm, by appointment, or drop-in, if available.
Required Texts
Tietenberg, Tom. 2006. Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, 7th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. and Addison-Wesley: Boston MA.
Deirdre N. McCloskey. 2000. Economical Writing, 2nd Edition. Waveland Press, Inc.: Long Grove, Illinois.
Prerequisites
1) MTHSC 102 and either Natural Resource Economics (APEC 357) or Intermediate Microeconomics (ECON 314) or 2) Consent of instructor
Course Description
This course is focused on economic analysis of actual, efficient, and sustainable use of natural resources, impacts of technologies that enable this use, and policies that affect the development and use of such technologies. Technologies include hybrid or conventional automotive engines, stormwater best management practices, and drip or sprinkler irrigation.
Course Objectives
The first objective of this course is to analyze demand for and supply of natural resources in the U.S. and other countries. The second objective is to identify environmental, human-health, or intergenerational impacts of technologies to extract, harvest, grow, or utilize natural resources. The third objective is to understand the effects of public policy on development or use of these technologies. The fourth objective is to evaluate production and consumption of natural resources and choices of related technologies in terms of these ethical criteria: 1) cost or benefit effectiveness in the short and long run, 2) private efficiency in the short and long run, 3) social benefits and costs in the short and long run, and 4) sustainability.
II. Energy and Minerals Chs. 7 with Appendix and 8 7 (1/26 – 2/16)
Readiness Assessment Chs. 7 with Appendix and 8 1 (2/2)
III. Land Use, Forests, and Tree Farms Ch. 12 6 (2/21-2/23, 3/7-3/16)
Midterm Examination (might reschedule for 3/14) 1 (2/28)
Group Midterm Exam and Exercise (might reschedule for 3/16) 1 (3/2)
Spring Break no classes on 3/21 and 3/23
IV. Fresh Water Ch. 10 6 (3/28-4/13)
Methods of Teaching and Learning
I use a mixture of team-based learning and traditional methods to teach. In terms of traditional, in-class methods, I lecture, answer student questions, and create answer keys to problem sets and exams. I attempt to organize a couple of guest lectures and present audio-visual material. I also have an open-door policy to handle your individual questions and concerns.
I use team-based learning to complement and substitute for traditional methods. Team-based learning consists of a particular sequence of multi-person learning activities that develop high-performance learning teams from small groups. In the first or second day of class, I select 5 to 7 students with different majors, credits completed, academic skills, ethnicity, and gender to be permanent members of a team. You earn points for your individual performance, your group’s performance, and your contributions to your group. In the first week of class, you all decide on specific weights, given ranges that I provide, for grades in each of these three areas of responsibility. I design group assignments to promote team development and learning. In some assignments, for example, each group must make concrete decisions based on complex analyses and randomly chosen members must report and defend their group’s decision. I give frequent and relatively quick feedback on individual and group performance.
You will be responsible for learning the material. At the start of each major topic, designated by a Roman numeral, you will take an individual readiness assessment and then a group assessment that is based on the key information in the reading. Individual and group readiness assessments are designed to get you to read the assigned material in advance of class discussion. However, a readiness assessment is not a test of your mastery of all details of the material but only a diagnostic tool to determine the degree to which you are familiar with key concepts, arguments, and models. You should also read the assigned material after the topics are covered in class.
The more you participate in class and team activities, the more you will learn. Mere attendance is almost always a necessary but never a sufficient condition for learning. Ask questions about the assigned readings or previous lectures. Your participation in the in-class group exercises will also help you to learn to apply concepts.
One of the group activities will be to redo the midterm exam in class. Two other in-class group activities will be to answer questions that are similar to those on previous problem sets or ones that are more challenging. The fourth and final group activity will be to gather information about stocks, flows, and prices of a selected natural resource and present the information to class.
Completing and understanding the homework on four problem sets is also essential for learning the material in this course. Graduate students will answer at least one extra question or more mathematically oriented versions of questions in the problem sets. Make an attempt to answer all questions. If you are unable to answer any part of a question, clearly indicate what confuses you. I will grade and hand out an answer key for each problem set. After reading the key, if you still do not understand, we can discuss your question in class or my office hours.
In a term paper, you will write about the current use of a natural resource and a related technology. Examples of technologies are silt fences for erosion control during conversion of land from agricultural to residential use and hybrid engines for locomotion in automobiles. You will do the following tasks for your paper: 1) select an article, set of articles, or book from the printed or electronic media that deals with a current issue, 2) briefly state the issue and its importance to business, environmentalists, government, or society in general, 3) identify private benefits and costs of the technology and resource use, 4) identify positive or negative externalities associated with environmental, health, or intergenerational impacts of the use of the technology and resource, 5) evaluate the use of the technology and utilization of the natural resource in terms of cost effectiveness, private net benefits, social efficiency, and sustainability, 6) analyze how an ordinance, regulation, or law affects incentives to reduce or expand the use of the technology and 7) critique the article based on the information that you produce in items 2) through 6) and on the accuracy of its contents. Papers should be 10-20 pages for graduate students and 5-10 pages for undergraduates. You must choose your paper topic by March 16.
Preparation for the midterm and final examination is also crucial for your learning. The midterm and final exam will have multiple-choice, true-false-explain, and short-answer questions. Graduate students will have at least one extra question or more mathematically-oriented versions of questions on each exam. Although I usually do not conduct review sessions, I usually make myself more available than normal to answer questions before exams.
Course and Classroom Rules
I expect everyone to practice common courtesy while in our class. Beeping cell phones, talking on cell phones, checking email, and surfing unassigned internet sites during class is rude and not acceptable behavior. You may and are encouraged to ask a question at any time during class. As the Faculty Manual indicates, if I have not made arrangements with you all in advance, you are free to leave class after a 15-minute wait.
I permit and encourage discussion between you and other students on homework assignments. However, you must state which classmate(s) you helped or helped you on all applicable parts of the homework. Moreover, you must answer each question in your own words. If a request is necessary and the need is foreseeable, ask permission to turn in a problem set late prior to the deadline. Valid excuses include illness and emergency. If you cannot attend class the day that an assignment is due, arrange for someone else to turn in your work during class.
You must take exams at the scheduled times unless you have compulsory paid work, a mandatory athletic practice or event, serious documented illness, medical emergency, another exam at the same time, or another irresolvable conflict of schedule that you bring to my attention at least one week before the test. A vacation, an exam scheduled at another time on the same day, or an extracurricular activity that occurs on a test date is not a legitimate excuse. The midterm exam is tentatively scheduled for Tues., Feb. 28th. The comprehensive final exam will be given on Sat. April 29th from 8am to 11am. You may take the final on Sat. May 6th from 6:30pm-9:30pm if the regularly scheduled final and two others occur within 24 hours, you have another final at the same time, or you have a documented disability. For reasons other than emergencies, you must arrange with me before the scheduled date to take the final at another time and document the reason(s) why you will be or were unable to take the final as scheduled.
Evaluation of Learning
Grading Criteria
Final grades will be determined by adding weighted scores of your performance in three major areas: Individual Performance, Group Performance, and Group Maintenance.
Grade Weights Percent of Performance Area Percent of Total
Setting Grade Weights
Grade weights for the three major performance areas will be determined during the second week of class. Each group will decide on weights that fall within the given ranges and select a member to represent them. Representatives of each group will then meet and reach a consensus.
Evaluation of Individual Performance
Individual readiness assessments consist of several multiple-choice or true-false questions about the assigned reading for each major section of the course. Homework questions usually require short verbal answers or mathematical derivations with interpretations. Exams consist of multiple-choice, true-false-explain, short-answer, and brief mathematical questions. You may earn partial credit on these assessments, homework, and exams. You might earn partial debits for illegible penmanship and poorly labeled graphs. Homework that is turned in late without my permission will receive at most 60% of possible points. No deductions will be made for late but excused homework. The short papers will be graded on the degree to which you follow the recommended guidelines or convince me that your format is better. Graduate students are expected to write better, analyze the issue with more sophisticated methods, and use more academic sources than undergraduate students do.
Evaluation of Group Performance
Group readiness assessments will be evaluated in the same way that individual readiness assessments are. However, the group’s score is the score of each member. To get full credit for the answer to a question, members of each group should be prepared to publicly defend their answer. I reserve the right to call on a particular individual to defend his or her group’s answer.
Evaluation of Group Maintenance
You will confidentially report the contribution of all of the other members of your group at the end of the semester. You will assign, on average, ten points to other members. Give at least one person at least an 11 and, thus, at least one person no more than a 9. The maximum possible individual score is 16 and the minimum score is 4. In assigning points, consider the attendance, preparation, degree of correct answers, willingness to help others, respect for other’s ways of deriving answers, and flexibility in resolving differences. Justify the reasons for your scores.
Your evaluation of your peers is the primary source of information that I will use to determine the proportion of the group’s points that each member of your group receives. In most cases, your group maintenance score will equal the average peer evaluation score multiplied by your group’s performance score. For example, if your team members give you a 10, on average, for your contribution and your group earns 90% of the points possible, then your group maintenance score is 90%. In rare cases, I will slightly adjust the peer evaluation score in light of the non-quantitative peer evaluations, my observations of group dynamics in class, and the individual’s performance relative to the group’s performance.
Appeals
You must submit in writing any appeal of the scoring of problem sets or examinations within one class period after the material is returned to you. I will review the entire document in question and make any appropriate adjustments. Use the ‘Readiness Assessment: Appeals Instruction’ to appeal disagreements that you have on my scoring of the group’s readiness assessment.
Final Grades
The course grading scale is A- to A+ for 90-100%, B- to B+ for 80-89%, C- to C+ for 70-79%, D- to D+ 60-69%, and < 60% F. You can find your final letter by going on the web to tigerweb.clemson.edu, using SIS, or calling TigerLine at 656-TIGR.
Academic Integrity Policy of the University
Academic Dishonesty is defined as: (1) Giving, receiving or using unauthorized aid on any academic work; (2) Plagiarism, which includes the copying of language, structure, or ideas of another and attributing the work to one's own efforts; (3) Attempts to copy, edit, or delete computer files that belong to another person or use of Computer Center account numbers that belong to another person without the permission of the file owner, account owner or file number owner. All academic work submitted for grading contains an implicit pledge and may contain, at the request of an instructor, an explicit pledge by the student that no unauthorized aid has been received.
“As members of the Clemson University community, we have inherited Thomas Green Clemson’s vision of this institution as a ‘high seminary of learning.’ Fundamental to this vision is a mutual commitment to truthfulness, honor, and responsibility, without which we cannot earn the trust and respect of others. Furthermore, we recognize that academic dishonesty detracts from the value of a Clemson degree. Therefore, we shall not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing in any form.”
Disability Policy
Clemson University provides reasonable accommodations on a flexible and individualized basis to students who have disabilities. Students are encouraged to contact Student Disability Services to discuss their individual needs for accommodation.
Disclaimer
The course requirements and policies above and the outline of the topics, readings, and schedule below are subject to change if extenuating circumstances occur or we mutually agree to do so.
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2006 by Scott R. Templeton, Department of Applied Economics & Statistics, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-0313.