Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

National Geographic “Wolf Wars”

Posted 28 Sep 2010 / 0

In the March 2010 issue of National Geographic there’s an excellent article on the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park entitled “Wolf Wars”. I was excited to discover it because I use the example of how wolves were brought back to Yellowstone as a way of discussing various issues in population and community ecology Read More

Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Conservation Biology, Ecology Education, Grasslands, MSCI-270, Ecology, Reviews, Temperate Forest

The Cove

Posted 26 Sep 2010 / 4

I just watched The Cove, a 2009 documentary that followed the efforts of activists from the Oceanic Preservation Society as they chronicled the seasonal capture and slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. As a person concerned with biodiversity conservation and animal rights, I was eager to watch this film after hearing about its focus on Read More

Biodiversity Loss, Conservation Biology, Ethics, Film, Television, & Video, Marine Ecosystems, Reviews, Teaching

Sourcing sources of selection

Posted 25 Sep 2010 / 1

One of the most difficult challenges that my non-major students face is gaining access to the scientific process. Although almost all of my students have been given some version of the “scientific method”, very few of them have any real sense of how to go about assessing the validity of claims that “sound scientific”. Of Read More

Adaptation, Coevolution, Ecology Education, Evolution Education, Lesson Ideas, MSCI-270, Ecology, Teaching

Steven Chillrud Visit to Pratt Institute

Posted 17 Sep 2010 / 0

Steve Chillrud with his Pratt host, Associate Professor Damon Chaky of the Department of Mathematics & Science Every year, Pratt Institute’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences hosts a “scholar-in-residence” who spends a few days on campus giving talks and workshops to faculty and students. The honor of selecting a scholar-in-residence rotates between the three Read More

Data Limitation, Department of Mathematics & Science, Environmental Justice, Experiments (General), Pollution, Pratt Institute, Public Policy, Urban Ecology

Do you still think God is good?

Posted 15 Sep 2010 / 0

George C. Williams, eminent scholar of evolutionary biology, died on September 8th at the age of 84. During the second half of the twentieth century, Williams emerged as one of the most influential thinkers in evolutionary biology, and helped to clarify a number of key issues in the field. His defining style was to tackle Read More

Adaptation, Biography, Evolution, Group Selection, Obituary, Senescence

Teaching evolution and game theory, simultaneously

Posted 09 Sep 2010 / 3

I just started a new semester of The Evolution of Cooperation, a class that I taught for the first time in the Fall of 2008 and was shelved for a couple of years while I worked on developing other new courses. Now I am excited to get back to the initial framework I laid out Read More

Cooperation, Evolution, Evolution Education, Game Theory, Lesson Ideas, MSCI-463, The Evolution of Cooperation