ENST 377/EEOB 377/DSTP 377

Spring 2001

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Home page address: http://www.tulane.edu/~mrbc/enst_home.htm

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This course is an interdisciplinary colloquium dealing with the Mississippi River Basin. It is intended for an undergraduate audience. The goal of the course is to give students a broad overview of the important social and environmental issues surrounding the Mississippi River. We seek to encourage an understanding and appreciation of the river from a holistic perspective. The emphasis in the course is on experiential learning &emdash; "out-of classroom" field trips, where students have the opportunity to see, firsthand, important issues related to the Mississippi River, its environment, culture, and the historic changes wrought upon the River, and their effects. To this end, nine (9) field trips are planned over the course of the semester, and students receive an extra credit hour of "field work" ("Lab") for participating in them. The class will meet twice weekly (Tuesday and Thursday afternoons) for an hour and 15 minutes. Tuesdays are generally reserved for in-class lectures; Thursdays are reserved for local field trips or lectures and class discussion. Transportation will be provided for all local field trips. Field investigations to more distant locations are scheduled for three weekends during the semester. One trip will be to west-central Mississippi and northeast Louisiana, one will be to the mouth of the Mississippi River, and one to the Gulf of Mexico. Transportation will be provided on all of these trips, but students may bear the costs of meals and special (very inexpensive) lodging arrangements. Since lecture time is limited, students will be given reviews and other key readings on topics to be covered. Lectures will emphasize the main points of each topic so that students will have something to draw from on field trips. Drives to and from field trip destinations will give us ample time to discuss the issues involved in greater detail.

The course is organized into three sections: the first deals with the natural environmental setting and summarizes geology, hydrology, and biology of the Lower Mississippi River. We will visit the French Quarter, and Jean Lafitte National Park during this phase. The second section of the course deals with the influence of the River on human cultural development. This section proceeds through the different phases of historic development in the Mississippi Valley, investigating the reciprocal relationship between river and culture. Trips to prehistoric archaeological sites, antebellum homes, Civil War battlefields, river flood control facilities, and industrial complexes along the river are planned. The final section of the course deals with the impact of humans on the Mississippi River. During this time we will explore many of the ways humans have modified the Mississippi River and the environmental consequences of these modifications. Trips to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), the industrial corridor, chemical plants, the Industrial Canal Navigation Lock Complex and other Corps of Engineers' facilities are planned for this section.

Readings: There are only two assigned "texts" for this course. One is John Barry's Rising Tide, and the other is Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. Both books will be available in the bookstore. To supplement lectures we will assign specific articles or book chapters. These readings are listed below in the syllabus and are listed in full in the bibliography. To facilitate easy distribution of assigned readings they will be placed on reserve in both Howard-Tilton Memorial Library and the Architecture Library. Students are expected to complete the readings prior to coming to the class for which they are assigned. We have also compiled a series of web links for students to read or explore. These links are generally informational, but many contain useful articles or are good sources for better understanding the river and how it may be studied. Please take time to look through these links before coming to class or before we embark on a field trip.

Grading: Final course grades are based on the evaluation of four performance categories: attendance, a regular journal, a group research assignment, and a final exam.

• Attendance: 20% of final course grade. Students are expected to attend class regularly and to participate in all field trips.
• Journal: 20% of final course grade. Students will be expected to keep comprehensive journals, including photos, sketches, and notes during the course of the semester's field work. Student journals will be reviewed once a month for completion (not for content) and returned the next class. Tips on how to keep a good journal can be found Here. The final completed version of your Journal must be turned in at the final exam (Thursday, May 4, 1:00-5:00)
• Research Project: 35% of course grade. Students will work in small groups to create web pages that will inform visitors about the river and its many aspects. The small group project will be linked to the course web page. Final projects will be completed in stages, with deadlines for each stage. The final product will be in the form of an HTML Web page suitable for linking to the class web page. Each group (and each member of the group) will make a short oral presentation to the class. This presentation will summarize the group project, its data, and conclusions. Further discussion of the research project and a list of research themes can be found Here.
• Final Exam: 25% of course grade. A comprehensive final exam will be given during the scheduled exam period (Friday, May 11).

The course satisfies elective requirements in Ecological and Evolutionary Biology (EEOB), the Environmental Studies Program (ENST), and Architecture (DSTP). Students wishing to have this course satisfy requirements in other departments should consult advisors in those departments.

Date	Topic	Lecturer	Reading	Assignments/Deadlines	Web sites
Tues. Jan. 11	Introduction	Kidder/Wall
Tues. Jan. 16	Geological Setting	M. Allison	Saucier 1994: Chs. 2, 3, & 8 & 1996		Whole Lot of Shaking
Thurs. Jan. 18	Field Trip: French Quarter	E. Cizek	Kolb & Van Lopik 1966; Coleman 1988	Selection of Research Topic/Group Assignment
Tues. Jan. 23	Biogeochemistry	B. McKee			Digital Hydrology Watershed lab
Thurs. Jan. 25	Hydrology/Sedimentary Geology	B. Coakley	Twain, Life on the River
Tues. Jan. 30	River Continuum	H. Bart	Baker, Kilgore & Kasul 1991; Vannote et al. 1980; Ward & Stanford 1983	Journals Due
Thurs. Feb. 1	Colonial Times	B. Meneray		Group Summary & Bibliography Due	Sultana; Slavery; Civil War; Mark Twain
Tues. Feb. 6	Field Trip: Jean Laffitte	Wall/Kidder/Seelaus
Thurs. Feb. 8	New Orleans and the River	T. Fitzmorris
Fri., Feb. 9-Sun., Feb. 11	Poverty Point Field Trip	Kidder/Bart/Wall	J. McPhee, Control of Nature, Ch. ?		Poverty Point; Vicksburg; Vicksburg National Military Park
Tues. Feb. 13	NO CLASS
Thurs. Feb. 15	NO CLASS
Tues. Feb 20	The Corps of Engineers	E. Lyon			New Orleans District; Vicksburg District; Waterways Experiment Station; Mississippi River and Tributaries Project brochure
Thurs. Feb. 22	Environmental Ethics (cancelled) Research Reports	M. Zimmerman	G. Hardin, Tragedy of the Commons and Other Readings
Mon-Sun Feb. 25-March 4	MARDI GRAS
Tues. March 6	Field Trip: Holy Cross/Industrial Canal Lock	Yakubick/Wall/Kidder		Journals Due; Research Project status report	"Old Man River" (locks and Dams on the Upper Mississippi); Animated lock demonstration (USACE); IHNC brochure (PDF format only); IHNC lock replacement project
Thurs. March 8	River in literature (Cancelled)	R. Mark
Tues. March 13	Field Trip: Bonne Carré	Wall/Kidder/Lyon	J. Barry, Rising Tide		Bonne Carre Spillway ; 1993 Flood; NOAA River Forecast Center
Thurs. March 15	Environmental Justice	T. Roberts
Tues. March 20	Pollution epidemiology	P. Andrews/B. Luckett	Chen et al. 1998		American Cancer Society "Statistics"
Thurs. March 22	No Class
Tues. March 27	Field Trip: "Cancer Alley"	Kidder/Wall			Magnesium leaching
Thurs. March 29	New Orleans Topography	R. Campanello	Smith &Winkley 1996		N.O. COE District Water Control Data
Tues. April 3	Field Trip: Davis Pond		Gosselink & Sasser 1995	Journals Due	Barataria National Estuary Project; Coast 2050; Coastal Wetlands Restoration and Protection Act; Davis Pond brochure (USACE)
Thurs. April 5	Water Quality (cancelled) Bonne Carre Project Review	L. Sternberg
Sat. April 7	Field Trip: Head of Passes	COE
Tues. April 10	Field Trip: Tosco Alliance Refinery	Kidder/Wall		Preliminary draft of Research Project due
Thurs. April 12	Project Discussion	Kidder/Wall			Brown Marsh Phenomenon
Tues. April 17	The River & Music	B. Raeburn			River of Song; Jazz on the River
Thurs. April 19	No Class
Sat. April 21-Sun, April 22	Field Trip: LUMCON	Wall/Kidder	Anderson 1994, 1997; Rabelais et al. 1996; Turner & Rabelais 1994		Oxygen Depletion in Coastal Waters ; LUMCON
Tues. April 24	Research Presentations	Class		Final draft of Research Project placed on web
Thurs. April 26	Research Presentations	Class

Final Exam: Friday, May 11, 8:00 AM- 12:00 PM

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Last Updated: 1/10/00