Ecological Processes, Environmental Impacts and Transition Toward Sustainability

timetable

The activities of the course are scheduled on

• Tuesdays, from 15.30 to 17.15 in room L.11

office hours

in case of need, please write an e-mail to the instructor, preferably the week before the requested meeting.

materials

Each of the two instructor will provide material related to the module he coordinates either on WeBeep (Prof. Lonati) or this site (Prof. Casagrandi). See the page above. A book of reference that will be useful and used (in part) is the following: Gatto and Casagrandi (2022), Ecosystem Conservation and Management, Springer.

evaluation

In the official syllabus we read

There will not be any difference in terms of assessment methods for the attending and the non-attending students. Learning outcomes are evaluated through the results of a written test based on open and closed questions concerning the theoretical issues and on the solution of some simple numerical exercises.

More precisely, the evaluation of the exam goes as follows.

The exam is typically taken in written form. Typically here means that, in very special cases (for example, in exam sessions where only one or two students participate), the instructors can decide to interview the student(s) rather than to provide them with a written test. The written exam is a closed book test (i.e., no books, slides, notes, tablets, cell phones…). It consists of questions regarding the materials presented and discussed in class, and/or simple problems similar to those seen during the exercise sessions. The exam for each of the two course modules (EcoPro and EvnImp) has the approximate duration of one hour and has a maximum grade of 33. In order to pass the whole exam, it is needed that a student reaches:

• a grade for the test of each Module not considered to be “insufficient” by its instructor (that is, the grade must either be sufficient or very slightly insufficient), and
• a grade resulting from the average between the two module-related grades that is equal or higher than 18 pts.

At each session, it is possible for the student to attend the part of exam related to one of the two modules or to both parts. In that second case, after the one hour test to evaluate knowledge about Module 1, there will be a 15 minutes break and the one hour test for Module 2. In ordet to inform the instructors about which part of the exam you will take, while registering to the exam session via the PoliMI webportal (ServiziOnLine) some days before the exam session, the system will directly ask students what are they planning to do at the exam session. Three options will be made possible, that is to take the exam (i) only for Module 1 (EcoPro), (ii) only for Module 2 (EnvImp), or (iii) for both Modules 1 and 2. The score obtained for the exam of each of the Modules in each exam session, if sufficient or sligthly insufficient (see above), will remain valid until (a) the student participates to a subsequent exam session for that Module (attendence to an exam session for a Module is sufficient to cancel the previously acquired grade for it), or (b) a new academic year starts.

As for participation and grading of Module 1 (EvoPro), there is a way to increase the grade by actively participating during classes. In fact, when a student makes a particularly brilliant comment, asks a class-changing question (you will see), provides a counterintuitive, yet correct solution to an exercise or opens a deep-thinking doubt… in sum, when a student contributes in a particularly relevant way to the class to deepen the content/message of a lecture/meeting, the instructor reserves the unilateral right of awarding the student with a bonus point, i.e. a point that will be added to the final grade of the exam (after rounding). A maximum of two bonus points can be awarded per person within the semester. To obtain such an award point, the student is required to fill out this form on the day of the lecture.