14 September 1994 To: Faculty who teach a Forest or Natural Resource Policy Course I will begin teaching Natural Resource Policy in March of 1995. I plan to assign my students an essay on the broad topic "An Important Natural Resource Policy Issue of the Coming Decade." The students would write the essay using email. They would be part of a team of students from various universities. I would hope this would give students a perspective on policy questions that is broader than their own regional views and my lectures. It would require them to work with people they have not met before. It would sharpen their email and computer skills. I would like students to name the issue, explain why it is important, explain the origins of the problem, and describe key participants in the policy question. I am flexible on this and believe I can work out details regarding the specifications for the paper and grading with faculty members who would like their students to participate in this exercise. Michigan Tech currently operates on a quarter system and the policy course will be taught during the quarter which begins in early March and ends in the middle of May. I can work with faculty who have overlapping quarters or semesters. My students will be primarily sophomores and juniors, but I do not see this as a limitation for other schools. Michigan Tech could support a list so that students could first discuss ideas through an open list similar to this broader forestry forum and then select the team that will write the final paper. Are there faculty members who would be interested in working on this? I hope colleagues from other countries will be interested. If there is enough interest, this list could operate year round. If you are interested in this exercise or some variation upon it, please contact me at: bdorr@mtu.edu Please forward this message to the appropriate person in your department. Blair Orr (bdorr@mtu.edu) Assistant Professor School of Forestry and Wood Products Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI 49931 USA phone (906) 487-2291 fax (906) 487-2915
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