comments on "A spherical cow"
Michael Jones
Here is a compilation of the comments I received.
****
I have read much of Harte's book. It is a primer in quantitative problem
solving for environmentalists. Very charming and useful. I think it
could work well as an adjunct text for a good ecology course. Most under-
graduate courses in ecology seem to expect very little quantitative
reasoning from students, except about population biology and even then
equations are trotted out and then trotted back without any skill developmen=
t.
Consider a Sperical Cow is about skill development, and anyone would
benefit (especially Rush Limbaugh) by a little reading of it.
patrick foley
csus
pxf...@ucdavis.edu
****
John Harte is my former Ph.D. advisor and "Cow" as it's called
is and has been used in several courses at UC Berkeley and elsewhere. It
often gets very positive reviews from students and teachers. I'll
probably use it in the future to teach an ecological modeling course.
It is a problem solving excercise book that's very well written.
There's very good bits about the general strategy of modeling but it's
mostly about the nuts and bolts. Another you might look at is the rather
outdated book on Ecosystem Modeling in Theory and Practice edited by CAS
Hall and J Day.
Enjoy! -neo
***************************************************************
Neo D. Martinez email ndmar...@ucdavis.edu
Research Fellow Phone 707-875-2211
Bodega Marine Laboratory 707-865-0777
University of California, Davis FAX 707-875-2089
***************************************************************=1A
****
I have a copy because it got great reviews. It is good, but too heavily
mathematical for the non-science majors I teach (and sometimes for me).
Its aim is to be quantitative and to teach people how to make logical
estimates of rates, amounts, impacts, etc. Good intentions, suited for a
technically competent audience.
Owen Sholes
Dept. of Natural Sciences
Assumption College
Worcester, MA 01609
508 767-7483
****
Hello, That book provides a great background in estimating large
scale environmental factors. The title comes from a problem Harte
uses to get the readers started in estimation. The problem concerns a
volume calculation for a milk cow. That could be difficult HArte says
unless you think of a spherical cow, and it's diameter. This book is
in use at a christian college in western New York, HOUGHTON COLLEGE
in an Environmental Earth Science course. You could contact the
professor at Houghton and he could tell you a lot more about it. He
is a very good guy and is very into environmental problem solving. HE
is a Physics PHD, but has background in Geology, and Ecology and
Earth Science. His name is Fred Trexler, phone 716-567-9200 and ask
for Fred Trexler's office. He is on internet, but I don't know his
E-MAIL address. Tell him I suggested you call him if you choose to.
Todd Ristau, USDA FS, Forestry Sciences Lab, Warren, PA
****
Maybe you can ask the same question (regarding Harte's book) to Dr. C. C.
Bigelow.
He is a chem professor at the University of Manitoba.
I think he uses the book for one of his course.
His address is big...@cc.umanitoba.ca
I've seen the book but haven't used it.
Andrew Park (ap...@cc.umanitoba.ca)
****
A friend of mine in environmental policy recommended the book
to me. I found it to be a little low-level for someone with a good
science background. What it seems to be good for is students studying
environmental issues who do not have a basic physics, biology, chemistry
background and need to learn skills such as unit conversion, and a little
bit of modelling.
Sara
Sara J. Gottlieb gott...@cbl.cees.edu
University of Maryland MEES Department
Sea Grant Trainee Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy
3111A van Munching Hall PHONE: (301) 405-4768
College Park, MD 20742 FAX: (301) 314-9346
WWW: http://www.glue.umd.edu/~gottlieb
****
Contact Dr. Rob Peters at McGill University - he uses that book in his
predictive ecology course. Cheers! Lee Jackson
Rob's email: eh...@musica.mcgill.ca
*********************************************
Dr. Leland J. Jackson phone: (608) 262-3088
Center for Limnology fax: (608) 265-2340
University of Wisconsin
680 N Park St.
Madison, WI 53706-1492
USA
email:jac...@limnosun.limnology.wisc.edu
****
I have used some chapters in a Climatology class and still use parts of an
easy chapter in a class in intro earth systems. Some of the problems in
later chapters are doozies. Also, it appears that three may be some
errors in the answer key at the end. It is a fund book to use, but
requires a fair bit of effort from both you and your students.
- George Malanson
****
=46rom: pau...@heart.cor.epa.gov (Steve Paulsen)
Subject: A spherical cow
I have a copy and have read it. Before coming to EPA a year ago, I was
with the University of Nevada and used it in several educational contexts.
I think it is an excellent book. It strives to get you to think about how
much you can do and how many answers can be derived by order-of-magnitude
estimations. I know of several folks (one close to you: Ron Capen down at
Colordado College in Colorado Springs) in liberal arts colleges who have
used it for environmental study courses for non-biology majors and they
seemed quite happy with it. I was interested to hear that they have
developed a modeling component to accompany it.
****
John Harte is in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley.
He was my "mentor" while I was at Berkeley- an excellent person,
solid researcher who spends summers at the Rocky Mountain Biological
Laboratory in Colorado.
The original a=7Fedition of "Spherical Cow" (I haven't seen the
revised version) presents biologically interesting situations
and coaches the reader in how to perform increasingly sophisticated
"back of the envelope" assessments/models of the situation, sensitizing
one to orders of magnitude, say, rather than pursuit of a "correct"
solution. The book went well with a class where our very first assignment
was to calculate the numbers of blades of grass on the campus.
Hope this helps- John Cloud
clo...@pollux.GEOG.UCSB.EDU
****
John Harte's email is: jha...@violet.berkeley.edu.
______________________________
Michael Hunt Jones, PhD
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0450 USA
voice: 303-492-6631
fax: 303-492-6388
jo...@taimyr.colorado.edu
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