InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Future of Food > Student Materials > Module 11: Human-Environment Interactions > Module 11.1: Resilience, Adaptive Capacity, and Vulnerability (RACV): Agrobiodiversity and Seed Systems > Formative Assessment
InTeGrate's Earth-focused Modules and Courses for the Undergraduate Classroom
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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For the Instructor

These student materials complement the Future of Food Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.

Formative Assessment

Agrobiodiversity and Resilience

Instructions

Assigned Reading:

Please read the brief "introduction to the reading" below and then the following pages from Gary Nabhan's book "Where Our Food Comes From":

Nabhan, G.P. "Rediscovering America and Surviving the Dust Bowl: The U. S. Southwest ", p. 129-138, part of Chapter 9, Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine. Washington: Island Press.

Introduction to the reading: The reading describes part of a much longer account of travels by Vavilov (for whom the Vavilov centers of agrobiodiversity are named, see the previous page in the book, and module 2.1 in this course) from 1929 to 1934 in North America. During this trip, the Russian crop researcher met with U.S. researchers as well as "keepers" of U.S. native agrobiodiversity. This chapter describes Vavilov's trip to the Hopi Indians in 1930, in which he and the U.S. scientists were able to observe firsthand the seed systems and their resilience to the drought that was currently going on in the United States. The author of the book, Gary Nabhan, relates this account of the visit and then compares it to similar visits he made to the Hopi in the more recent past. This compiled history of seed systems and their relation to both human and natural system changes in the U.S. Southwest is a sort of case study, from which the assessment worksheet will ask you to draw conclusions.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet below and answer the questions provided. You will be consulting the assigned reading which is the chapter from G.P. Nabhan, "Rediscovering America and Surviving the Dust Bowl: The U.S. Southwest". See the rubric below for guidelines on how to best complete the assessment.

Files to Download

Download worksheet (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 377kB Jan3 18)

Submitting Your Assignment

Please submit your work using the submission folder on your institution's online course management software.

Grading Information and Rubric

This assessment is work a total of 30 points. See the rubric below as the guide for evaluation.

Rubric
CriteriaPoint Ranges
Questions 3-7, short answer3 points per question, 15 points total.
Question 8: comparison6 points, reflecting thoughtfulness and ability to include references to the reading, clear understanding of the comparison that is requested
Style, grammar, overall quality3 points

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »