Are Eastern Fox Squirrels "Good" or "Bad" for the Greater Los Angeles Area?

In this case, students draw on various disciplinary perspectives to characterize the eastern fox squirrel (EFS) as “good” or “bad” for the greater Los Angeles, California region. Students begin by reading popular news articles, blogs, and petitions to identify the components of this socio-ecological system and the typologies of attitudes toward animals expressed in these popular sources. They then read the Disciplinary Perspectives Handout and associated web links to identify the kinds of insights various disciplines bring to the case. Through combining and analyzing this work, they next build a concept map of the system, including the human, nonhuman living, material, and socioculturally constructed components of the system. In the concept map, they also describe the relationships between the components, highlighting how different disciplinary perspectives make sense of those relationships. To conclude, students create a class presentation where they answer the case’s questions, “Are eastern fox squirrels “good” or “bad” for the greater Los Angeles, CA region.” In so doing, they weigh evidence to decide if the EFS is truly an invasive species (as popular news articles charge) and suggest possible interventions.