The objectives of this course are to have you appreciate and experience caves, and speak, read and write intelligently about them.

Are we ever lucky! Missouri is blessed with caves -- a lot of caves. More than 5700, and counting. Almost more than any other state; Tennessee, at last count, still outranks us by a bit. Our focus will naturally be on Missouri caves, but we will be concerned with caves worldwide, with the processes that shape them, and the plants and animals that inhabit them. We will look at how people have perceived and interacted with caves. We will see how these unique underground ecosystems are being conserved and managed.

No prior experience with caves and caving is expected in this course.Your professors are as much facilitators of learning as we are teachers in this course. Ideally, seminars are all about the shared experience of learning, and... this is a seminar! You are being asked to participate and to contribute. Each week we will have a new topic focus. You will be asked to read about some dimension of the topic and report on it in class. Please keep up on your readings, and prepare your oral talking points thoughtfully. You should work from notes for your weekly remarks. We will collect those notes and return them to you.

The course will involve some wild caving (that is, exploring caves that are not developed with lights, hand rails, etc). On two (possibly three) evenings, we will visit the DevilŐs Icebox Cave in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. On those evenings, please plan on arriving at the Park Headquarters at 3:00 so that we can get geared up and started. It is quite likely that we will not be finished with the cave trip and cleanup until midnight on those evenings, so please plan for both an early start and late finish on those dates. We have makeup dates for the first of those trips, should it be cancelled due to rain or extreme cold. We will also visit HunterŐs Cave and perhaps another wild cave.

Although we will use the ParkŐs life vests, helmets and lights, you will need some special gear for the Icebox and HunterŐs trips (see attached). Please obtain these ASAP so that you will be ready.

The trips to the DevilŐs Icebox are strenuous. One requirement of this class is that you must be willing and able to participate in the wild cave trips. This includes a psychological element; if you know you have a tendency to become claustrophobic or otherwise spooked in caves, this class is not for you. We will need to discuss any special medication condition you might have that we need to know about, and you certainly need to carry essential medications with you into the caves. We will require you to sign liability waivers relieving your professors, MU, the DNR and MDC of responsibility in the event of an injury you might sustain in the cave.

Our course involves participation in the Chouteau Grotto, the local chapter of the National Speleological Society. This is a group of people dedicated to the exploration, study, and conservation of Missouri caves. They are an enthusiastic, knowledgeable bunch, and we will learn a lot from them. Four of our class meetings will consist of attendance at the Chouteau Grotto Meetings (we will not meet at the regular time on those dates). On these nights, meet at 7 PM at the north entrance of the Boone Rural Electric Cooperative on Range Line Road, just south of Interstate 70. You will become a Chouteau Grotto member (for a small fee), with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereof! Hopefully you will strike out on your own, independently of the class, to go caving with some of these good folks. The meetings generally go on until about 9, and class is officially over when the meeting ends -- but you are strongly welcomed and encouraged to socialize with the Grotto after the meeting at the G and D Restaurant at Crossroads West Shopping Center, corner of Broadway and Stadium.

How will you be evaluated in this course? Your research paper will be a major element. Forty percent of your grade will be based on your 20-30 page paper, 10 percent on the oral presentation of your research, 10 percent on the 5-10 page written report on your research in progress which is due on March 20, 30 percent on your oral participation in the course, and 10 percent on your weekly written notes on your readings. Those written notes will also include your observations and comments on the proceedings of the Chouteau Grotto meetings, and your field notes on the DevilŐs Icebox trips.

For your research paper you will have the freedom to choose virtually any topic you wish to write about. It could be, for example, the history of brewery caves in St. Louis (you might have to do field work on that topic -- too bad!), the distribution and biology of Ozark blind cavefish, the history and significance of Hindu cave temples in Malaysia, or the exploration, folklore and contentious ownershiphistory of Meramec Caverns. Choose a topic that really interests you -- something you are excited about; something you enjoy reading (yes, and writing) about. If you like to get down and dirty, choose a topic that will require you to visit one or more wild caves that could be your study site(s). If you prefer to keep yourself meticulously preened, you could still do field work -- but on show caves. We will ask you to clear the topic with us, so that we can agree it is appropriate and realistic.

The word to the wise is that the sooner you identify and begin to work on your topic, the better. By February 20 you must choose your topic; you will present it in class that evening. I will urge you to start collecting your information right away -- do it routinely each week. And why not write a few paragraphs or a couple of pages each week so that your chore near the end of the semester will be a lot easier?

This class has been offered only one other time (winter 1999). Four of the seven students who took that course are having their papers published in winter 2002 in a special issue of Missouri Speleology. No promises, but if you want to follow this route and your paper is up to snuff, you too could find fame and fortune (well, at least fame) in the annals of that esteemed journal.

What about resources for your paper and weekly topics? For starters, there are your required texts:

- Moore, George William and Nicholas Sullivan. 1997. Speleology : Caves and the Cave Environment. St. Louis: Cave Books.

-Rea, Tom. 1992. Caving Basics, Third Edition. Hunstville, AL: National Speleological Society.

And we have placed about 30 books on two-hour reserve at Ellis Library (see attached). Please let me know if we should extend this to one day. We do want to avoid having the books checked out when you are needing them.

And the MU Libraries have an extensive collection of cave-related books. See the attached list. It does not include call numbers, but each entry has enough information for you to do a Merlin search and track it down.

DonŐt forget interlibrary loan! There are a lot of cave books not in the MU Libraries, but you can get virtually any book you want through the ILL system. The trick is requesting it far enough in advance -- it sometimes takes 2-4 weeks for a requested book to come in. Please plan for that.

DonŐt forget periodicals!!!! There are a lot of great journal articles available here at MU, and here again you can order those which are not, with the kind help of the folks at the Ellis Library Refernce Desk. Our representative there is Goodie Bhullar; please call on her and the other reference staff for assistance.

And donŐt forget the web! There are a lot of resources out there. See the attached list to get started. If you have a home computer, bookmark the ones you want to come back to.

From time to time you will be required to use the class web site to access readings and other information. That address is: http://www.missouri.edu/~grcjh/ Scroll down to the Geography of Caves section.

And, there is also a Reserve Readings Web Site for the class. The URL is http://eres.missouri.edu You can get to the course web page by scrolling through the list of courses or instructors. Or you can get to it by clicking on the link on Joe HobbsŐ home page, in the Geography of Caves section. The Geography of Caves reserve readings page is password-protected. The password is: [see your syllabus handout out in class]. We will let you know when there are articles on there that you need to read.

An important resource for your weekly readings and your research topic is this book, on reserve for our class at Ellis Library: Northup, Diane E., et al. 1998. Guide to Speleological Literature of the English Language. 1794-1996. St. Louis: Cave Books

Joe HobbsŐ office is Room 5 in Stewart Hall. Office hours are: Monday, 2:00 4;00; and Tuesday, 1:30-2:00 in Allen Auditorium and 3:00-4:30 in Stewart Hall. The office telephone number is 882-0586. The home phone is 446-1497. DonŐt hesistate to call me at home anytime before 8 PM (then you can hesitate). The e-mail address is: HobbsJ@.missouri.edu Email is a very good way to communicate with me throughout the week.

Bill ElliottŐs email address is: elliow@mail.conservation.state.mo.us The office phone is (573) 751-4115 extension 3194; and the home phone is (573) 556-8082

From time to time you will be required to use the web site to access readings and other information. That address is: http://www.missouri.edu/~grcjh/

Here is the tentative lineup for the course:

January 23. Introduction to the Course

January 30. Exploration and Caving

February 6. Chouteau Grotto Meeting, 7:00 P.M.

February 13. DevilŐs Ice Box Trip I

February 20. Biospelology (Or, DevilŐs Icebox Cave Trip 1 Makeup). And presentation of your research topic.

February 27. Hydrology. Field Trip to HunterŐs Cave.

March 6. Chouteau Grotto Meeting, 7:00 P.M.

March 13. People and Caves

March 20. DevilŐs Ice Box Trip II. The 5-10 page progress report on your research paper is due today.

March 27. (Spring Break)

April 3. Chouteau Grotto Meeting, 7:00 P.M.

April 10. Cave Management and Conservation

April 17 Oral Presentations I

April 24 Oral Presentations II

May 1. Chouteau Grotto Meeting, 7:00 P.M.

May 8. Papers Due. In-class course evaluation and final discussion. A late paper will result in penalty on your grade, with a half grade drop per day late. You canŐt afford to be late.

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