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Joel J. Orth

Joel J. OrthAssistant Professor / Social Science Teaching Credential Advisor
Agricultural and Rural History, Environmental History, 20th Century United States
E-mail: jorth@calpoly.edu
Office: Bldg. 47, Room 25L
Phone: (805) 756-2963

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. Iowa State University, History

  • M.A. Iowa State University, History

  • B.A. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, History

RESEARCH & TEACHING INTERESTS

My dissertation discusses the creation of a conservation landscape on the Great Plains. I continue to research and write on the Great Plains environment, but I am interested in environmental and agricultural history topics from many periods and areas.  I teach United States History, Environmental History, and Teaching Methods.

 

AWARDS, HONORS & PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • CCHE California Council on History Education, 2008 Conference, Santa Clara, CA

  • EEI Environmental Education Initiative, unit reviewer

  • PACT Performance Assessment of California Teachers, Santa Barbara, CA

  • NCATE Accreditation, Accountability and Quality: An Institutional Orientation and Professional Development Conference, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Arlington, Virginia.

  • Gilbert C. Fite Award for Best Dissertation in Agricultural History, 2004

  • 43rd Annual Missouri Valley History Conference Prize for best graduate student paper

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

  • “The Shelterbelt Project; cooperative conservation in 1930s America” Agricultural
     History Summer (2007).           

  • 44th Annual Missouri Conference on History, Kansas City, Missouri. Presented a paper “Regional Transformation to Agronomic Tool: Afforestation on the Great Plains, 1870-1942”

  • Making Environmental History Relevant in the 21st Century. Durham, North Carolina. Presented a paper “Insurance Against the Evil Effects of Drought: Federal Planning and the Forest Service on the Great Plains”

  • 44th Annual Missouri Valley History Conference, Omaha, Nebraska. Presented a paper “Directing Nature’s Creative Forces: The Establishment of the Nebraska National Forest”

  • 22nd Annual Mid-America Conference on History, Lawrence, Kansas. Presented a paper “To Translate Scientific Abstractions into Concrete Images of Human Interest: Science, Nature, and the Shelterbelt Project”

  • Thirty-third Annual Northern Great Plains History Conference, Sioux Falls, South
    Dakota. Presented a paper “The Shelterbelt Project and Climate Change”

  • Seventh International Symposium on Society and Resource Management, University of
    Missouri-Columbia, Missouri. Presented a paper “The Shelterbelt Project: The Technical, Social, and Natural Implications of Decision Making”

SERVICE

My duties as the Social Science Credential Advisor mean that I spend a lot of time working with colleagues from the College of Education. For example, I helped create a set of dispositions for NCATE certification. I also serve on NCATE and APR committees on Content Knowledge. I also serve on the departmental assessment and hiring committees. 

 

ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

  • American Society of Environmental History

  • Forest History Society

  • Agricultural History Society, Edwards Award Committee

  • California Council for History Education

COURSES

  • HIST 207 – Freedom and Equality in American History

  • HIST 322 – Modern America (20th Century US)

  • HIST 440 – United States Environmental History

  • HIST 424 – Organizing and Teaching History

  • HIST 425 – Teaching Practicum

  • Education 469 – Part-time Student Teaching

  • Education 479 – Full-time Student Teaching