Course Information and Policies Biology 201 - Ecology and Evolution Fall 2009 Time and Place: MWF 9:00-10:00, Room 201 Coker Hall Professors: Dr. Christina Burch (Primary lecturer August 26 – October 14) Office: 235 Wilson Hall Phone: 843-2691 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Monday 10-11, Thursday 1:30-2:30 Dr. Robert Peet (Primary lecturer October 16 – December 9) Office: 413 Coker Hall Phone: 962-6942 Email: [email protected] Office hours: Monday, Wednesday 10:00-11:00, or by appointment We will almost always be available immediately after class in case you have questions or wish to discuss something with us. This is also a good time to set up appointments for longer conversations. Recitation instructors: Joel Adamson Heidi MacLean Sections: 1pm Mon, 3pm Mon, and 1pm Tu Sections: 5pm Mon, 3pm Tu, and 5pm Tu Office: 232A Wilson Hall Office: 342 Wilson Hall Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Office hours: 2pm Monday Office Hours: 4pm Tuesday Miranda Welsh Sections: 1pm, 3pm, and 5pm Wed Office: 417 Coker Hall Email: [email protected] Office hours: 2pm Wednesday Rationale: why we teach this course and why you should take it. - This is a course in ecology and evolution. Evolution is the most fundamental concept in biology; it provides the basis for understanding the origin of all biological phenomena. Ecology can be viewed as the theater within which the evolutionary play takes place. Evolution cannot be understood in the absence of ecology and ecology cannot be understood without evolution. Both are essential for a complete understanding of virtually all facets of biology. - Humans are part of and depend on the earth's ecosystems. In order to be able to make intelligent and informed decisions, everyone needs to have a basic understanding of how ecosystems work, and how humans affect ecosystems and the biosphere.Course objectives – what we would like you to take away from this course: First and foremost, we want to teach you to think like a biologist. We will, of course, teach you some basic facts, but if you are at all normal you are likely to forget most of these in a few years. However, if we are successful, you should leave this course having permanently changed how you analyze biological problems. In addition, at the end of this class you should be better able to: - Appreciate the natural world around you including the great diversity of species, their multiplicity of adaptations, and the ecosystems within which they evolve and live; - Understand how ecosystems work so as to be better able to predict the likely impacts of human activities; - Understand the process of evolution so that you can better understand and predict biological phenomena - Understand the interplay between observation and theory crucial to the advancement of ecological and evolutionary science so that you can evaluate the validity of research results. Expectations: We assume that each of you has had the equivalent of a semester course in biology wherein you learned Mendelian genetics and enough basic biology to know the major groups of organisms and the terms used for describing them. We also assume a solid background in high school algebra. Required Textbooks: - Freeman S. and J. C. Herron. 2007. Evolutionary analysis. 4th ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. - Michael Cain, William Bowman, Sally Hacker. 2008. Ecology. Sinauer. (Also see http://www.sinauer.com/ecology/.) Course Website: http://blackboard.unc.edu The syllabus, lecture outlines, supplemental readings, and other useful materials will be posted on the course website throughout the semester. Reading Assignments: Reading assignments are listed on the lecture schedule, and will be drawn either from the course textbooks or they will be posted on the course blackboard site. Readings should be completed prior to the lecture for which the reading is assigned. Exams: Exam questions will be taken from lectures, recitation material, and assigned readings. Exams will consist of a variety of question types, which may include true-false, multiple choice, fill in the blanks, matching, short answer, and short essay. Exam style questions will be given for practice during many lectures. We will post examples of past exams to illustrate our style. Discussion Boards: 1 week prior to each exam we will open a discussion board on the blackboard website. You will be able to post questions to this discussion board until 5:00 PM on the day before the exam. We will respond to questions at the end of each day (~5:00 PM).Grading: Your final grade will be determined mainly by your performance on four exams. Each exam will make up 20% of your final grade, and the remaining 20% will depend on participation and assignments in recitation. All make-up exams will be given orally. Permission to miss a midterm examination will be granted only in extreme circumstances (e.g., severe illness), and must be obtained in advance. Midterm exams that are missed without advance permission will be given a score of zero points. If you miss two exams or fail to show up for the final exam, you will fail the course. Each exam will cover only the material indicated on the lecture schedule. Exams are notcumulative, except that the advanced material at the end of the course builds on the basic material taught in the beginning. Letter grades will not be assigned for individual exams, only points. Final course grades will be assigned based on your performance relative to the class mean (i.e., via a curve). The distribution of final scores from the entire class will be used to calculate the mean score (m) and the standard deviation (). Scores higher than: Earn grades of: m+  A m + 0.8* m + 0.6* m+ 0.2* mm- 0.3*C+ m- 0.8*Cm- Cm- 2.0*D There will be absolutely NO exceptions to this grading scale. Grading disputes: Grades (including final course grades) will be changed ONLY in the event that an exam question was mis-graded or if exam points were totaled incorrectly. If your exam points were added incorrectly, please see your TA and we will be happy to make a correction. All other requests for exam re-grading must be in the form of a WRITTEN appeal justifying why your answer should be accepted. This appeal should be