Instructor: Steven Goldsmith; Moody Science
314; ext. 2204; box 61611; sgoldsmith@austincollege.edu
Office Hours: Tu 9:30am - 11:00am; Th 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Steven Goldsmith's home page
Text and images copyright 2004 Steven Goldsmith.
Last
modified 14 September 2005
Pertinent readings for the first exam:
Darwin, 1859, on reserve
Chapter 1
Chapters 21, 22, and 23
The PowerPoints:
Handouts and other items |
Assignments |
Quizzes and related items |
| Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium handout | The Library Assignment | Sample Exam Questions |
| Electronic Reserve in Abell Library | The Animal Behavior Observations assignment | |
| My Advice | The Animal Behavior Observation example | |
| Field site directions | ADVICE ON THE FINAL EXAM | |
Scroll down the page here:
| Sources of Information | Academic Integrity | Examinations | Library Assignment | Animal Behavior Observations | Schedule of topics | Critters of the day |
An Evolution and Ecology link:
Links to web sites on human evolution:
Nature: Focus on Human Origins
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The Keeled Green Snake, Opheodrys aestivus, is an arboreal snake common in the southeastern US. It is cryptically colored, prefers brushy edge habitats like stream and lake shores, and feeds on spiders, caterpillars, and other soft-bodied invertebrates. This photograph was taken in October 1999, at the Kerr Arboretum in LeFlore County, OK. |
Sources of Information: The required textbook for this course is Raven et al, Biology, 7th edition. Ours is a customized version of a larger general biology text, which includes the chapters that are most pertinent to the content of this course. There are additional readings of original or secondary scientific literature that bear directly on particular topics. These are listed on the syllabus and are on reserve in the library. The lecture sessions are obviously an important source of information. In the lectures, I will strive to make no assumptions about your prior knowledge of biology in general or of the subject matter of this course in particular, but I may sometimes get carried away and talk about things that you know nothing about. If I do this, please stop me and ask me to explain. I encourage you to record the lectures if you wish to do so.
Academic Integrity
and
Attendance: I assume that you have read, understand, and abide by the
Statement
on Academic Integrity as published in the student handbook Environment.
I also assume that you will attend each class meeting. This is for your
own benefit. I have found that much information comes from informal
discussion
during class meetings, and that much exchange of information that is of
interest is a result of responses to questions and not from formal
lecture
material.
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This photograph was taken near Blue Creek Village, Orange Walk District, Belize, in August 1997. This is a long-horned grasshopper, which when disturbed displayed these striking colors. What is the function of this color pattern? |
Examinations: There will be four hour exams (Friday 23 September, Friday 17 October, Friday 4 November, and Friday 2 December), and an optional comprehensive final (12:00pm - 2:00pm, Friday, 9 December). The exams will be designed to test simultaneously your knowledge of factual information and your understanding of concepts. I attempt to write questions that make you think about the course material, not merely regurgitate facts. The exams will consist primarily of objective (multiple-choice) and brief essay questions of a sentence or two (for instance definitions of terms), with some longer essays of a paragraph or two. Full-credit answers on essays will consist of logical sequences of clear and concise statements, using proper scientific vocabulary.
No makeup exams will be given. If you must miss an exam for a valid reason, you may arrange to take it early, but only under the most dire and extreme of conditions. The optional final is the "safety valve" for exam performance. You may take the final to replace either a missed hour exam or an hour exam with an unsatisfactory score.
There are a number of variables that affect a student's performance on examinations and in a course. These include obvious things like how much and how effectively a student prepares for exams, whether a student attends class, pays attention, and takes good notes, how well-rested the student is before the exam, and the difficulty of the exam questions. Another important factor that affects performance on exams is experience with a professor's testing style. As a way to give you a chance to gauge how much preparation is necessary and the probable difficulty of exam questions, and as a way to give you some experience with my testing style before it becomes critical, I plan to have a "warm-up" quiz on Wednesday 7 September. This quiz will consist of a small sample of questions of the type that will appear on the subsequent exams. You should view this as an opportunity to learn things that will be valuable later, but students typically don't take things seriously unless there is some point value attached, so this quiz will be worth between 10 and 20 points (the value will be determined as the quiz approaches and I see what questions I want to put on it).
Summary of Grading:
| Warm-up quiz | 20 points |
| Library Assignment | 15 points |
| Animal Behavior Observations | 75 points |
| Hour exams | 400 points |
| Optional Final Exam | 100 points |
| Total | 510 points |
The way I compute grades is as follows: At the
end
of the course, each student will have amassed a total number of points
which will be a proportion of the total possible. These
proportions
are converted to letter grades as follows:
| 100% - 92.5% = A | 87.4% - 82.5% = B | 77.4% - 72.5% = C | 67.4% - 62.5% = D |
| 92.5% - 90.0% = A- | 82.4% - 80.0% = B- | 72.4% - 70.0% = C- | 62.4% - 60.0% = D- |
| 89.9% - 87.5% = B+ | 79.9% - 77.5% = C+ | 69.9% - 67.5% = D+ | 59.9% - 0% = F |
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This insect is a parasitoid wasp called Sphecus speciosus, the Cicada Killer wasp. Adult females are about 6 cm long. They find cicadas, sting them to paralyze them, then carry them back to a burrow. The female places the cicada in the burrow, lays an egg on it, and then seals it up. The egg hatches into a wasp larva, which bores into the cicada, feeding on the internal organs, saving the vital organs for last. The wasp larva pupates inside the exoskeleton of the dead cicada, and emerges as an adult wasp the following year. These wasps are active as adults during the summer, at the height of cicada season. This photograph was taken in Sherman, Texas in July 2002. |
Library assignment: A critical component of progress in science is the communication of concepts, hypotheses, methods, results, and conclusions among practicing scientists. The most formal means of communication is through peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. Such articles present original data generated by the authors of the article and the authors' interpretations of their results in light of previously published data. An important skill for students of science is the ability to use the primary or original scientific literature. As a way to foster development of this skill, this course include an exercise that requires you to locate an article in the primary scientific literature, to read it, and to prepare a summary that demonstrates the ability to use the literature and some knowledge of its content. The purposes of this assignment are a) to familiarize you with the physical location in Abell Library of the original scientific literature, b) to acquaint you with the organization of original scientific articles, c) to teach you the proper format for citing original research articles, and d) to give you the opportunity to begin an exploration of the scientific literature that is pertinent to evolution, behavior, and ecology. The content of this assignment is described in detail on a separate handout and on the course web page. This assignment is due on Friday, 30 September and is worth 15 points.
Animal
Behavior
Observations: Each student is responsible for making a series of
observations of the natural history and behavior of a set of local
animal
species. This assignment is described in detail on a separate handout
and
on the course web page. In brief, you will observe five individuals (or
groups, in the case of social animals) of each of three animal species,
and will observe their behavior in enough detail to generate a brief
"interpretive
statement" that outlines the apparent adaptive significance of the
behavior
patterns you observe. The purposes of this exercise are a) to give you
some practice in identifying animals, b) to give you some practice at
being
observant, c) to acquaint you with field biology, d) to give you some
knowledge
of the role of animals in their ecological communities, and e) to give
you an opportunity to apply the conceptual material of this course to
actual
organisms. The three species must comprise at least two phyla (you
can't
use only vertebrates). The three sets of observations are due in a
series
of installments and are worth a total of 75 points. I will provide (see
above) an example of the type of observations I expect.
| Tentative Lecture Outline | ||
| Date | Lecture Topic | Reading |
| Wed 31 August | Introduction; Levels of Biological Organization | Darwin, 1859 (R) |
| Fri 2 Sept | Natural Selection and Adaptation | Ch. 1 |
| Mon 5 Sept | Natural Selection and Adaptation | |
| Wed 7 Sept | Population Genetics and the Meaning of Evolution (Warm-up Quiz) | Ch. 22 |
| Fri 9 Sept | Types of Evolutionary Change | Ch. 21 |
| Mon 12 Sept | Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms | Ch. 22 |
| Wed 14 Sept | Speciation and Macroevolution | |
| Fri 16 Sept | Speciation and Macroevolution | |
| Mon 19 Sept | Phylogeny and systematics | Ch. 23 |
| Wed 21 Sept | Phylogeny and systematics | |
| Fri 23 Sept | Exam 1 (covers material through 16 Sept) | |
| Mon 26 Sept | Phylogeny and systematics | |
| Wed 28 Sept | Human Evolution | Reserve reading |
| Fri 30 Sept | Human Evolution (Library Assignment Due) | |
| Mon 3 Oct | Introduction to Behavior | Ch. 52 |
| Wed 5 Oct | Historical Development of Animal Behavior | |
| Fri 7 Oct | Fall Break | |
| Mon 10 Oct | Communication (ABO installment due) | |
| Wed 12 Oct | Sexual Selection, Anisogamy, and Parental Investment | Darwin, 1871 (R) |
| Fri 14 Oct | Exam 2 (covers material from 19 Sept through 5 Oct) | |
| Mon 17 Oct | Reproductive Competition | |
| Wed 19 Oct | Mate Choice | |
| Fri 21 Oct | Mating systems | |
| Mon 24 Oct | Human reproductive behavior and mating systems | |
| Wed 26 Oct | Social Behavior | |
| Fri 28 Oct | Social Behavior | |
| Mon 31 Oct | Social Behavior (ABO installment due) | |
| Wed 2 Nov | Ecology -- biomes and the big picture | Ch. 56 |
| Fri 4 Nov | Exam 3 (covers material from 10 Oct through 31 Oct) | |
| Mon 7 Nov | Organisms and the abiotic environment | |
| Wed 9 Nov | Population growth and population regulation | Ch. 53 |
| Fri 11 Nov | The Ecological Niche | Ch. 54 |
| Mon 14 Nov | The Ecological Niche and Community Structure (ABO installment due) | |
| Wed 16 Nov | Adaptive Radiation and Biological Diversity | Ch. 28.4 |
| Fri 18 Nov | Interspecific Competition | |
| Mon 21 Nov | Predation | |
| Wed 23 Nov | Indirect Interactions | |
| Mon 28 Nov | Disturbance, Succession, and Community Structure | |
| Wed 30 Nov | Food Webs and Ecological Efficiency | Ch. 55.2 |
| Fri 2 Dec | EXAM IV (covers material from 2 Nov through 30 Nov) | |
| Mon 5 Dec | Review | |
| FINAL EXAM: Friday, 9 Dec, 12:00-2:00 |
