Instructor: Wayne Meyer, 312 Moody Science, 813-2254.  Office hours: M,R 2-4 or by appointment.
Class meetings: MWF 10:00-10:50, Moody Science 128. Three evening sessions, meet in MS 128 at 7:00 PM.  One optional Saturday field trip.

Text and Materials:
Discovery Books. 1999. Birds, an Explore Your World Handbook. Random House, Inc. New York.

A note on field guides: there are a large number of field guides that cover the identification of birds in North America.  Your text includes a brief one that includes many but by no means all of the birds you are likely to see in this area.  If you own another field guide, it might come in handy, but I do not expect you to purchase one in addition to your text.  I have several in my office which you can borrow if needed.

Binoculars: Binoculars are invaluable for studying birds in nature.  If you own binoculars, or can borrow some, please bring them with you on the field trip.  You may also find them useful in completing your project.  The Biology department owns a few binoculars which will be available for your use.  See me for check-out.

Grading:
Your grade in this course will be determined by your performance on several writing assignments, and by your participation in discussions.  It is important that you be an active member of the class.  A student who sits quietly in a corner will gain from the class, but not nearly as much as one that makes contributions.

Short writing assignments:  Most of these assignments are intended to make you think about a discussion topic prior to class.  Therefore, it is vitally important that you do them on time.  There will be 6 of these assignments worth 10 pts. each.  You may rewrite them for up to 90% of the possible points.

Oral Presentations:  Each student will be required to make an oral report on her/his project at the end of the class.  He/she will also be expected to present her/his position and findings in a simulated town meeting.  Each of these presentations is worth 5 points.

Project: Each student, working with one other, will perform a simple project involving birds.  Projects may be experiments involving the departmental quail, observation of wild birds, censusing of local wild areas, etc.  You must obtain advance approval of your project topic from me.  The project and accompanying report is worth 50 points.  The report may not be rewritten.

Lecture Responses: Lecture responses encourage dialog and provide me with feedback.  Each student will be asked to write a question or comment pertinent to the lecture material during each class session (except discussions).  These questions and comments will be read, answered and returned at the following discussion.  They are worth 1 pt. each,  max. 20 points possible.

Discussions:  Throughout the semester we will have several less formal discussion times when we consider a variety of things relevant to the last few days’ lectures or to your writing assignments.  I will assign up to 20 pt. Based on your participation in these discussions.

Special Presentations:  On Thursday 18 October the Biology department’s seminar will be a presentation on Raptor Biology.  On Thursday 25 October the seminar will be presented by Dr. Charles Brown, a leading expert on Cliff Swallow biology.  I strongly encourage you to attend these presentation and will give extra credit to those of you who attend.

Total possible points: 160.  I may adjust grades up or down by 1/3 of a letter grade based on participation( e.g. C to C+ or A- to B+).  Letter grades will be assigned in increments of 10% of possible points.  A student earning 90% of possible points is guaranteed an A-, one earning 80% of possible points is guaranteed a B-, etc. (unless participation is so poor that the final grade is lowered by 1/3 of a letter grade).  I may lower these cutoff points, but I will not raise them.