Time Schedule:
Joshua R Nahum
BIOL 481
Seattle Campus
Explores experimentally approachable questions in ecology and evolution through lectures, lab, and field experiments. Topics may include evolution of bacterial antibiotic resistance, the evolution of virulence, seed predation, plant biodiversity, and others. Prerequisite: BIOL 180. Offered: A.
Class description
This course is designed to give upper division undergraduates and beginning graduate students hands-on experience in the field of experimental evolutionary ecology. The course is composed of lectures and labs. The lectures will introduce some of the current "big questions" in ecology and evolution that are experimentally tractable. The labs will be devoted to designing, running and analyzing various experiments. Students will read the primary scientific literature in order to gain a better understanding of how experimental approaches have been used to explore ecological and evolutionary phenomena. In the labs, students (in groups of four) will conduct experiments in the field and laboratory to investigate wide-ranging issues (such as the evolution of bacterial antibiotic resistance, the ecology of seed predation, the factors affecting plant biodiversity, and the evolution of virulence in a virus). Grades will be based on weekly quizzes, lab reports, and a single final group presentation.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
