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Course Content:
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 or five) will conduct experiments in the laboratory to investigate wide-ranging issues (such as the evolution of bacterial antibiotic resistance, the evolution of multicellularity in eukaryotes, and coevolution of pathogens and their hosts). Grades will be based on weekly quizzes, lab reports, and a single final group presentation.
Useful Downloads & Links
The syllabus can be downloaded here.
If you are interested in the opportunity to earn as many as three bonus points, check out the Black Box Bonus. This is due Dec. 11 at 11:59pm.
If you filled out the anonymous survey at the beginning of the quarter, fill out this second (and final) anonymous survey by Dec. 11 at 11:59pm to receive your BONUS point. (Note the survey questions should look familiar).
Hours:
Lecture:
3:30pm - 4:50pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays, HCK 132
Lab:
8:30am - 10:20am, 10:30am - 12:20pm, or 12:30 - 2:20pm, Tuesdays, Hitchcock 346
Instructor:
Ben Kerr
Teaching Assistants:
Elizabeth Duan, Nate Grassi, and Chenxi Liu
Peer Facilitators
Dania Ahmed, Hannah Barbaza, Xin Cen, Makayla Hsu, Euan McCubbin, Imraa Omar, Danielle Vahdat, Bobby Wang, Tara Young, and Bella Yuan