COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Dr. Ruth Hufbauer
Office: C147 Plant Sciences (SE corner of 1st floor)
Phone: 491-6945
Email: ruth.Hufbauer@colostate.edu
Office hours: W 10:30-11:30 AM or by appointment
Teaching Assistant: Dirk Baker
Office: E113 Plant Sciences
Phone: 491-4671 or 491-5984 (E113 during office hours)
Email: dirk.baker@colostate.edu
Office hours: R 10:00-11:00 AM or by appointment
Guest lecturers
Dr. Heidi Steltzer, Dr. Joe Von Fischer, Dr. Kevin Crooks, Dr. Michael Antolin, Dr. Edward Redente
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Ecologists study the distributions and abundances of organisms and how organisms interact with each other and with their environment. In this course you will have the opportunity to learn about ecological patterns and the mechanisms that generate those patterns. Please take advantage of this great opportunity to develop a deeper appreciation for the natural world.
Lectures Tuesday/Thursday 3:35-4:50, 212 Eddy
GETTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED
We love to talk about Ecology. Email is the preferred method for communication, either to answer your question directly or to set up a time to meet. If you canÕt make it to the regularly scheduled office ours, we are happy to meet at nearly any time that works for you.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK: The Economy of Nature, Fifth Edition by Robert E. Ricklefs. This class will closely follow the content and organization of the text book. It is strongly recommended that you purchase this text and read the assigned pages before coming to class each session.
COURSE WEB PAGE
The class webpage is listed under the WEBCT site (http://webct.colostate.edu). Use your netID and login to access it. The webpage will contain links to copies of the lectures, your grades, study guides, links to PDFs of required articles. It is strongly recommended that you use the web page! If there is some reason that you absolutely can not, you will need to contact me or a TA about getting the materials. Also, please let Dr. Hufbauer or the TA know if you have trouble with the webpage.
LECTURE OUTLINES
Lecture outlines will be available on the course website. They will be posted by 11:00 at the latest, but with an effort to get them out the day before the lecture. Outlines are NOT sufficient to perform well in this course. You must come to class and take notes to do well. If you miss a class, get notes from someone else, and make sure you understand them.
QUIZZES and HOMEWORKS
There will be several surprise quizzes in class. Although these quizzes will not contribute directly to your final grade, your performance will be used to determine the outcome of borderline cases. Questions will be based on the readings for that lecture, or on something discussed in that lecture or ones prior. There will be NO MAKEUPS for quizzes and they will come unannounced.
There will be 6 homework assignments that will give you practice with some of the mathematical components of the course, and greater familiarity with conceptual issues. Late homework will not be accepted. Late is defined as any time after the end of class on the due date.
PARTICIPATION
Research shows that when people hear something, they may or may not remember it. If they hear it and write it, chances of remembering it increase. If they hear it, write it, and talk about it, theyÕre pretty likely to remember it down the line. In this class, despite the size, I will ask you to participate in several activities. I know that not everyone learns best this way, but most people do. Even if youÕre one of the lucky ones who can sit and listen and absorb it all passively, I bet youÕll find you get even more out of the class if you take notes and participate.
EXAMS
Exams will contain mostly short-answer and multiple-choice questions, with one or two short essays. Essays will be graded on the quality of your answer and on the quality of your writing (organization, clarity, grammar). There will be three exams during the semester. Exams will be given during the regularly scheduled class period. THERE WILL BE NO MAKE-UP EXAMS unless there is clear documentation several weeks in advance of an academic conflict, or a doctorÕs written confirmation of a medical emergency. Make-up exams will be in an essay format. The lowest of the three exam scores may be replaced in one of two ways: the seminar assignment and internship detailed below.
The final will be 50% cumulative, 50% last section of course. It is scheduled for Wednesday May 11 5:50-7:50 PM.
SEMINAR ASSIGNMENT
You may go to five seminars off an approved list and write up a one page essay about each seminar. The essay should describe the area of ecology the speaker works in, what his or her questions and hypotheses are, what methods were used to address them, what the findings were and how they were interpreted. In addition, you should find and read two primary research articles on the topic by the speaker or another scientist to provide background. (Websites and book chapters are not primary literature.) Finally, you must state what experiments or other work you would like to see done next to take the research presented to the next level.
All five essays should be word-processed, well-organized, clearly written, and with proper citations. They are due the last day of class (May 5), but may be turned in earlier if you like. Many of the seminars are at the beginning of the semester. If you think you would like to take this opportunity, then donÕt wait until after the second exam to attend seminars.
INTERNSHIP
There will be a limited number of 15 hour internships with ecologists on campus available for students who are interested in replacing a low test grade. You must sign up for one of these internships by the end of the 3rd week of class (Thursday February 3rd). For this opportunity, you will work for 15 hours with a graduate student or faculty member who has signed up with us to get some help. With only 15 hours, you are likely to be contributing to some small component of a larger project. For example, you might be washing soil off of roots from a plant competition experiment. Mentors will talk with you about the larger picture of their research: the questions they are interested in, how this particular study is helping to answer them, and what the controversies are. You will then write up a 3-5 page paper on the larger project, and how your work fit in.
COURSE GRADING
|
|
Points Each |
Total Points |
Percent |
|
Homeworks (6) |
25 |
150 |
25 |
|
Exams (lowest can be replaced by seminar assignment) |
100 |
300 |
50 |
|
Cumulative Final |
150 |
150 |
25 |
|
Total |
|
600 |
100 |
Letter grades will be calculated as percentages of the total. A = 90-100%, B = 80-89%, C = 70-79%, D = 60-69%, F < 60%. I will use a +/- to distinguish between grades in the ranges. The bottom 2% in a range will get a minus, and the top 2% will get a plus (e.g. A- is for greater or equal to 90%, and less than 92%, while an A+ is greater than 98%). I will use strict cut-offs.
Students regularly have questions about grading of homework and exams, and that is fine. However, in large classes such as BY320, it is important that firm guidelines for re-grading be established, so as not to overwhelm the instructor and teaching assistant. We will gladly re-grade any question(s) you feel are needed; however, it is your responsibility to follow these rules:
1. When exams/homework are handed back in class, you have 24 hours to identify arithmetic errors on our part.
2. If you would like to have an exam or homework question re-graded, you must submit it with a written explanation of your arguments and the entire exam or homework within one week after it was returned in class.
3. We will gladly speak with you about the material thereafter but absolutely no grade changes will be made once the one-week period has elapsed.
CLASSROOM ETIQUETTE
¥ Please DO ask questions!! This keeps the class more interesting and easy to understand.
¥ Stop talking when the lecture starts, and raise your hand if youÕd like to ask a question or contribute an idea.
¥ Do not read newspapers during class.
¥ Let me know if IÕm going to slowly or too quickly. It is hard to hit the right balance in a large class, and if you provide some feedback, I can do a better job.
Retaking this class?
If you are re-taking this class for any reason, you are required to contact Prof. Hufbauer to set up a meeting. At this meeting, we will discuss a plan of action to improve your performance.
Special needs
If you have special needs for lectures, homework or test taking, please contact Prof. Hufbauer immediately after the first day of class to explain these needs, or speak with her any time if something should develop later in the semester. We will be as accommodating as possible.
Using what you have already learned
In the same way that you must speak and understand English in this course, so too must you understand mathematical descriptions from your prerequisite courses of algebra and calculus. Ecology is a quantitative field of science and you will be expected to understand information displayed on graphs and in equations. In addition, lectures in this course will depend on your understanding of all of introductory biology (genetics, evolution, physiology, cell biology, and chemistry). Please donÕt hesitate to ask if you donÕt understand something, but please take responsibility for being on top of the prerequisite material.