FFC Requirement(s)
Natural Science (NS), Technology-Intensive
Course Description
The roles of ecological and evolutionary processes in shaping life's diversity are examined. Specific topics may include adaptive evolution, origins of species, reconstruction of evolutionary history, population dynamics and extinction, species interactions, community processes, conservation, and the importance of these topics to humanity. Lab sessions combine group work in field research projects with quantitative analyses and synthesis of your findings in terms of published results from the primary literature. These projects result in a written and/or oral presentation of your findings. This is an intermediate-level biology course that assumes prior experience with the primary scientific literature, analysis of quantitative data and mathematical models, and rigorous laboratory work. Three lecture hours plus one four-hour laboratory per week. Prerequisite: BIOL 120. Corequisite: CHEM 115, and Biological Inquiry (13x-14x).