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Core courses are planned as regular offerings, usually on an alternate year basis. This list does not include the many topical graduate courses and seminars that are also offered. Topical courses will differ from year to year within a subject area.
Biology 110: Scientific Integrity and Research Ethics
This course is designed to introduce scientific researchers to issues in research ethics. We will emphasize foundational principles underlying scientific integrity and their application to a range of issues including data management, animal and human subjects, collaboration, mentoring, peer review and the ethical implications of different forms of scientific research. Analysis and presentation of case studies will constitute important focal points for discussion in class meetings. Dietrich.
Biology 120: Advanced Population Ecology
This course explores the description of populations, population growth, and the determination of abundance. Examples are drawn from a diversity of plant and animal taxa to illustrate the broad scope of population ecology, including its role as a foundation for evolutionary ecology and community ecology, and its contributions to applied problems in conservation biology, pest management, human demography, and the management of harvested populations. Throughout, this course will emphasize the development of verbal, graphical, and mathematical models to describe populations, generate predictions, test hypotheses, and formalize theory. Ayres.
Biology 123: Advanced Community Ecology
This course examines the mechanisms structuring ecological communities of plants and animals. The course will consist of regular lectures, readings from the primary literature, and individual projects. Topics to be covered include simple two-species interactions (e.g. predation, competition, parasitism, mutualisms), simultaneous multispecies interactions, food web structure, regulation of species diversity on ecological and evolutionary time scales, community succession, and biogeography. Emphasis will be placed on the development of mathematical models and their relationship to empirical studies. McPeek.
Biology 125: The Nature and Practice of Science
This course compares and contrasts the nature and practice of science across the range of contemporary biological disciplines. Topics include: What is science? What is the structure of scientific knowledge? What are the philosophical, logical, and practical aspects of hypothesis testing? What are intellectual strategies for successful research in biology? What is the role of ethics in science? Format includes readings, exercises, and discussion. Ayres, Dietrich.
Biology 128 and 129: Statistics and Experimental Design I and II
This is a two-term, graduate-level sequence in statistics and experimental design as applied to biological systems. There will be lectures and laboratories, regular homework assignments, and a major project of statistical analysis. Topics during the first term include sampling distributions and general hypothesis testing, contingency table analysis, correlation, and regression (linear, polynomial and logistic regression, and model selection techniques). Topics in the second term include analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, experimental design (e.g., factorial, blocked, latin squares, nested, and split plot designs), and a number of nonparametric techniques. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistical computer software (SAS) in performing analyses. Cottingham, McPeek.
Biology 133: Foundations in Ecology and Evolution
This course is a reading seminar in which graduate students will read and discuss a series of classic and contemporary papers taken from the primary literature on various topics in ecology and evolutionary biology. Each week a set of 2-4 papers will be discussed covering a different major topic. The papers will be chosen to expose students to the foundations of the major ideas and theories. The course will meet one evening per week, and each week a different student will lead the discussion of the assigned papers. Offered in alternate years. Taylor.
Biology 169: Supervised Teaching in Biology
This course is required for all graduate students, based on the assertion that an essential element of graduate education is the experience gained in teaching other students. Such teaching experience is of particular relevance to students interested in academic careers. Students will conduct laboratory or discussion sessions in undergraduate courses under the supervision of the course faculty. The faculty and student teaching assistant work very closely to develop lab and discussion assignments. In some cases, the students are encouraged to present lectures for which they receive detailed feedback on their teaching style. In all cases students will receive instruction on effective teaching techniques through weekly preparation sessions. Topics for discussion include how to teach the material, how to run a discussion, how to evaluate student responses, and grading. Performance will be monitored throughout the term and appropriate evaluation, coupled with detailed suggestions for improvement, will be provided. This course is not open to undergraduates. The staff.
Biology 175: Genomic Circuitry
Many genomes, including the human genome, have been sequenced. Now, increasing attention has turned to a cryptic, yet fundamental component of these genomes: gene circuitry, i.e. the "wiring" that links together activated genes in a genomic program. Specialized DNA sequences determine where and when a given gene is expressed during an organism's life cycle. These genomic "regulatory" sequences play a major role in basic evolutionary processes. How do regulatory sequences encode differential gene expression? How do they evolve? How do we identify and decode them? This course will investigate these questions as well as landmark papers necessary to understand present and future work in this field. Offered in alternate years. Erives.
Biology 266: Graduate Research Colloquium in Ecology and Evolution
This course is required of all students during each term of residence, except summer. An essential element of scientific training is in the critical analysis and communication of experimental research in an oral format. Evaluation will be based on quality of the work quality of critical analysis, and on presentation style, including effective use of audiovisual materials. All students will be required to participate in at least one Journal Club/Research in Progress series. Although minor variations in format exist among the several series, all students will make oral presentations that describe work from the current literature or their own research. Meets weekly.
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