General Ecology
Dr. Kari Benson
Office: 218
Office Hours: M,W,
F 10-11.
Email:
benson_k@mail.lynchburg.edu
Scheduled Class Times
Lecture: The class meets
Laboratory: Laboratory meets from
Absences
are excused for acute illness, a family emergency, or a college sponsored
event. Documentation from a physician or
a college representative is required for an excused absence. Alternative
arrangements for assignments will be made available for students with special
needs. If you will require special
dispensation, you must make arrangements during the first two weeks of class.
The
study of relationships between organisms and their biological and physical
surroundings
From
well before you were born, the biological and physical surroundings that your
ancestors dealt with influenced you.
Every day, you and every other organism are subject to these factors.
The better you understand the ramifications, the better you will be able to
make informed decisions. Because
ecology and evolution are inexorably linked, you must understand evolution to
fully understand ecology.
Prerequisite: Junior standing or
higher. This is
a four-credit course, scheduled for three hours weekly in the classroom and
three hours in the laboratory.
This course supports goals 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.4, 2.5, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.5 of the biology program and goals one and three of the environmental science program.
Course Content
The
lecture material will cover aspects of the text and other outside readings,
students are expected to come to class having read the assigned material. Lectures are an adjunct to a thorough reading
of the text, not a substitute. Class
activities are an important aspect to gaining an understanding of the concepts
of ecology. Thus, student activity in
discussions, activities, laboratory work, and presentations is crucial. There will be one extended field trip for
which we will visit the entomological labs at Virginia Tech, tentatively
scheduled for 19 February. There will be one required overnight trip to the Claytor Nature Study Center in
Course Description
Prerequisite:
Junior standing or higher. Three hours
lecture and three hours laboratory. This
course is a survey of general ecological principles from an evolutionary
perspective, incorporating multiple levels of analysis (e.g. population,
community, etc.). Primary emphasis is
placed on framing ecological theory in perspective with field models of
ecological principles from historical and current research.
Materials
Karban, R. and M. Huntzinger. 2006. How to Do Ecology: A Concise Handbook.
Krohne, David T., 2001. General
Ecology, Second Edition. Wadsworth
Publishing Company.
Your
final grade will be determined as follows:
Item: Percentage
Three Tests 30
Final
Exam 15
Challenges
and Quizzes 10
Class
Participation 5
Lab
Assignments 10
Research
Project and Paper 12
Research
Presentation 5
Discussion
Leadership and Participation 3
Two
Critiques 10
Total 100
Tests: There will be three tests, 6
February, 12 March, and 9 April. Each exam will cover material since the
previous exam.
Final Exam: The final exam is
cumulative. The scores for any missed
tests will be replaced with the grade on the final exam. The final will be held on 6 May.
Challenges and Quizzes: Quizzes or in-class assignments
will be given periodically either to assess student understanding of concepts
that we have already covered or to evaluate student preparedness for the
class. These will be concise and
designed to insure that you understand the key concepts under
consideration. Quizzes will be
unannounced. If the subject matter does not lend itself to an in-class
assignment, a take-home assignment designed to allow more consideration will be
used rather than an in-class quiz. The
lowest two scores from these assignments will be dropped for the final
quiz/challenge average.
Class Participation: This grade will be determined by
the level of thoughtful participation including: contributions to class
discussions, class group exercises, laboratory exercises, and independent
learning. Participation in the
laboratory also includes clean up of the classroom and any class
equipment.
Lab Assignments: There will be several homework
assignments for the laboratory. I would
recommend that you keep these in a laboratory loose-leaf binder. The notebooks
and homework assignments will be graded for thoroughness, attention to
instructions (both written and oral), and the ability of the student to
interpret and present their data.
Research Project and Paper: All of your project information
(planning, schedules, data, data analysis, literary research, and all drafts of
the paper) should be kept in a loose-leaf binder. One research paper will be required. This
paper will be used to assess your understanding of the scientific method, your
scientific writing skills, and your ability to interpret scientific data in the
framework of previous ecological research.
The final grade for this work will incorporate your
team’s ability to meet project deadlines, your paper, your ability to
incorporate comments on earlier drafts and your thoroughness in documenting
your work in the notebook.
Research Presentation: Your research team will present
the results of your work in a professional format (12 minute talk with three
minutes for questions) during the final laboratory meeting. These presentations will be graded by your
student colleagues and your professor.
Discussion Leadership and
Participation:
Each student will be involved in at least one discussion leadership group. Discussion leaders will be expected to lead
the group in a critical evaluation of a paper from the primary ecological
literature. Your participation in all
of the discussions of primary literature will be incorporated in this
grade. These discussions scores will be
based both on overall participation and the contribution of thoughtful insights
and questions to our analysis of the research discussed. These discussions are tentatively scheduled
for 26 January, 16 February, 2 March, and 23 March.
Critiques: There will be a series of outside readings
for the course. Students will submit
critical evaluations of these papers for two readings
Grading Policy: Students are expected to hand in
work on time. For each day (including
Saturday and Sunday) that an assignment is late, 5% of the grade will be
deducted from the score. Assignments
that are more than 1 week late will not be accepted. If you wish to hand in a
late assignment, either hand-deliver the assignment or place the assignment
into the appropriate mailbox in Hobbs Hall.
Re-evaluation: If you find that you disagree
with the grading on any particular question, I will re-evaluate your work. I will only accept re-evaluation requests in
written form, be sure to include your name, the question number, explain why
you should have received credit that you did not, and how much additional credit
you feel you deserve. Be sure to attach
this form to your original work. For
bookkeeping purposes, all re-evaluation requests must be submitted within 2
days of the return of the work.
Use of Calibrated Peer Review:
I will
initiate the use of Calibrated Peer Review for a number of assignments during
this course. It is the first time that I
am using this resource, so I will expect all of us to work through the learning
curve of CPR use together. It should be
understood that there is a learning curve associated with this application (as
in any other) and we will have to be patient to become accustomed to its
idiosyncrasies. I intend to use CPR in
both the laboratory and the lecture parts of the course.
CPR
allows students to get background material and submit their work online, review
some samples to “calibrate” their evaluation skills, evaluate their peers
(anonymously) and their own work. The
weight of your peers’ scores of your work will be weighted (or calibrated)
based on their acumen at scoring the sample assignments. Each of the three phases of an assignment
will count toward the score that the student receives for their assignment.
There
are several aspects of CPR that are new and different. First, you will each receive a CPR Username
and will be required to logon, create your account, and take the pre-test
independently. Your work will be
anonymous only as you protect your username.
Second, because of the computer code that drives the scoring of this
work and transitions between phases of an assignment, the deadlines are
absolute. If you miss a deadline, you
will not be allowed to complete the assignment.
Third, I reserve the right to alter the scores received by your peers if
they seem inequitable.
Assignment Instructions: Students can access the course web page for instructions
on all course materials. Additional
instruction is available on the web at: http://lasi.lynchburg.edu/benson_k/public/writing/writing.html This web site includes
instructions for writing assignments and the presentation preparation.
Honor Code: I encourage a free exchange of
ideas both in and out of the classroom.
Science is a collaborative endeavor.
However, when a scientist gets help from another scientist, they are
expected to acknowledge or reference them fully. A description of what
constitutes an honor code violation is available in the catalogue and in the
student handbook. If you are unsure about
how to attribute another individual for intellectual contribution to your work,
please see an instructor prior to the deadline of the assignment. Failure to adhere to these rules can result
in failure in the course.
Respect: I would like everyone in the class
to feel free to express their ideas and opinions. We encourage intellectual
controversy and debate in the course, and, thus, demand that everyone's right
to different thoughts and opinions be respected, even as we challenge the ideas
underlying those opinions. Treating one
another with respect includes arriving in class on time and not distracting
fellow students during any course related activities.
http://benson-k.web.lynchburg.edu/ecology/home.html
The
course web page will include news, assignments, and notes to students about the
course.
I have
three scheduled office hours weekly (
We
will conduct some of our laboratory exercises outdoors, regardless of the weather,
so dress accordingly. Be prepared for
bugs, heat, humidity, cold, wet feet, cold hands, and other field
conditions. I will try to let you know
the likely conditions for a given outing.
The order of the labs will be flexible to allow for changes if conditions
are not suitable for gathering data.
Laboratory Exercises
There
are several planned laboratory exercises.
The list of exercises is tentative subject to weather and the
availability of the necessary organisms for each exercise. Please check the web page regularly for
up-to-date information on the status of the next laboratory project.
Background Knowledge:
Ecology
is, to a degree, a mathematical enterprise.
I will provide some background for the mathematics. Students are encouraged to seek help if they
are confused about the equations in the course.
As the science of ecology is quantitative, part of this course requires
learning appropriate computer skills.
The computer emphasis focuses primarily on model explorations, simple
data analysis, and graphing techniques.
Students that are unfamiliar with using spreadsheets or other computer
programs are encouraged to seek help.
Required Overnight Exercises:
Diel
patterns of abundance: We will spend 24 hours (starting Friday 20 April)
sampling invertebrates on the
COURSE SCHEDULE
Tentative
Schedule:
Please note that, due to the
required cooperation of the weather and wild animals for some of these
exercises, the labs are subject change up to the last minute prior to lab.
Week 1:
Lab: Scavenger Hunt, Review and
Experimental Design
Week 2:
Lab: Bird Vigilance and/or Diving
Week 3:
Lab: Populus
Week 4:
Lab: Cemetery
Week 5:
Lab: Duckweed Populations, Life
History Games
Week 6:
Lab: Virginia Tech
Week 7:
Lab: Duckweed Populations
(continued), Life History Games (continued) Project Discussion
Week 8:
Lab: Foraging
Week 9: Ch.9,
Test 2
Lab: Biogeography
Week 10:
Lab: Population Ecology
Week 11:
Lab: Diel
Sampling
Week 12:
Lab: Fish Collecting
Week 13:
Lab: Foraging Revisited
Week 14:
Lab: Projects
Week:
Lab: Final Presentations
6 May CUMULATIVE
FINAL EXAM
Grading
Structure:
|
Number Grade |
Letter Grade |
|
97-100 |
A+ |
|
93-96 |
A |
|
90-92 |
A- |
|
87-89 |
B+ |
|
83-86 |
B |
|
80-82 |
B- |
|
77-79 |
C+ |
|
73-76 |
C |
|
70-72 |
C- |
|
67-69 |
D+ |
|
63-66 |
D |
|
60-62 |
D- |
|
<60 |
F |