|
|
Tutorial -- Environmental Messages and Messengers: Silent Spring and An Inconvenient Truth. Biologist Rachel Carson and her best-selling book about the environmental risks of chemical pesticides, Silent Spring (1962), have received credit for inspiring the modern environmental movement and changing government policy. The legacy of An Inconvenient Truth (2006), former Vice President Al Gore’s movie about the risks of human-caused global warming, is yet to be determined. This tutorial will compare and contrast Silent Spring’s history with the ongoing reception of An Inconvenient Truth, analyzing the science, public reception, and political impact of the messages and their messengers. One-time only? Fall, 2007.
Biology 150 -- Introduction to Biological Inquiry: The Sex Life of Plants. Few things in nature are as evident as the diversity of flowering plants. In this course, students will investigate the causes of that diversity by addressing contemporary research questions and studying classic ideas about the evolution and ecology of plant reproductive systems. The course emphasis will be on studying adaptation, practicing the scientific method, designing observations and experiments, and communicating scientific information. Prerequisites: none. Last taught fall, 2005. I hope to teach it again in 2008.
Biology 252 -- Organisms, Evolution, and Ecology. Investigations of the evolutionary causes and ecological consequences of organismal structure and function, including studies of why organisms acquire and expend energy, acquire and transport materials, regulate internal conditions, transmit information, reproduce, develop, grow, and move. Student investigations will be linked with those of Biology 251 (Cells, Molecules, and Organisms). Prerequisites Biology 251 and Mathematics 124 or 131. Next taught spring, 2008.
Biology 305 -- Evolution of the Iowa Flora. Investigations of the vascular plants of Iowa from three perspectives: (1) taxonomy and systematics; (2) paleoecology and community assembly; and (3) conservation. Prerequisite Bio 252, or instructor permission. Next taught fall, 2007.
Biology 368 -- Ecology. Study of the distribution and abundance of organisms and of relationships between organisms and environments. Laboratories emphasize quantitative analysis and experimental design in ecology and include several field projects. Lectures focus on the development of ecological concepts and theory. Three lectures and one laboratory per week. Prerequsite Biology 236, or Biology 252, or instructor permission. Last taught fall, 2006.
Biology 395. Advanced Special Topic: Spatial Ecology. Because it concerns the distributions of organisms, ecology has always been an explicitly spatial biological discipline. Innovations in techniques (e.g., geostatistics, geographic information systems, remote sensing) and concepts (e.g,. metapopulation biology, landscape genetics) are now enabling ecologists to address old questions in new ways, as well as new questions altogether.This course asks students to apply to the concepts and tools of spatial ecology in addressing basic and applied ecological issues. Once taught spring, 2004.