Ecology & Evolution Grading Policies

BCOR 102 -- Spring 2014 Ecology and Evolution

Welcome to BCOR 102! The information below describes the course instructors, grading policies, and reading list. You can email any of us by clicking on our email links below. When you send an email to any of us, please include "BCOR102" in the subject line so we will take special notice of the message.

Lectures meet MWF from 9:35 to 10:25 in Hills 122 Course Instructors Dr. Don Stratton Professor Jane Molofsky 304 Jeffords Hall 341 Jeffords Hall [email protected] [email protected]

Office Hours: After Office Hours: After lecture lecture or by appt or by appt

Weekly Lab Sections GTF Day Time Location Instructors Jeffords Wednesday 10:40 -1:25 Tba 100 Jeffords Wednesday 1:55 – 4:40 Tba 100 Jeffords Thursday 8:30 - 11:15 Tba 100 Jeffords Thursday 11:30 - 2:15 Tba 100 Lab/Blackboard Coordinator Jamie Carter 358 Jeffords, [email protected] and - Michelle McGee, 107 Jeffords

Required Textbooks:

 Case Studies in Ecology and Evolution by Don Stratton (draft pdf chapters, on blackboard)  Evolutionary Analysis, 5th ed. by S. Freeman and J. Herron (in bookstore)

The first half of the course covers the general principles and applications of evolution. For that we will use selected chapters from the Evolutionary Analysis text. During the second half of the course we will use draft chapters from Don Stratton’s Case Studies in Ecology and Evolution. Those will be available as pdf files on blackboard. You should download and print out those chapters as they become available.

GRADING & POLICIES

Total Course Points:

Lecture 500 points Laboratory 200 points Total for Course 700 points

Lecture = 500 pts.  Two lecture exams will given during the normal lecture period on Feb 26 and Apr 23. Each lecture exam is worth 100 points. Each exam covers roughly the material since the last exam.  Four in-class Quizzes will be worth 25 pts each. See the class schedule for the dates of the quizzes. We will keep the best three of your four quiz grades.  Final Exam (May 9th at 7:30 am). It will cumulative, covering new material since the last exam and material covered earlier in the course, and is worth 150 points. Attendance at the final exam is mandatory. Early exams will not be given so make your plans accordingly.  In class clicker questions will be given throughout the semester and worth 25 pts total.  Homework assignments (open book) will be completed online. They will be due most Wednesdays and worth 50 pts total.  Test and quiz dates are set. Make up quizzes will not be given. If you miss a quiz and have a dean's excuse (illness, family emergency, travel for University sanctioned activities), then your quiz grade will be prorated and calculated from the three remaining quizzes.  Make up exams will only be given with a dean’s excuse (illness, family emergency, travel for University sanctioned activities)

Two midterm exams 200 points Quizzes (best three at 25 points each) 75 points Final exam 150 points Homework 50 points In class clicker questions 25 points Total for Lecture 500 points

Laboratory - 200 points

 Weekly Lab Quizzes: (30 pts) A short quiz is given at the start of most laboratory sessions. The quiz is based on the current laboratory exercise. Make-up quizzes are not given! Because quizzes are given promptly at the start of each lab session, you cannot afford to be late to lab! o 3 points each quiz x 10 quizzes = 30 points  Full Lab Reports: (80 pts) Typed double spaced in correct format, writing clear and to the point, data correctly presented, analysis done correctly, discussion leads directly from the data and analysis, all tables and figures neatly done. Papers should have a minimum of 3 citations. o Antibiotic Resistance. 40 points, Due February 28th at 12:00 pm. o Forest Diversity-40 points, Due April 30th at 12:00 pm.  Short Lab Write-Ups or Exercises. (80 pts) Labs that are not written up as longer papers will have a short write up or 1-2 page paper. These are due in the following lab period. o 8 points each lab write-up x 10 write-ups = 80 points  Lab Participation: (10 pts) Points are based on your participation in the lab (or lack thereof).

0 1 2 3 4 5 Unprepared, Unprepared, Prepared, Prepared Prepared, Goes above negative contributes but , helpful/positive and beyond attitude/comments little disengaged engaged attitude/comments expectations

Grading Scale. Your grade will be based on your total points at the end of the semester. We follow the traditional grading scale: A = 90-100%, B = 80-89%, C = 70-79%, D = 60-69%, F = < 60%. Plus and minus grades reflect scores close to these borders. If the scores of the class are too low overall, we adjust this scale downward. If necessary, we also adjust laboratory scores if there are differences among instructors in average scores. Any adjustments of scores would only help, not hurt, your final grade.

Grade Challenges. If you think there is a mistake in grading your exam or quiz, please bring your exam to office hours for reevaluation. Grades will not be discussed over email. You need to communicate in person with the professor if you feel that you have been unfairly graded.

Classroom respect: Come prepared to dedicate your full attention to your instructor and TA during lecture and lab.  Please arrive to class on time and plan to stay for the entire lecture unless you have made other arrangements in advance.  Keep cell phones and other electronic devices turned off during class.  Computers may be used for notes, but other uses such as email or web-surfing is disruptive to students around you and discourteous to us.

Email is usually the best way to contact us. We will make every effort to answer your emails promptly, but do not expect an immediate response.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism Academic honesty is expected of all students. The University of Vermont has a very strict policy concerning academic honesty and plagiarism. Please see the statement on academic honesty http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmppg/ppg/student/acadintegrity.pdf. Plagiarism constitutes a violation of Academic Honesty and warrants failure on an assignment and/or failure in the course. Plagiarism of any sort - e.g., copying part or all of a fellow student's report, copying from original references, texts, or websites - will not be tolerated. Many of the laboratory experiments will be done as a class or in small groups but we expect the final product to be your own work. The consequences of plagiarism or cheating range from a score of zero on the assignment or exam, to filing a complaint with the University’s Coordinator for Academic Honesty which can result in expulsion from UVM.

How to succeed in the course  Keep up with the reading. The reading assignments are mostly short, but they are packed with information so it will not be possible to learn all of the material right before an exam.  Do the homework and / or problem sets. Much of the content of this course is quantitative and the way to learn that is by practice. Do the homework assignments as well as the non- graded practice problems in the book or on blackboard. The amount you learn will be directly proportional to the time you spend practicing.  Come to office hours or ask questions during class. We will make every effort to help explain difficult concepts to facilitate your learning. Ultimately, however, the learning happens within you. We can provide information and context but real learning is an individual process that requires work.

BCOR 102 Ecology & Evolution - Spring 2014 Day Topic Reading 13- Introduction to ecology and Chapter 14 pages JM 1 Jan evolution 538-545. 15- JM 2 Evolution by natural selection Chapter 3, pages 79- Jan 94. 17- Chapter 10 369-378, JM 3 Adaptation/Natural selection statistical hypothesis Jan testing 20-

Jan 4 Martin Luther King Day Chapter 11 414-417, 22- 417-423,423- JM 5 Sexual selection Jan 437,438-441, 444- 448. 24- Sexual selection/human health and JM 6 Continued Jan adaptation 27- Chapter 12 426- JM 7 Kin Selection Jan 464,464-467 29- JM 8 Continued Jan Quiz 1 31- Review of Hardy-Weinberg JM 9 Chapter : 179-191. Jan equilibrium 3-Feb JM 10 Mutation/selection balance Freeman 6 5-Feb JM 11 Mutation/selection balance 7-Feb JM 12 Migration/drift Freeman 7 10- JM 13 migration drift/non-random mating Freeman 7 Feb 12- JM 14 Freeman 7 Feb Quiz 2 14- JM 15 Chapter 9 329-334. Feb Quantitative genetics 17- presidents day-

Feb no class 19- JM 16 Quantitative genetic response to Chapter 9, 343- Feb selection 348,348-350 21- Chapter 9 356- JM 17 Types of selection Feb 360,361-364 24- JM 18 Mechanisms of speciation Freeman 16 Feb 26- JM 19 TEST 1 Feb 28- JM 20 Mechanisms of speciation Freeman 16 Feb March spring break 3-7 10- DS 21 Exponential Population Growth Stratton 1 Mar 12- DS 22 Logistic Growth Stratton 2 Mar 14- DS 23 Mar 17- DS 24 Applied demography Stratton 3 Mar 19- DS 25 Mar 21- DS 26 Start age structure Stratton 4 Mar 24- DS 27 Mar 26- DS 28 Quiz 3 Size-structured Pop Growth Stratton 5 Mar 28- DS 29 Mar 31- DS 30 Metapopulations Stratton 6 Mar 2-Apr DS 31 4-Apr DS 32 Community Ecology tba 7-Apr DS 33 Diversity 9-Apr DS 34 11- DS 35 Apr 14- Competition DS 36 Stratton 7 Apr 16- DS 37 Quiz 4 Apr 18- DS 38 Apr 21- DS 39 Disease ecology Stratton 10 Apr 23- DS 40 Test 2 Apr 25- DS 41 Apr 28- Applications in Ecology and DS 42 Apr Evolution 30- Applications in Ecology and DS 43 Apr Evolution JM/D May 9th Final Exam 7:30-10:15 S