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welcome to BCOR 102 Ecology & Evolution
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Professor Nick Gotelli
Office hours MWF 3:30 - 5:00 pm in 226 Marsh Life Science
Tuesday 2:30 pm in Davis Center Atrium, first floor
by appointment (in person or videoconference)
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combination of lectures and labs to cover core principles of ecology and evolution
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myself
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Erin O’Neill Course coordinator undergraduate, MS in Biology with Professor Alison Brody interactions between blueberries, insect pollinators, fungi. Jefffords 107 by appointment
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LO1 Tuesday 8:30 Laney Williams MS with Brody plant-fungal interactions
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LO2 Tuesday 11:40 Illaria Coero Borga PhD with May-Collado cetacean bioacoustics, animal behavior
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LO3 Tuesday 2:50 Kylie Finnegan MS with Lockwood evolutionary response to thermal stress in fruit flies
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LO4 Thursday 8:30 Daniel Munteanu PhD with Helms-Cahan molecular mechanisms of gene expression and plasticity acclimation to temperature
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LO5 Thursday 11:40 Daniel Penados PhD with Ballif signalling pathways that regulate cell proliferation
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LO6 Thursday 2:50 George Ni PhD with Gotelli ecological modeling, data science and the spread of forest insect pests
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LO7 Thursday 10:05 Lauren Berkley MS with Schall/Martinsen vector borne pathogens and effects on deer, moose, and reindeer
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LO8 Thursday 1:15 Jacob Sorrentino MS with Helms-Cahan urbanization and habitat fragmentation effects on population genetics of ants
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Emma Hoza-Frederick undergraduate from last year’s course. Tutoring Center is a Supplemental Instructor.
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Emmy (no feeding, no other animals)
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me and Emma (lecture questions), TA (lab questions), Erin (scheduling questions)
- Textbook
A Primer of Ecology - course notes (second half of course)
- lab manual - on Blackboard
- your own lecture notes
- begin with music (Allman Brothers)
- no powerpoint or videos
- writing on a notepad
- ask questions - a key ingredient for good science!
- could deviate from lecture schedule
- office hours right after class and on Tuesdays (explain structure)
- each lab starts with a quz - no makeups or late quizzes be on time
- initial presentation by lead TA
- lab exercise
- assignments due as listed must be before that next lab starts (usually 1 or 2 weeks in advance)
- using R as a language
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4 midterm exams through semester
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each exam mix of short answers, problems, definitions
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100 points, 4 pages in length, last page has 8 definitions, each worth 3 points. no letter grades, just the points
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see posted previous exams - new answer key provided this year
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each midterm covvers material since last midterm
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straightford structure, but accuracy in answers for full credit
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closed book, must know your stuff and how to use your calculator
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hand graded by me and the TAs together
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grade challenges in person - bring to office hours or set up meeting
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Exam I Monday September 19
Exam II Friday October 7
Exam III Monday October 31
Exam IV Wednesday November 16
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lowest midterm exam score will be dropped
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no make up exams. Access students must make arrangements ahead of time, not retroactively.
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no make up exams for athletic events
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end of course and final exam
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Final Review Session Thursday December 8 6-9 pm
Last Day of Class Friday December 9
Final Eam Monday December 12 1:30 - 4:15 pm
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final exam same length and structure as midterms
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final exam cumulative covers entire course, (Exams 1 - 4) plus material since Exam 4
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final exam cannot be dropped or rescheduled
Midterms = 300 points
Final Exam = 100 points
Lab Assignments = 150 points
Total = 550 points
- traditional grade assignments based on your percentage of the total 550 points
- A 90 - 100, B = 80 - 89, C = 70 - 79, etc.
- no rounding of percentages 79.99% = C+ 80.00% = B-
- these are guaranteed limits.
- we reserve right to adjust those levels, but only to lower them. So, any adjustment will help your grade, never hurt it
- “interior” cutpoints (A-, A, A+) based on where we see natural breaks in the distributions
- point penalties for late lab assignments, detailed in lab
- start promptly at 2:20, so don’t show up late
- don’t talk or be disruptive
- don’t use phones, tablets, or computers unless they are for taking notes
- I appreciate that I speak at a rapid clip; recording lectures for personal use is fine
- Show same respect and courtesy to TAs that you show to me
- zero tolerance for cheating; in 30 years, only 1 major cheating incident, which occurred during covid remote teaching. I refer you to UVM’s Code of Student Conduct for more details
- no notes or stored formulas for exams, doing your own work, not working collectively on solo assignments, not using material inappropriately from internet.
- in lab, closed-toe shoes, long pants, no food, no drink
- attend every lecture
- complete all assignments and tests
- sit in the front
- ask questions and participate in class
- get help when you need it
- visit office hours
- plug into science culture
- weekly department seminars Mondays noon 101 Stafford
- weekly graduate student seminars Fridays noon 101 Stafford
- dynamic engaging lectures (not always entertaining)
- It is what I do and what I enjoy
- some people say that it is the best course they have had at UVM
- how many pre-professionals?
- could be lost to the discipline
- some students passionate about ecology, but not happy with the quantitative focus in this course
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Ecology: study of distribution (where species occur) and abundance (number of individuals)
Ecology vs. Environmental Science
Physics vs. Engineering
Curiosity-based research vs. applications-based research
- Population Ecology - what controls the number of individuals in a population of a single species in time and space?
- Community Ecology - what conttrols the number of species in time and space?
Evolution: the study of changes in the allele frequencies of a population through time
- Microevolution - mechanisms that cause short-term changes in allele frequencies through time (= population genetics)
- Macroevolution - long-term consequences of microevolution
- speciation
- sexual reproduction
- altruism
- repeatable
- falsifiable
- parsimonious
- confirmation from independent sources of data
- consilience (concordance and convergence with existing knowledge)