Courses of Study 2013-2014 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
Courses of Study 2013-2014 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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BIOEE 6601 - [Tropical Field Ecology]


Spring. 2 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite for undergraduates: experience or course work with terrestrial, marine, or freshwater organisms. Fee to cover transportation and housing: TBA. Offered alternate years. Extended field trip over winter break. Optional vertebrate dissection (fish) during a portion of the course field trip.

N. Hairston, I. Hewson, J. Sparks.

Field trip to the big island of Hawaii, the Yucatan Coast of Mexico, or similar environment; check with instructors for planned location. Students employ experimental approaches to study ecological and evolutionary questions across a range of tropical biomes.

Outcome 1: Students will be able to identify the most ecologically significant organism in three distinct habitats (upland forests, coastal/inland ponds, and marine coral reefs).

Outcome 2: Students will be able to explain the ecological roles of these critical species in their habitats.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to formulate two or more original hypotheses about the ecological functioning of one of the three tropical habitats listed above.

Outcome 4: Students will be able to design experimental or observational tests of hypotheses that can be carried out in a week’s time.

Outcome 5: Students will be able to work as a team, drawing on the strengths (theoretical and practical) of their fellow course participants, and contributing strengths of their own.

Outcome 6: Students will be able to divide research tasks effectively among team members so that each component of the research is executed, each team member has a role and no one works more or less than the others.

Outcome 7: Students will be able to design experiments that can be carried out using the equipment and supplies that can be carried with them. They will work out ways to sample, carry out experiments, and fill simple scientific needs with materials that can be purchased locally (such as at hardware stores, etc.).



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