Bio 301M, Spring 2010
    I will update this page regularly with specific topics for upcoming lectures, and then the Powerpoint presentations that I use in class will be uploaded each afternoon after class.  Sometimes I forget.  If you need to access a presentation, and I have not posted it yet, please email me.  Depending on your browser, you may view them on-line or download them and view them on your computer.  Please keep in mind that these figures act as a jumping off point for teaching and discussing in class, and there may be information that was discussed in class that did not have an accompanying figure.  Click on the dates to access the presentation.
    A few days before each lecture, I will post the specific parts of the textbook and/or articles that I will base the lectures on.  I do not promise to cover everything in these sections, but if you want to read before lecture, this will give you the areas to focus on.  Test material will come from what is presented in lecture.  Textbook chapters and figures refer to the textbook, "Biology" by Campbell et al. (2008).

1/20  Introduction to Class

1/22  Strong Inference (article on webpage)

1/25  What is a gene?

1/27  How are genes used to make proteins?

1/29  Nature and Nurture

Presented in discussion(week of 1/25):  What is in a scientific article (as a pdf)?

2/1  Finish Nature and Nurture (smoking affects on fetuses) and Evolution (in class exercise)

2/3 What is evolution and how does it occur?

2/5  Natural Selection

2/8  Human Evolution

2/10  Is racism genetic?
End of Material for Exam #1

2/15  The Little People of Flores

2/17  An Introduction to Ecology:  Carrying Capacity, Trophic Levels, and Resources

2/19  more Carrying Capacity

2/22  Biodiversity and Competition between Species

2/24  The Reintroduction of Wolves to Yellowstone National Park

2/26  Succession and Chernobyl

3/1  Chernobyl and Non-humans

3/3  Mountain Lion in class Exercise
End of Material for Exam #2

3/8  Global Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)

3/10  Global Climate Change and Conflicts over Resources

3/12  Minimizing Global Climate Change

3/22 Resoration Ecology and Restoring Urban Waterways

3/24  More Restoration Ecology:  Why?  Does it work?  What problems exist?

3/26  How many animals do we want to save?

3/29  Self-awareness and Interactions with Non-humans

3/31  Using Non-human Animals in Research

4/2  No Class

4/5  Grizzly Bears

4/7  Uncertainty:  Predicting the fututre and looking into the past.
End of Material for Exam #3

4/12  Recycling

4/14 Environmental Toxins:  DDT and BPA

4/16  Overpopulation and Viruses

4/19 Overpopulation and Education

4/21 Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

4/26 Geoengineering

4/30 Genetic Engineering

5/3 Emergent Properties
Pre-exam #4 quiz (as pdf)

End of Material for Exam #4
End of Material for the Semester