BIOLOGY 208L SPRING 2006
FIELD BIOLOGY
Lab Studies in Population and Environmental Biology
Uniques 48900, 48905, 48910

Syllabus

                

Course Web Page: http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/jcabbott/courses/bio208web

Lecture:

Monday, 9:00-10:00 am in WEL 2.256.  Attendance is required.

Laboratory:

Monday, Tuesday or Thursday from 1:30-5 p.m at Brackenridge Field Laboratories (BFL) room 114, or elsewhere as announced in class or on the schedule. ATTENDANCE AT LAB IS ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY! Pay attention to announcements each week for the location of the next lab! I will post updates or changes on the class web page (http://www.sbs.utexas/jcabbott/courses/bio208web) and/or by sending e-mail to class members when necessary. 

Click here for this map as a single page that can be used to get to BFL.

You can take the Lake Austin (LA) shuttle to BFL.  It has campus stops in front of Jester Hall and between Littlefield Fountain and Guadalupe Street on 21st Street (across from Dobie Mall.  Allow at least 30 minutes for the wait and ride.  You need some sort of UT sticker to park your car at BFL, violators have been ticketed.  You can also park at the Randall’s store at the intersection of Lake Austin Blvd. and Exposition Blvd.

Always come to outdoor laboratory activities ready to get dirty and  get some wading shoes for those days we work in water! It is advisable to always wear long pants and serious walking shoes, unless we are in water. Wear a hat if you like. Sunscreen is recommended. You may want to carry some water as well. Some outdoor laboratory activities may be rescheduled in the event of seriously inclement weather, but generally weather needs to be very bad before I change our plans.

Attendance is absolutely required for class and lab. Attendance will be taken in both. You will most likely have no other opportunities to perform the observations/assignments made/completed during the lab period.

Textbooks:

Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences, 3rd ed., by V. E. McMillan, (VEM) - Required.

Field and Laboratory Methods for General Ecology, 4th ed., by Brower, Zar & von Ende, 1998. (BZE) - Optional.

Reserves:

How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 5th ed., by R. A. Day (T 11 D33 1998)

Ecological methodology , 2nd ed., by C. J. Krebs (QH 541.15 S72 K74 1998).

Ecological Methods with particular reference to the study of insect populations, 2nd ed.  by T.R.E. Southwood,  (QH 541 S64 1978).

Other readings will be available at the main desk in the Life Science Library as listed on the course schedule or as announced in class.

Required Accounts:

E-mail account and an individually-funded (IF) account. If you do not have either of these, you need to get them ASAP. Instructions for setting up an e-mail account can be found at http://www.utexas.edu/cc/umbs . Information and instructions for setting up an IF account on the web are at http://www.utexas.edu/cc/account/steps/ . The people at the Student Microcomputing Facility (SMF) in the Flawn Academic Center (FAC) or the Computation Center (CC) in WC Hogg can help you get started. 

Additionally, we will meet in one of the computer labs at least once this semester. You must have an IF account in order to use the computer labs. If you are not a life sciences major, I need your IF account number ASAP so I can get you validated to use the lab.

You will also be assigned a 5 mb space on a network drive that you will be able to access from any computer.  This will be used for sharing files, completing assignments and to reduce dealing with floppy disks. 

Examinations:

There is one in-class exam given to cover the lectures, field discussions, and reading assignments.  Take notes during my field explanations and study your field notebook.   There is also a lab practical at the end of the semester. The lab practical will cover the various methods and techniques implemented in the laboratory exercises and may consist of specimen identification, multiple choice, true/false, matching, and short answer questions concerning all aspects of the course.  There will be no makeup tests.  If you miss the test and have a verifiable medical excuse, see me within one week after the exam to arrange alternative credit.  There will be no final examination but there will be a practical examination in lab during the last week.  I expect extensive work on papers and your research projects to compensate for the lack of a final.

Field Trip:

There will be one out-of-class field trip to the Big Thicket National Preserve over the weekend of March 24-26.  We will be leaving Friday afternoon at 3:00p and arrive back in Austin Sunday evening.  We will be learning and applying several skills during this field trip and you will have a scientific paper to write based on the study.  This is a required trip so make plans now to attend.

Assignments:

This is a writing component class. Your grade in this course will be based primarily on your performance on a number of written assignments. We will pick 3-4 lab exercises and write lab reports in the format of scientific papers. For some of the labs we will write only a brief summary. The number of labs we choose to write is negotiable, but the depth required is not. I expect well thought out and formulated papers that adhere to the proper format. Please do not use plastic covers unless they are absolutely necessary to hold photographs or other major attachments. A simple staple is sufficient, not even a separate title page is required.  Follow the format used on one of the first major lab handouts.  Keep it simple.

The due dates for all major assignments are projected on the time schedule on a separate page of this syllabus.  Please realize that these dates are tentative, depending on weather and laboratory equipment scheduling.  I sincerely attempt to balance the due dates of the assignments to allow completion in a timely fashion by you and careful grading by us.  Do not procrastinate data analysis and report preparation.  The reports always take more time than you expect due to vagaries of library accessibility and computer glitches.  Also, back up your files early and often.

Grading:

The breakdown of your grade in this course will be as follows:

Late Penalties:

Late assignments WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED MORE THAN THREE DAYS AFTER THE ORIGINAL DUE DATE, unless you can document that you could not turn in an assignment due to an excused absence.  If you know you will be absent on the day an assignment is due, it is your responsibility to make arrangements to turn it in ahead of time.  Late penalties are calculated as a percentage of the total possible points for the assignment and are as follows: -5% if one day late, -15% if two days late, -25% if three days late.

Academic Integrity:

You are expected to uphold the high standards of academic integrity as outlined in the Student Judicial Service's web pages.  Please pay careful attention to the sections on unauthorized collaboration and plagiarism.  In this class, we often work together to collect data in lab.  This should not be construed as permission to work together on the assignments outside the lab.  You are not authorized to work together on your assignments for this class outside of lab (the group research project is an obvious exception).  Working together may include comparing answers, working on the same computer, working on the same assignment on adjacent computers while comparing your progress with each other, writing a paper or portion of a paper with another student and turning it in separately under each name.  You also may not have someone in the class do portions of your work.  

Penalties levied for scholastic dishonesty in this class may range from zero on an assignment up to an F for the entire course.  Please do not think we take this lightly!