12565

BIO 106      Mammals

Felicia Keesing                 Lab:

T  Th 10:10 am-11:30 am Th        1:30 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 115 RKC 114

LS

SCI

 In this course, intended for students who do not plan to major in biology, we will explore the biology of mammals. Mammals are a fairly specialized group of creatures with two notable features – they produce nutritious milk to feed their offspring and they maintain a constant internal body temperature, though doing so requires them to eat with near comical frequency. Despite our inherent familiarity with a number of mammalian traits, many people are unaware that some of our mammalian relatives lay eggs, others produce venomous saliva, and yet others live in ant-like colonies with a single queen surrounded by a worker caste whose members don’t reproduce. More surprising still might be that hundreds of new species of mammals have been described in the past 15 years. Yet compared to other forms of life, like plants or microbes or insects, mammals are extremely rare, representing just a tiny fraction of living organisms. In this course, we will explore the ecology, behavior, physiology, diversity, and evolution of mammals, and put these characteristics into context by considering how they compare to the characteristics of other groups. Most importantly, we will explore what focusing on mammals can teach us about life on Earth, particularly in the 21st century as the planet warms and little of the land or sea is untouched by the influence of humans, a particularly adaptable and abundant species of mammal.

Class size: 18

 

12485

BIO 131      Existential Neuroscience

Arseny Khakhalin     Lab:

T        1:30 pm-3:30 pm  Th       1:30 pm-3:30 pm

RKC 114/115 RKC 115

LS

SCI

Cross-listed: Mind, Brain, Behavior

 Neuroscience as a field is undoubtedly useful to medical professionals (neurologists, psychiatrists), as well as some types of engineers. But would knowing some neuroscience also change the way we behave as humans? If you learn more about those little cells in your brain that make you the conscious being that you are; if you learn about the ways they communicate, process information, and malfunction, will it change your view of the world? Will it make you more cynical and materialistic? Or will it fill you with vague mysticism; a sense of something beautiful and complex arising from virtually nothing? In this course, we will discuss the neuroscience of music, visual art, pain, emotions, free will, consciousness, and some other things that make us human. We will also run a series of experiments with roaches, tadpoles, and humans, and learn to interpret the results of these experiments. This course is appropriate for students not planning to major in biology. Class size: 20

 

12095

BIO 135      From Egg to Organism

Heather Bennett

T  Th  9:00 am-11:00 am

RKC 111/112

LS

SCI

 How does a single fertilized egg develop into a whole organism? How does one cell diversify into many different cell types, from blood to skin to muscle? How do these cell types develop into organs and organ systems? How do organisms derive cells that can reproduce and regenerate other cells? In this course, which will include a number of hands-on activities and labs, we will focus on a basic understanding of how these events occur and speculate on discoveries yet to come. This course is appropriate for students not planning to major in biology.

Class size: 18

 

12097

BIO 159      Principles of Developmental Biology

Heather Bennett                 Lab:

W  F  1:30 pm-2:50 pm T          1:30 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 115 RKC 112

LS

SCI

 Developmental biology seeks to understand how complex organisms go from a single cell to highly developed and specialized entities. In this course, appropriate for students interested in majoring in biology, we will focus on how organisms used in scientific research, often referred to as model organisms, develop from fertilization, including the early cellular divisions through to the formation of tissue layers and then to specialized organs. Developmental biology is a broad and a rapidly evolving field; as a result we will not cover the field in its entirety. Instead, select topics have been chosen to highlight fundamental concepts. This course provides an introduction to developmental biology and provides a foundation for more advanced biological concepts.

Class size: 18

 

12098

BIO 166      Methods in Field Ecology

Cathy Collins

W       1:30 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 114

 2 credits This course, appropriate for students interested in majoring in biology, is designed to provide an introduction to the general methods of conducting ecological research, primarily in an outdoor setting. Students will gain essential skills for future coursework or research in ecology. We will cover the scientific method generally, and more specifically how it is applied to the process of ecological research. Students will gain skills in developing ecological questions; formulating testable hypotheses; designing experiments; collecting and analyzing data; and presenting results in both oral and written formats. These skills will be learned through a hands-on process in which students conduct a series of individual and collaborative field studies that test hypotheses in the science of ecology. We will study a broad spectrum of species (e.g. microbes, plants, insects, vertebrates) in various ecosystems (grassland, forests, rivers). Field techniques include surveying density, diversity, and biomass of forest trees, culturing endophytic fungi, sampling macroinvertebrates in fresh-water streams, mark and recapture techniques to estimate population size, and camera-trapping mammals.

Class size: 12

 

12461

BIO 180      The Physical Context of Life

Matthew Deady Michael Tibbetts     Lab:

M  W    3:10 pm-4:30 pm      F    1:30 pm-4:30 pm

RKC 115 RKC 114

LS

SCI

 Biological systems exist under a set of physical constraints that have had profound effects on their evolution. This class, appropriate for students interested in majoring in biology, will explore concepts in physics that have direct implications for how biological systems have evolved and how they function. Two major foci of the course will be: the mechanics of motion in fluids, and the ways that organisms produce and consume energy. The goal will be to study how biological structure and function are better understood by learning the basic physics that constrains them. Prerequisites: High school Biology and Physics, and a passing score on Part I of the Mathematics Diagnostic.

Class size: 18

 

12099

BIO 201      Genetics and Evolution

Michael Tibbetts

M  W    8:30 am-11:30 am

RKC 111/112

LS

SCI

Cross-listed: Global Public Health; Mind, Brain, Behavior

This course is an introduction to the mechanisms of inheritance and the generation of diversity in eukaryotic organisms.  This course takes a modern approach to the study of genetics in which classical ideas about genotype, phenotype and inheritance are integrated into the modern molecular and genomic understanding of the processes involved in the generation of diversity.  In addition to discussions of the molecular mechanisms involved in DNA replication, recombination, the generation and repair of mutations, and the relationship between genotype and phenotype, special consideration is given to our understanding of the processes involved in generating population-level variation in complex traits and how this understanding can help us identify the myriad genetic and non-genetic factors influencing these traits.  The laboratory consists of a semester long project involving the genetic manipulation of a model organism’s genome to address one or more topics in the course.  Prerequisite: One biology course at the 140 level or higher.

Class size: 18

 

12100

BIO 202      Ecology and Evolution

Cathy Collins

W  F  8:30 am-11:30 am

RKC 114/115

LS

SCI

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies

This core course for biology majors is an introduction to the general principles of ecology and evolution that, with genetics, form the core of biological understanding. In addition to studying foundational ideas in both ecology and evolution, we will explore modern topics at the boundary between these two areas. We will consider, for example, how genetic variation among individual organisms can influence ecological interactions, and how these interactions can influence fitness. We will focus on a mechanistic understanding of processes, using model-building to inform that understanding.  Prerequisite: Successful completion of a course in biology numbered 140 or above. 

Class size: 18

 

12101

BIO 208      Biology Seminar

Bruce Robertson

Th    12:00 pm-1:00 pm

RKC 103

 (1 credit)  This course will provide students with broad exposure to biology through the biology visiting speaker seminar series. Students will hear about the wide-ranging research interests of invited biologists and have opportunities to interact informally with them. The course is graded Pass/Fail and students are responsible for short follow-up assignments for at least 80% of the talks. Recommended for all biology majors and other interested students. 

Class size: 60

 

12102

BIO 244      Biostatistics

Gabriel Perron

W  F  1:30 pm-3:30 pm

RKC 111

MC

MATC

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Global Public Health; Mathematics

 This course introduces students to the statistical methods biologists use to describe and compare data. Students will learn methods that are appropriate for different types of data. Topics covered include elementary probability and statistics, characteristics of frequency distributions, hypothesis testing, contingency tests, correlation and regression analysis, different ways to compare means, nonparametric tests, and an introduction to multivariate tests. This course is intended for sophomore and junior biology majors, although it is open to students of all years.  One objective of the course is to provide biology majors the statistical background they need to analyze data for their own senior research; biology students should take this course before their senior year, if possible. Notice, though, that the topics in this course are applicable to many advanced courses. Prerequisite: passing score on part I of the Mathematics Diagnostic and at least one introductory biology course.

Class size: 18

 

12103

BIO 311      Field Ornithology

Bruce Robertson

T  Th  1:30 pm-2:50 pm       F   8:30 am-11:30 am

RKC 111 RKC 111/112

LS

SCI

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies

This course will present birds both as a unique group and as representative of vertebrates.  It will emphasize adaptation, ecology, and behavior of birds, the physical basis of flight, and introduce students to laboratory and field methods used in modern ornithology. We also will consider current views of the systematic relationships among living birds, and the evolutionary history of birds, including the debate regarding their origin in relation to dinosaurs and the origin of flight. Finally, we will examine case studies in bird conservation to understand the interaction of human and biological causes of, and solutions to, those problems. The laboratory portion of the class will include instruction in identification of all regional bird species by sight and sound. This will include field trips to local habitats / biological reserves and the study of museum specimens. Students will design and conduct small-scale behavioral research experiments (e.g. bioacoustics) with on-campus bird populations and will exploit publicly available and continental-scale databases to ask questions about bird ecology, evolution or conservation which will be submitted as both an oral report and scientific research paper.  

Class size: 16

 

12457

BIO 336      Computational Biology

Arseny Khakhalin

M  W    8:30 am-11:30 am

RKC 200

LS

SCI

Cross-listed: Computer Science

In this course, we will learn to model, visualize, and analyze biological processes. If you are a biologist, you will learn to code in Python (using Jupyter notebooks), which is an important, empowering, and highly marketable skill. Throughout the semester, you will be working on two long projects, gradually building up their complexity, and improving your code. If you are a computer scientist or a mathematician, you will learn how to apply your computing skills to the analysis of scientific problems; how to use models to make conceptual predictions about the world, and describe these predictions in academic writing. The course will lead to a 4-week long individual project. Prerequisites: either BIO202 (Ecology and Evolution), or CMSC 201 (Data structures), or permission from the instructor.

Class size: 12

 

12458

BIO 440      Rockefeller Advanced Seminar

Contact:Felicia Keesing

M          1:30 pm-3:30 pm

RKC 200

 

Class size: 12

 

12459

BIO 445      Biology Communication

Bruce Robertson

Th     1:00 pm-2:30 pm

  (1 credit)  Students in this course will meet with a scientist each week to discuss the scientist’s research. In preparation for these meetings, the students will read primary papers by the scientist and hear the scientist present a research talk at the weekly Biology Seminar. Following the talk, the students will host the scientist for lunch for further conversation. Over the course of the semester, each student will be responsible for writing an article about the work of one of the scientists, with that article written for a general audience. This course is limited to eight students who have moderated into biology or have permission of the instructor. It must be taken concurrently with BIO208, Biology Seminar.

Class size: 8

 

 

Cross-listed courses:

 

12343

EUS 415      Microbial Remediation (Waste Cluster)

Elias Dueker

Th     1:30 pm-3:50 pm

HEG 300

Cross-listed: Biology Class size: 12

 

12453

IDEA 223      Evolution and Religion

Bruce Chilton John Ferguson       Lab:

T  Th  3:10 pm-5:30 pm     F        2:00 pm-5:00 pm

HEG 308 RKC 112

LS MBV

Cross-listed: Biology; Religion (6 credits) Evolution, understood as a perspective that accounts for changes of forms of life over time, has been explored by philosophical and religious systems since antiquity. In the modern period, however, evolution as a scientific theory has often (although not always) been taken to be at odds with religious commitment. This course investigates both the scientific and religious issues in the understanding of evolution.

Class size: 22