EEB 122: Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior

Course Structure

This Yale College course, taught on campus three times per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2009.

Texts

Cotgreave, Peter and Irwin Forseth. Introductory Ecology . Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd, 2002.

Krebs, John R. and Nicholas B. Davies. An Introduction to Behavioral Ecology , 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd, 1993.

Stearns, Stephen C. and Rolf Hoekstra. Evolution: An Introduction , 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Requirements

There are two midterms and a paper. The sections are Writing Intensive and require writing exercises culminating in one 15-20 page review paper or research proposal in which you utilize readings from the original scientific literature to address a question that you pose. The course grade consists of 25% from each midterm and 50% from the essay/section grade.

Special feature: The course is designed to elicit your own, original questions about evolution, ecology, and behavior through interactions with a website featuring video and still images from the Galapagos and issues and questions posed by recent papers from the primary literature. Your writing project and your take-home final will address questions you posed yourself, then refined in response to feedback from your TF.

You may view the Galapagos site at http://cmi2.yale.edu/galapagos_public

Grading

Midterm examination 1: 25% Midterm examination 2: 25% Paper: 50%