Evolution (PCB 4674, Class #12583)
INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION:
Javier
Francisco-Ortega
Office Hours: Fridays 9 AM - Noon
Room: OE 242, email: ortegaj@fiu.edu
Phone: (305) 348 2080 (FIU); 305 665 2844 x 3423
(
Dr. Ortega is always available for students, however please contact him in
advance if you want to meet outside his office hours. You can reach Dr. Ortega
by email or phone. The day of the exam we will not answer questions concerning
the exam material. Any class issue can ONLY BE DISCUSSED between the
instructor and the student, no third parties from outside FIU such as
relatives, spouses, friends, class-mates, can be involved in any discussion
concerning any particular issue that the student might have during this
course. These issues include but are not
limited to grades, class performance, etc.
TA INFORMATION:
Jose Alberte
Office Room: OE 296
Office Hours: Tuesday 10am-11am; Wednesday 5pm-7pm
Office Phone: 305-348-3511
e-mail: jalbe009@fiu.edu
Date |
Lecture |
Course Part |
Text-book Chapter |
|
11 January |
- Organizational
meeting - Video:What about
God? |
I |
|
|
18 January |
- A case for evolutionary thinking:
Understanding HIV - The evidence for evolution |
I |
|
|
25 January |
- Darwinian natural selection - Mutations and genetic variation 1 |
I II |
|
|
1 February |
HOUR
EXAM 1 |
|
|
|
8 February |
- Mutations and genetic variation 2
- Mendelian genetics in populations: Selection and
mutation as
mechanisms of evolution |
II |
|
|
15 February |
- Mendelian genetics in populations:
Migration, genetic drift, and
nonrandom mating - Studying adaptation: Evolutionary analysis
of form and function |
II III |
|
|
22 February |
HOUR EXAM 2 |
|
|
|
29 February |
- Video: Why sex? - Sexual selection |
III |
|
|
7 March |
-
Kin selection and social behavior - Life history characters |
III IV |
|
|
14 March |
HOUR EXAM 3 |
|
|
|
21 March |
Spring
Break
|
IV |
|
|
28 March |
-
Mechanisms of speciation
- Reconstructing evolutionary trees - Video: Great transformations |
IV |
|
|
4 April |
- The origins of life and Precambrian
evolution - The Cambrian explosion and beyond |
IV |
|
|
11 April |
- Human evolution - Course evaluations |
1V |
|
|
18 April |
- No class |
|
|
|
25 April |
FINAL
EXAM, 3:30
– 6:15 PM (time will need confirmation from FIU – Space and Schedule Unit) |
|
|
This
is a tentative class
schedule. Therefore material for exams
will be based only on lectures covered during the regular class hours prior to the
exam day. Dates of exam are subject to
change depending on how far the instructor goes with his lectures. All students are expected to be available to
take an exam or fulfill any class assignment during the regular class days
indicated in this syllabus.
Text
and lecture notes:
Evolutionary Analysis, 4nd edition, by Scott Freeman &
Jon C. Herron, Prentice Hall. This text includes a web site (www.prenhall.com/freeman).
Lecture notes will be available in the “Current Courses” section of
the website of Department of Biological Sciences (http://www.fiu.edu/~biology).
The instructor will also show several videos on the main topics discussed
during the lectures. These videos will
mostly be shown in the second part of each class.
Course
requirement: This
course bridges the ecology (PCB 3043) and genetics (PCB 3513) courses taken
previously by upper division students.
Students who enroll to PCB 4674 MUST
HAVE PREVIOUSLY TAKEN AND SATISFACTORY PASSED (C or higher grade) PCB 3043
and PCB 3513. These two courses are
mandatory (see course catalogues) and are required for all students who want to
enroll in PCB 4674. Permit numbers will
not be issued to students who have not fulfilled these requirements.
Course
description: The
course is a survey of modern evolutionary theory, including experimental and
empirical evidence for evolution from a variety of scientific disciplines. The course is divided into four parts: Part I
will introduce the students to the evidence of evolutionary change and to
natural selection as an agent of these changes; Part II will explore the other
mechanisms that cause change through time: mutation, migration and genetic
drift; Part III will explore adaptation in depth; Part IV deals with the consequences
of the four evolutionary processes over the sweep of Earth’s history.
Help
sessions: Dr.
Javier F. Ortega will be available to help the students with any question on
the material of the course during their office hours. In addition, we will answer promptly any
question you might have by email. We
will not provide review sessions before the exams.
Schedule:
Class will begin at 2:00 pm. Please
be on time. Important announcements, etc. will be made at the beginning
of class, which you don’t want to miss.
Class
conduct and email list:
1.- We expect all students to behave as reasonable adults just like in any university classroom in any other school. It is important to have respect towards the instructor and fellow classmates.
Inconsiderate, disrespectful, dishonest, or disruptive behavior, as the instructor or your fellow classmates perceive it, or as is described in the Student Handbook, is unacceptable for adults in this course. The instructor reserve the right to ask you to leave or have you removed if such behavior is present. Such behavior may bring about official disciplinary procedures as outlined in the Student Handbook.
2.-
Please turn off your cell phones and beepers. Eating, and chatting are not allowed
during class sections. Students are not
allowed to bring pets, family members, friends, etc. during class
sections. We expect that students who attend
the lectures will take notes. During
lectures, students are not allowed to read notes/newspapers/books/magazines or
prepare home-work for other courses, such behavior is disruptive toward the
instructor and the rest of the students.
Students are welcome to interrupt the instructor any time that an idea of concept is not clear. Students who
are not officially registered for this course are not allowed to attend the
class lectures (see section 7 of this syllabus for students with an incomplete
grade). Students who have a time conflict and need to leave the classroom
before Dr. Ortega finishes his lecture will need to inform Dr. Ortega in
advance.
3.-
Students are required to arrive
on time to class. We will NOT TAKE class attendance, and
coming to class IS NOT A REQUIREMENT
for this course. Student performance
will be evaluated only by the regular and final exams (see below details on
exam policy).
4.- Students are required to send a registration
email with their email address to the Teaching Assistant before
January 24th (by 5:00 PM). Students cannot use their relatives' or
friends' emails. They must
use their own email accounts. Students who do not email José Alberte before
January 24th will be penalized with a 3% drop of their grade of the first exam. Students who have not sent their email
address the day before the first exam (January 31st by 5:00 pm) will
have a 15% drop of their grade of the first exam. José Alberte or Dr. Ortega will not make any
exception. We will reply all the
registration emails within a 24 hour period after the registration email has
been sent, students who do not receive an email back from me or the TA MUST contact us as soon as possible. The subject of the registration email must say “EVOLUTION STUDENT:
STUDENT FAMILY NAME”. The registration email must be signed with the full name
of the student and must include the student’s panther ID number. We expect for students to read their emails
often (at least once per day) to check for any developing of this course.
5.- We
expect all students to follow the directions outlined in this syllabus,
announced in class, and distributed via email or computer mailing list, plus
others. We are not responsible for issues
resulting from lack of knowledge due to students not checking these
resources. Also, not having access to
these resources is not an excuse--Email not working, internet was down, biology
web-site is not working, library reserve-site is not working, I wasn't in class
when an announcement was made, etc. ALL the important announcements
of this course will be made at the beginning of class (first five
minutes). There is a chance that many class announcements (including
material for the exam) will NOT BE posted on the web-page of this course and/or
will not be sent by email. This
syllabus and the class schedule are subject to changes. Announcements made in class will have priority, therefore
although class attendance will not have any direct effect on exam grades it
will help the student to be aware of any class development not announced by
email. Please be sure you do not come
late as that you don't want to miss any important announcements. If we have extra time we will teach two lectures
on “Development and evolution” and “Molecular evolution”.
6.- Students who have scholarships, or work
full/part time, or live far away, or are applying for jobs, or are in the army,
or have a busy family schedule, or are taking many courses, or are in their
last semester, or need to have an outstanding grade because future career plans
will be evaluated based on their class performance ONLY. All these
extra-course activities will not have any influence concerning their final
grade. Therefore, the instructor expects
that the students will not bring these activities when they want to discuss
with him class performance and/or expectations.
An incomplete grade will be delivered under VERY EXCEPTIONAL documented circumstances such as MAJOR sudden and unexpected serious health problem of the student
or his/her family, I will not accept any other excuse to provide an incomplete
grade.
7.- Students with an incomplete grade from a
previous section of Evolution MUST
contact Dr. Ortega during the first week of the semester so that they may be
included in the list of students who are allowed to join the course
activities. Dr. Ortega will check with
the previous instructor of the student before allowing him/her to join the
course. These students can come to the
lectures. These students WILL NEED TO CONTACT Dr Ortega
the week of the final exam so that their final grade can be implemented.
Cheating
policy: I will follow strictly the “Student Handbook”
regarding cheating. Procedures for both formal
and informal procedures can be found under the section “Academic Misconduct” in
the “Conduct & Policies” chapter. Anyone caught cheating will be asked to
leave the class, will be given an “F” for the whole course and a petition will
be sent to Academic Affairs. I will go strictly by the University’s policy on
cheating.
Grades:
They will be based on the best 3 scores from the three hour exams (100 points
each), plus the final (100 points). In other words, your lowest score of the 3
hour exams and the final will be dropped. This policy is implemented in case a
student has a serious professional/personal conflict (i.e., job interview,
important family event, etc.) the day of one of the four exams. Exams will be
multiple-choice and/or short answer questions and usually have a case study
that need to be interpreted by the student.
The final exam will be semi-comprehensive: I will focus on material in
the latter part of the semester (90%), but will feel free to ask you questions
which require concepts and information from throughout the rest of the semester
(10%).
Final grades will be as follows:
A = 286
– 300 points
A- = 270 – 285 points
B+ = 258 – 269 points
B = 249 – 257 points
B- = 240 – 248 points
C+ = 228 – 239 points
D = 180 – 209 points
F < 180 points
97% of the exams will be based exclusively on
the lecture notes posted in the web page of Department of Biological Sciences
(FIU), however 3% of the questions may come from any topic not covered in the
my lectures but found in the text-book chapters indicated in the syllabus or in
assigned reading material from recent research papers in evolutionary
biology. The instructor will indicate in
advance which sections of the book or reading material will cover this 3% of
the exam.
The
day of the exam: Exams will be multiple-choice
tests. Please bring two sharpened #2
pencils with erasers to all exams. Students must bring a valid picture ID for
their identification, valid picture IDs are: driving license, FIU ID card,
green-card, voter-registration card, or passport. All
other materials (including wallets, bags (any size), cell-phones, bottles of
waters/soda, etc.) will have to be placed at the front or back of the class, so
it is best not to carry anything to the room on exam day. If you expect a phone
call during the exam because any kind of emergency it is your responsibility to
arrange for somebody else to answer this phone-call, as you will not be allowed
to speak on the phone during the exam.
Each student will be assigned to a particular seat by the instructor. You must sign your exam. It will be turned in to the instructor or
teaching assistant when you are finished. No one can leave unless they have
returned the exam. You are not allowed to write anything on the exam except
your name, FIU student number and a small circle to indicate the answer that
you have selected for each question. Each question will have four choices,
there is only one possible answer per question.
When you are finished, you must return ALL materials given to you during the test whether filled
out or not. Talking is not allowed.
Cheating will be dealt with seriously and severely. Grades will be posted on
the board located outside Dr. Ortega's office OE242. Students can check their
exams, but exams will not be given
back to the students. Students MUST
check their grades by themselves and not delegate in somebody else to check for
them. All the students MUST check their grades as soon
as they are posted. Students who are not
officially registered in this course will not be allowed to take the exam (see
section 7 of this syllabus for students with an incomplete grade). Students will be allowed to check their exams
during a two week period
after the grades of each exam are posted.
Students will have a second opportunity to check their exams after the
final grade of the course is officially posted.
The instructor understands that all students will check their final
grades (by themselves and not by somebody else) the week after final exams and
that they will immediately contact the instructor if they want to review their
class performance and final grade.
Students will have only two semesters (Summer 2006 and Fall 2007) to
claim for a change of grade.
ARRIVING
LATE:
(Please read this carefully as we
will follow a VERY strict policy on this issue) If you arrive to an
exam more than 30 minutes late, or after the first person finishes the test
(whichever comes first) you will not be allowed to take the exam. We will not make any exception to this
rule.
DISCUSSING
CLASS ISSUES: Any issue concerning this course
including
MAKE-UPS:
In order to qualify for a make-up there must be a valid and document-able
excuse approved by the instructor. The instructors will not approve excuses that are within the student's
control (e.g., not enough time to study, headache, common cold, family
problems, car wouldn't start, bus came late, I did not wake up early, the alarm
clock did not work, I had to go for a job interview, I had to attend a
professional conference, I had a conflict with my job schedule, bus came late
today, bad traffic, speed-ticket, traffic violations, flat tire, minor car
accident, etc.). Students who simply do not show up for the exam will not be
allowed to take a make-up exam. Make-up exams are always long essays, not multiple-choice. The only acceptable
excuses for make-up exams are documented medical emergencies, death of members
of immediate family, and jury duty. No make-up exams will be given, except
under very exceptional, very
sudden and unexpected serious health, personal and/or family conditions. Major car accidents will be accepted as
excuse only if the student can provide a police report on this accident. Reports from garage companies, gas-stations,
cab-drivers, tow-truck companies, etc. will not be considered as valid documents. The day of the exam we strongly recommend the
students to come to FIU on Friday morning long before the time of the exam.
Students must plan well in advance their fall schedule; it is their
responsibility to be sure that the day of the exam they will not face any
conflict with ANY other
extra-curriculum activity. The
instructor understands that when the student registers to this class he/she
does not have any major conflict who will not allow him/her to be in FIU at
least one hour before the beginning of the exam.