Introduction to Research in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to develop an understanding of how to conduct biological research, using a topic in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Winter: acorns and oak trees; Spring: Plant Biology) as a practical example. This includes the complete scientific process: assessing background literature, generating testable hypotheses, learning techniques for field- and lab-based data collection, analyzing data using appropriate statistical methods, and, finally, writing and sharing your results. To build these skills, during the Winter quarter, the course will focus on ant communities and Spring quarter the course will focus on nectar microbes at Stanford's nearby Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Students, working in teams, will develop novel research hypotheses and execute the necessary experiments and measurements to test these hypotheses. The capstone of the course is an oral presentation of student teams' research findings, as well as a research paper written in the style of a peer-reviewed journal article. Labs will be completed both on campus and at Jasper Ridge. IMPORTANT NOTE: Satisfies WIM requirement in Biology but must be taken for a letter grade. Attendance at both the lecture and lab sections is mandatory, and students may only attend the lecture and lab sections in which they are enrolled. Please note that enrollment is handled by Axess, so enrollment in one pair of BIO47 lecture/lab sections will not give a student any priority for subsequently enrolling in a different pair of lecture/lab sections.