ECOLOGY

BIO 309

Fall 2006

Instructor: Dr. Howard Lasker
Office: Hochstetter 637
email: hlasker@buffalo.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday:11:00-12:00; Thursday: 1:00-3:00; or by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course focuses on the processes that control the abundance and distribution of organisms in their natural environments; emphasizing population, community and evolutionary ecology. Examples from published studies are used to illustrate ecological processes and to familiarize students with the analysis of observational and experimental data.

LECTURES: Tu & Th, 9:30-10:50, Cooke 121
Students who do not attend lectures will be at a great disadvantage in learning the material and preparing for exams. Lecture outlines and some supplemental materials associated with the lectures will be available on the course website, but detailed lecture notes will not be available. For your own sake, attend the lectures.

COURSE WEBSITE
Announcements, problem sets and other supplemental materials will be available on the course web site on UBLearns. Outlines will be available for each lecture, and they should be printed out and brought to lecture. The notes do not contain all of the information from a lecture and should not be relied on as a substitute to attending lecture.

TEXTBOOKS:
. . . . Molles, M.C. (2003) Ecology: concepts and applications (3rd ed.). WCB McGraw-Hill
. . . . Optional text - Gotelli, N.J. (2001) A primer of ecology (3rd ed.). Sinauer
You should read assignments prior to coming to lecture
The Molles text has been chosen because it is one of the most readable texts available. However, its coverage is less detailed than my lectures. The text by Gotelli fills in some of the gaps, but do not expect the readings in the text to substitute for attending lecture.

CALCULATORS:
A calculator capable of natural logarithm operations is necessary for many of the problem sets and for exams. In order to eliminate the potential for cheating created by programmable and graphics calculators, only simple non-programmable calculators such as the TI 30XA will be permitted during exams.

TEACHING ASSISTANTS -
Teaching assistants serve both the lecture and laboratory courses. The teaching assistants do not attend lecture. Thus, you should not expect them to answer questions about the specifics of what was covered on any given lecture. However, they are familiar with the course, can explain material you do not understand, and help you to understand problem sets. Office hours for teaching assistants will be posted on the course website.

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS.
Additional reading may be assigned and will be available through the library reserve readings system. Other additional material will also be posted online on the course website

EXAMS:
In class exams will be held on: Oct. 3 and Nov 7.
A comprehensive final exam will be held during finals week.

A CALCULATOR WILL BE NEEDED IN THE EXAMS.
A SIMPLE NON-PROGRAMABLE CALCULATOR IS THE ONLY STYLE CALCULATOR THAT WILL BE ALLOWED DURING EXAMS.

Only medical excuses, submitted in writing with documentation from a health care provider (i.e., physician, physician's assistant, or nurse practitioner) will be accepted. Simply seeing a physician or going to the infirmary does not constitute a valid excuse. The attending health care provider must state that your condition prevented you from taking the exam. Car breakdowns or weather related delays are not valid excuses.

Students with bonafide excuses will be given a make-up exam. The make-up exam will be either written or oral depending on the number of students requiring

GRADING:

LABORATORY
A separate 2 credit laboratory course, BIO 310, is also offered and is recommended for students interested in ecological studies. Professor Coffroth is the instructor of the course. The lab course does not have to be taken concurrent with the lecture course and can be taken in later years.

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