Stable Isotopes in Ecosystems Lecture Course

Biology 5470

Objectives: This lecture course is offered to undergraduate students interested in learning more about ecosystem ecology and how stable isotopes at natural abundance levels are used as integrators, tracers, and recorders in environmental and ecological studies. The focus of the course will span from molecules to ecosystems and will include animal, plant, and microbe studies. These objectives will be accomplished through lectures, discussions, readings, slide presentations, and collaborative assignments.

Your assignments require that you are familiar with computer programs for data analysis, word processing, and graphics preparation. Our objective here is to ensure that you are very familiar with how to package, present, store, and transfer information in this electronic age.

Instructor: Jim Ehleringer , 522 Skaggs Biology, Tel. 581-7623, ehleringer@biology.utah.edu

TA: There is no TA for Fall 2006

Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:10 am - 10:30 am, 340 AEB

Discussion: Wednesday, 10:00 am - 11:00 am, 504 ASB (optional)

Text book: No text book; readings xxx

Home page: The URL is http://ehleringer.net/bio5470.html and includes a listing of the lectures, reading assignments, projects, downloadable data sets, current exam materials, and e-mail access to the instructor and TA. At this webpage, we provide access to your test/project scores.

ADA Information: The University seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services and activities for people with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in this class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the instructor and to the Center for Disability Services, 162 Olpin Union Building, 581-5020 (V/TDD) to make arrangements for these accommodations. All written information in this course can be made available in alternative format with prior notification.

Examinations and Grading: Your final grade will be based on a cumulative 375-point total. Grading will be approximately

· 90-100% = A, 338+

· 80-89% = B, 300 - 337

· 70-79% = C, 262 - 299

· 60-69% = D, 225 - 261

· <60% = E 224 or less

300 of those points will come from the following four exams or projects; the lowest of your scores will be dropped for grade calculations:

· 100 points Take-home data evaluations and analyses (due September 26)

· 100 points Examination 1 (October 10)

· 100 points Examination 2 (November 16)

· 100 points Term Paper document (December 7)

The remaining 75 points are derived from

· 25 points from the required, November 15, outline for your term paper

· 50 points from the oral, December 5, PowerPoint presentation on your term paper topic

Course Drop Policy: The withdrawal policy is the same as the University policy described in the Class Schedule.

Data Analysis Project. There will be one group project during the semester. For this project, you can work in self-organized groups to analyze the data or other pieces of information. Each group can analyze the data together and produce joint graphs and/or tables as a part of their analyses. However, when it comes to the actual writing of these reports, individual effort is required. Details will become clearer when the assignments are given (or see home page).

Examinations. Tests will primarily focus on problem solving and evaluation of experimental data. However, there will also be a few multiple choice and fill-in-the- blank for those who feel most comfortable with those testing approaches. They will be based primarily on the lectures, but you must be familiar with the assigned reading. Previous examinations will be available at the course home page. There will be no regularly scheduled final exam.

Optional Discussion Session. There will be an optional one-hour discussion each week to answer questions from the lectures, to get additional training on computer programs, and to cover other topics of interest.

All Papers and Assignments are Submitted Electronically. All project papers must be submitted electronically as PDF files, in readable English, free of grammatical and typographical errors, and with figures or tables inserted into the appropriate parts of the text. All graphs must be computer generated (and inserted into the text as JPEGs) so that we know you have acquired computer-based, data-analysis skills. There are plenty of computers available on campus and within the department to assist you. Spell checking and grammar checking programs, spreadsheet programs, drawing programs, statistical programs, and data-analysis programs are also available. Click here for hints on wirting styles and content.

When the final word processing document is completed, it must be converted to a PDF file and submitted via the Internet portal provided on the class home page.

For those unfamiliar with producing PDF files, we will go over this process in the optional discussion session. If there are excessive grammatical and/or spelling errors in your paper, we will discuss this with you individually, we will offer help in improving the quality of the presentation, and we will expect that the paper will be corrected and improved by you before a final grade is received. When your graded paper is returned to you, you will have the option of incorporating the comments and resubmitting the revised paper for a second round of grading where your total score can reach a maximum of the original score plus one-half the difference between your original score and 100.

Although this is not a “writing intensive” class, we do expect that papers will be of reasonable quality, both in terms of data analysis and presentation. After all, once employed after finishing school, you certainly would not think of turning in shoddy work to your employer.