Courses at Macalester College 

BIOLOGY 101: Creatures and Curiosities

This course deals with unfamiliar, mysterious, beautiful, grotesque, and overlooked animals all around us: the invertebrates. We will explore animal evolution and focus on the biology of creatures such as sponges, jellyfish, insects, starfish, spiders, and corals. In addition, we will discuss the cultural role of animals as curiosities - as specimens in cabinets and museums, or the subjects of phobias and urban legends. Drawing on topics in marine biology and entomology, students will learn about the ecology, life cycles, and anatomy of major groups of animals through lectures, observation of live animals, and dissections. This course counts toward a minor in Biology, but not toward a Biology major. Two 1-hour lectures and one 1-hour lab per week. Students must complete two fieldtrips outside of class time. Prerequisites: none.

BIOLOGY 112: Origins

Life!  It is everywhere on earth, from the poles to the equator, from the deepest oceans to the tallest mountains, from frozen ice to boiling hot springs. Over the last 3.6 billion years, living organisms on Earth have evolved and adapted to almost every imaginable environment. In this course we will journey back to the beginning of the story and explore the major originations and transitions of life on earth, from the origin of life itself to the development of flight, flowering plants, and the return of land-dwelling organisms to the sea. This is a course about evolution on a grand scale, set on the Earth’s remarkable stage. This course counts toward a minor in Biology, but not toward a Biology major. Three lecture hours per week. Prerequisites: none.  

BIOLOGY 180: Biodiversity and Evolution

An introduction to the diversity and history of life. This course surveys the major groups of organisms (their morphology, physiology, reproductive cycles) and their evolutionary origins and relationships. Using recent findings from such diverse fields as molecular phylogenetics, developmental biology, and paleontology, this course introduces students to the major branches on the tree of life. Three hours lecture and one three-hour lab each week. Prerequisites: none.  

BIOLOGY 194: Nature and Power

How do we observe, interpret, and understand the diverse world of living things that we see all around us?  Students in our collaborative First-Year Course, co-taught with faculty from History and Studio Art, explore this question from historical, artistic, and scientific perspectives. The Enlightenment approach to naming, categorizing, and representing the diversity of life dominates current academic science. Military activity enabled the work of key founding figures of this tradition; e.g., Charles Darwin's critical insights were made as part of a British naval expedition whose ultimate goal was to maintain and expand colonial power. This approach to understanding nature has been practiced through striking traditions of drawing, printmaking, taxidermy, and cabinets of curiosities. Students will confront the practices and institutions of the biodiversity sciences in historical and political context. We will engage with indigenous counter-narratives and approaches to understanding nature outside of normative European colonial practices. Finally, we will work together to think critically about how we might decolonize institutions such as museums of natural history, approaches to visual culture, and the biodiversity sciences more generally.  

BIOLOGY 302: Invertebrate Animal Diversity

An introduction to the science of invertebrate zoology. The vast majority of animals are invertebrates, including beautiful and charismatic organisms such as corals and butterflies, and also pests and parasites such as mosquitoes and tapeworms.  Students will become familiar with all major and some minor phyla of marine, terrestrial, and freshwater animals. Through lectures, discussions, field trips, dissections, and laboratory observations of live organisms, students will learn to identify invertebrates and understand their anatomy, life cycles, and evolutionary history. Students will complete independent projects involving field collection and identification of either insects or shells (mollusks). Three hours of lecture and one three-hour lab each week. Prerequisite: Biology 270. 

BIOLOGY 346: Biogeography

The study of the geography of nature. Lectures and discussion of scientific literature will focus on topics such as the latitudinal diversity gradient (i.e. why are the tropics so diverse?), biodiversity hotspots, glaciation, plate tectonics, and patterns of dispersal in marine habitats. Ecological and historical approaches will be integrated. Prerequisites: Biology 270 (Biodiversity & Evolution) and Biology 285 (Ecology). Three hours of lecture/discussion per week. A major component of the course is an intensive literature review paper; excellent papers are published in the online journal Macalester Reviews in Biogeography.

BIOLOGY 350: Evolutionary Biology

An exploration of one of the central organizing ideas of modern biology: the theory of evolution. Topics will include natural and sexual selection, adaptation, comparative methods, phylogeny, speciation, population genetics, molecular evolution, and others. The course will consist of lectures and discussions based on readings drawn from a variety of sources with an emphasis on primary literature. Three lecture/discussion hours per week. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, Biology 270 (Biodiversity & Evolution), and Biology 285 (Ecology).

BIOLOGY 476: Research in Biodiversity and Evolution

This course offers students authentic research experiences through participation in ongoing projects in the Boyer Lab. Each iteration of the class has resulted in at least one published paper coauthored by enrolled students. In Spring 2020 students will develop original research projects related to our current National Science Foundation grant on the diversity and evolution of harvestmen from New Zealand. Students will gain experience with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), DNA extraction, PCR, DNA sequencing, analysis of genetic data sets, generating and analyzing behavioral data, and modeling of habitat suitability with GIS. We read extensively from the primary literature on biogeography, molecular ecology, and evolution. Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, Biology 255 (Cell Biology & Genetics Laboratory), Biology 260 (Genetics), Biology 270 (Biodiversity & Evolution), Biology 285 (Ecology), and permission of the instructor. 

Previous Teaching Experience

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Teaching Fellow   While working on my PhD I was a teaching fellow for Biological Sciences 50: Genetics and Genomics, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology 51: Biology and Evolution of Invertebrate Animals, and Organismic & Evolutionary Biology 187: Current Advances in Metazoan Diversity. A high point was helping to organize and lead a field trip to the Bahamas for OEB 51. I was gratified to receive a Derek Bok Award for Excellence in Teaching for my work in Biological Sciences 50.

Teaching Consultant   From 2002-2006 I worked for the Derek Bok Teaching Center, helping new graduate student teachers to gain confidence and improve their pedagogy.

JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY

Lecturer   I taught Biology 111: Principles of Ecology, a course for non-majors, for five semesters. A significant component of the lab was an animal behavior project based at the Cleveland Zoo. During my time at JCU I also offered a course in molecular ecology for master's students.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY

Graduate Student Instructor   For two semesters I ran labs and discussion sections for Biology 1b: Plant & Fungal Diversity, Evolution, and Ecology. I also had the great fortune to teach in Integrative Biology C158: Biology and Geomorphology of Tropical Islands, a field biology course based at the University of California’s Richard B. Gump Biological Station on Moorea, French Polynesia. For the majority of the semester two other grad students and I supervised undergraduates as they worked on independent field-based research projects.  

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE

Teaching Assistant   I discovered my interest in teaching when I assisted in labs for Biology 2: Organismal and Population Biology as an undergraduate.