Course Essentials

Course Description

This course will cover research ethics and responsible conduct of research as well as ecological and evolutionary principles in science. Biology is a broad topic, with many different facets. So, ethics within our field are important to understand, discuss, and maintain. In addition, ecology and evolution are the foundations of Biological theory. As Theodosius Dobzhansky said "nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution." I hope that we can have lively, but civil conversations on these very exciting topics!!

Photo by: By Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences - http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/dobzhansky-theodosius.pdf, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=97577280

Text Book

We will be reading a fair amount of primary literature in this course. However, you will also be reading Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research by Nicholas H. Steneck. This book is available as a PDF, and can be downloaded from our Canvas course page.

Learning Objectives:

Students in this course will demonstrate mastery in:

  1. Reading and discussing scientific literature

  2. Presenting and leading discussion on peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.

  3. Understanding important ecological and evolutionary concepts.

  4. Understanding modern scientific issues in the biological sciences and responsible conduct of research.

  5. Applying and following appropriate research ethics following guidelines from the U.S. Government Office of Research Integrity (ORI)

  6. Following professional practices

Canvas

All course materials and assignments will be posted on Canvas. You will need to have consistent access to that page throughout the course. You will find all readings, assignments, and Zoom links on Canvas. I will also have due dates for all assignments posted on the Canvas calendar.



Slack

Slack will be used to enhance communication between you, your classmates, and myself. I will use it to communicate with you, but it will also be a way for you to contact me, share cool things related to the course, and ask questions. Please see the Pandemic Communication Plan page for further information.