Course Requirements

Everyone taking part in the seminar is expected to:

1)  read the assigned material each week.  The reading will consist of 2 or 3 research articles and/or book chapters from the primary research and review literature.  The reading assignment for each meeting will be provided the preceding week.  We will primarily make use of e-journals and e-reserves, linked to the course web page.  If the articles are not available through Reed electronic resources, PDFs of the assigned reading will be available using the Biology Department Resources shared google drive (not Moodle).  The articles or chapters may provide opposing opinions or evidence on a subject, and should always be read critically.

 Note:  access to Library resources from off-campus may require use of the Library’s proxy so you can authenticate as a Reed user.  From the library’s off-campus access page :   “Add this prefix to the article’s URL: https://reed.idm.oclc.org/login?url= (Note: the prefix is only necessary for accessing subscription resources.)”

 

2)  participate in the seminar discussion. I expect everyone in this class to participate in all discussions.  The topics we will address should lend themselves to lively discussion. It will be important for our discussions to have all participants contributing their views on the reading.  Everyone should come to seminar prepared to briefly summarize the assigned reading for the group.  Each week, a randomly chosen person may be asked to provide a brief (maximum of 5 minutes) description for each of the papers.

Note: I would like our discussion to cover both positive and negative aspects of the papers.

 

3)  assume the role of Discussion Leader in turn.  Your primary responsibilities in this role will be to choose a topic for discussion, identify papers for the class to read (in consultation with Keith), and facilitate discussion during the seminar meeting.  This will require assessing the available literature on your chosen topic as a means for you to identify the papers we will read for class.  Your review of the borader literature on your subject should help you to place the assigned reading into a larger context.  You are not expected to prepare (nor will you be allowed to present) a two-hour lecture on your topic.

 

On the day we discuss your reading, please bring:

a) a brief bibliography of the related papers and background information you have found, along with any additional information (diagrams, pictures, maps, etc) from other sources (not the papers the class will read) that may help to put the reading in context.

This handout will be provided to the class. Please provide an electronic copy of this document to me prior to class, and I will print enough copies for everyone (and print in color if warranted)

b) a cartoon/schematic/sketch of the methods for the (or one of the) empirical paper we will discuss. This will be turned in to Keith and need not be shared with the class.

 

 [depending on the number of enrolled students in the class, we may add some part or all of these additional assignments] 

4)  complete a review of a recent research papers investigating a question related to the general topics covered by our seminar.  This is expected to be a short review (a maximum of 3 pages, double-spaced).  Select a paper from a topic that differs from the topic you selected as Discussion Leader. The article you review should be reporting new research (i.e. do not use review articles) and should be from the current periodicals reading room (i.e. unbound). If you use electronic journals, please focus on articles from the past 12 months. 

Some appropriate journals to search include:  Conservation Biology, Conservation Genetics, Biological Conservation, Molecular Ecology, Journal of Wildlife Management, Economic Botany, American Journal of Botany, Ecology, Evolution, Oecologia, Botanical Journal of the Linnaean Society, Journal of Ecology, Canadian Journal of Botany, and American Naturalist. 

 

5)  complete a brief research proposal for one of the topics covered in class (this may be completed in assigned pairs). You will revisit one of the papers we discussed for seminar this term, and identify a follow-up question for additional research. You will then write a 2 to 3 page description of a research project that will build upon the report we read. More details will be provided towards the end of the term.