Biol 151 Organisms and Populations

Syllabus

I have put together a series of specially designed web pages with interactive applets for conducting several basic statistical tests:

Simple Random Number Generator

Lincoln-Petersen Population Size Calculator

Jolly-Seber Population Size Applet

Choosing the correct test statisitic

Linear regression

Chi Square tests (including an example for use with simple Mendellian genetics)

Shannon-Weiner Index of Species Diversity

Here are a few more applets created by my colleage Kevin Mitchell in the Math Department:

Point-Center Quarter Method Analysis and Importance Values

Species De nsity Calculator

Species-Area Relations Plotting and Analysis Tool

JavaMath Project

An interdisciplinary project between Mathematics, Computer Science, and Biology to develop a suite of JAVA components (beans) that can be uniquely configured in a wide variety of ways for use on instructional Web pages, as interactive illustrations, special-purpose calculators, support for exercises, and so forth. For more details on the JAVA applets that we created for teaching visit the JavaMath website.

Biol 224 Functional Vertebrate Anatomy

Biol 330 Field Biology

BD 219 Math Models of Biological Systems

This interdisciplinary course is co-taught with professor Kevin Mitchell of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

NEW Env 113 Water Resources (Environmental Studies)

Viewed from space, Earth appears as an ocean-blue ball adorned with white cloud-streamers of water vapor and gleaming polar ice caps. From such a vantage point, water appears to an endlessly abundant resource. Earth’s water is in nearly constant motion: fueled by solar energy, water evaporates from the oceans, flows through rivers and underground aquifers, returning to the ocean basins to begin the process again. Even though it is constantly being renewed, the amount of fresh water makes up only about 4% of the world’s water and more than half of that is locked up in glacial ice. The remaining 2% must serve billions of people and hundreds of needs: it supports life directly, it grows food, it powers industry, it is critical to sanitation, manufacturing, mining and dozens of other critical uses. No wonder that high quality water supplies are fast becoming a scarce resource. This course examines water as a critical, renewable resource using several different perspectives. Initially, we will seek a scientific understanding of how water moves and the structures and needs of the aquatic ecosystems it supports. With that background, we will look at water use and development in the arid western United States as a case history illustrating the problems of water scarcity and the policies that have been developed to address those problems. Finally, we will try to apply both the scientific and historical perspectives to current water issues, both regional and global. Note that this course includes a mandatory laboratory period which we will use for field trips and special class activities. Co-taught with Dr. Brooks McKinney, Geosciences Dept.

Teaching Portfolio featured in Seldin, P. 1997. The Teaching Portfolio: A practical guide to improved performance and promotion/tenure decisions. Anker Pub., Boston. 268pp.