Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior
About the Course
This course presents the principles of evolution, ecology, and behavior for students beginning their study of biology and of the environment. It discusses major ideas and results in a manner accessible to all Yale College undergraduates. Recent advances have energized these fields with results that have implications well beyond their boundaries: ideas, mechanisms, and processes that should form part of the toolkit of all biologists and educated citizens.
View class sessions »Course Structure
This Yale College course, taught on campus three times per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2009.
Course Materials
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About Professor Stephen C. Stearns
Stephen C. Stearns is the Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and specializes in life history evolution and evolutionary medicine. He was educated at Yale, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of British Columbia. His books include Evolution, an Introduction; Watching from the Edge of Extinction; and The Evolution of Life Histories, and he is the editor of Evolution in Health and Disease and The Evolution of Sex and Its Consequences. He founded and has served as president of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology and the Tropical Biology Association.
Syllabus
Professor
Stephen C. Stearns, Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Description
This course presents the principles of evolution, ecology, and behavior for students beginning their study of biology and of the environment. It discusses major ideas and results in a manner accessible to all Yale College undergraduates. Recent advances have energized these fields with results that have implications well beyond their boundaries: ideas, mechanisms, and processes that should form part of the toolkit of all biologists and educated citizens.
Texts
Cotgreave, Peter and Irwin Forseth. Introductory Ecology. Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd, 2002.
Krebs, John R. and Nicholas B. Davies. An Introduction to Behavioral Ecology, 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science Ltd, 1993.
Stearns, Stephen C. and Rolf Hoekstra. Evolution: An Introduction, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Requirements
There are two midterms and a paper. The sections are Writing Intensive and require writing exercises culminating in one 15-20 page review paper or research proposal in which you utilize readings from the original scientific literature to address a question that you pose. The course grade consists of 25% from each midterm and 50% from the essay/section grade.
Special feature: The course is designed to elicit your own, original questions about evolution, ecology, and behavior through interactions with a website featuring video and still images from the Galapagos and issues and questions posed by recent papers from the primary literature. Your writing project and your take-home final will address questions you posed yourself, then refined in response to feedback from your TF.
You may view the Galapagos site at http://cmi2.yale.edu/galapagos_public
Grading
Midterm examination 1: 25%
Midterm examination 2: 25%
Paper: 50%
Sessions
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Course Books and Other Related Titles
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View the catalog for this course