Syllabus for Organic Evolution – EEES 5150/7150

Spring 2004

 

Class Time:  T, TH, 12:00 – 1:15 pm

Room: BO 2045

 

Instructor: Daryl F. Dwyer

Office hours: T, TH, 11:30 – 12:00 noon

Office: BO 3096H; Phone: 530-2661; email: daryl.dwyer@utoledo.edu

 

Text: Evolution, 3rd Edition, Monroe W. Strickberger, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, International; ISBN: 0-7637-1066-0

 

Expectations:    3 Exams (100 Points each) =                300 Points

                        5 Homework Sets (20 Points each) =   100 Points

                        Total =                                                 400 Points

 

Exams:  Each exam will cover only the material immediately preceding it.  Material will be taken both from the textbook and from lecture notes.  Anyone that is caught cheating in an exam will receive 0 points for that exam.

 

Homework:  Assignments will be taken from the questions at the back of the chapters in the textbook.  They will be assigned prior to an exam and hopefully will serve as study aids.  If a set in handed in late, 50% of the total number of points will be lost for each late day.

 

Grading:  Letter grades will be given on a percentage basis, i.e. A > 93%, A- = 90-92%, B+ = 87-89%, B = 83-86%, B- = 80-82%, C+ = 76-79%, C = 72-75%, C- = 68-71%, D = 60-67%, F < 60%.  Percentages may change depending on the outcome of the final points awarded to the students.  This would result only in a curve to benefit the students.  If an exam is missed, or if homework assignments are late, the only acceptable excuse is one written by a doctor or some type of unavoidable circumstance.

 

Graduate students will be required to present one of the lectures for the students as practice for their future careers.  This will involve researching the topic from material (other than the text alone) that is provided by the instructor and doing a practice presentation to be viewed by the instructor. 


Proposed Lecture Topics:

 

Week   Chapter(s)        Topics                                                                                                 

1          1, 2, 3              Historical Framework for the Development of the Theory of Evolution

Chapter 4 can be read for your own info; it is interesting, but you won’t be expected to remember this stuff.  Read all of Chapter 1, 2 and 3.

2          5, 6                  Origin of the Universe and the Earth

                                    Read all of Chapter 5 and 6, but skip pages 94 – 96.

3          7, 8                  Origin of Life and the Genetic Code

Read all of Chapter 7 and 8; but skip section of life from prior life (pp. 113 - 118, however look at Figures that relate to other sections), skip pages 142 – 143 and 146 – 154.

4          9, 10                Metabolism, Development of Cells, Cell Genetics

5          10                    Genetics continued

Exam #1 on 2/17/04 (Chapters 1 – 9)

6          11, 12              Classification of Organisms

Read all of Chapter 11; in Chapter 12, skip sections on restriction enzymes (pp 273 – 275) and regulatory genes (pp 286 – 287)

7          13, 14              Molecular Classification of Organisms, Beginnings of Evolution

8          15, 16              Evolution of Microorganisms and Invertebrates

9          17, 18              Evolution of Vertebrates; Moving from Water to Land

10        19, 20              Evolution of Mammals and Humans

11        20                    Human Evolution continued; Exam #2 (Chapters 10 – 19)

12        21, 22              Mechanisms of Change: Gene Frequencies and Their Changes

13        23                    Population Genetics

14        24                    Determination of Species and Races

15        25                    Culture and Human Evolution

Finals Week                 Exam #3 (Chapters 20 – 25)

 

Problem Set #1 – Due on 2/12/04 (Answers of one paragraph should be adequate for most questions)

 

Chapter 1 – Questions 1, 3, 4

Chapter 2 – Questions 2, 3, 5

Chapter 3 – Questions 1, 2, 4

Chapter 5 – Question 2

Chapter 6 – Questions 2, 6

Chapter 7 – Questions 1, 4, 7

Chapter 8 – Questions 1, 2

Chapter 9 – Questions 1, 5, 6, 8

 

Problem Set #2 – Due date: Tuesday March 23, 2004 – but you may start working on it so its not all at once

 

Chapter 10 – Questions 1, 2, 3, 4 (Please give details!), 7, 9, 12, 17, 20

Chapter 11 – Questions 1, 2, 6

Chapter 12 – Questions 2, 3, 6, 8

 

Problem Set #3 – Due date: Thursday, April 15, 2004 - but you may start working on this so its not all at once

 

Chapter 13 – Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6

Chapter 14 – Questions 3, 4

Chapter 15 – Questions 1

Chapter 16 – Questions 5, 6, 8, 9, 10

 

Problem Set #4 – Due date: Thursday, April 29, 2004 – but once again, you may start working on the questions so that they don’t come all at once.

 

Chapter 17 – Questions 1, 4

Chapter 18 – Questions 1, 5, 7

Chapter 19 – Questions 1, 3, 5, 8

Chapter 20 – Questions 1, 8, 9, 11