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An introduction to evolution: patterns and processes of evolution; mechanisms of evolution, adaptation, speciation and extinction.
The goals of this course are to elucidate evolutionary theory using evidence from the peer-reviewed literature including Aotearoa New Zealand research where appropriate, and to gain an understanding of evolutionary theory and its role in our understanding of questions such as where species have come from, why are there so many different species, and the importance of evolution in everyday life.
As a student in this course, I will develop the ability to:Illustrate the patterns and processes of evolution using examples from the peer-reviewed literature (assessment tasks: midcourse test, wikis, final exam)Describe the mechanisms of evolution at the genetic/genomic level, and interpret basic population genetic/genomic analyses (assessment tasks: midcourse test, final exam)Build and interpret phylogenetic trees, and apply these skills to infer evolutionary history (assessment tasks: midcourse test, final exam)Explain why understanding evolution is important in everyday life, both orally and in writing (assessment tasks: peer assessments, wikis)Transferable Skills RegisterAs a student in this course, I will develop the following skills:Synthesising information. In everyday life and in many job situations you will be required to read information from different sources, construct your own understanding and shape your own viewpoint. This skill will be developed when answering questions from selected readings in tutorials 1-2 and when writing your wikis.Analysing and interpreting data. Important for research, as well as in a number of private-sector organizations. This skill will be developed when we assist you to analyse and interpret population genetic and phylogenetic data in tutorials 3-4.
BIOL112
Students must attend one activity from each section.
YOU WILL BE ALLOCATED TO A TBL TEAM (AND A TUTORIAL) DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF TERM 1.
Amy Osborne
Craig Herbold
Emily Beasley (School of Biological Sciences, UC) and Coley Tosto (School of Biological Sciences, UC)
To gain a pass in this course students much achieve a mark of 50% overall plus achieve an average score of at least 40% for tutorial assessments and an average score of at least 40% for the midcourse test/final exam.Students should note that in the Faculty of Science the average student is responsible for approximately 3.2 hours of additional study for each hour of lecture at the 200-level.Team Based LearningWe first trialed a partial Team Based Learning (TBL) approach in 2013. The approach was enthusiastically received by BIOL271 students and has since become a permanent fixture of the course. TBL is a learning strategy in which most internal assessment is completed in structured, permanent learning teams. Briefly, in traditional lecture-based courses, your initial exposure to the course material (the easy part) occurs during lectures, and you’re left to tackle problems/applications/challenges (the hard part) on your own. In TBL, you do the easy part on your own (readings) and you get the support of your team and lecturer as you do the hard part (applications/problems/challenges). The result is you learn more. Having said this, we have had the most success using the following combined approach: two lectures per week are traditional “we talk, you listen” sessions but every third lecture is a TBL session where “you talk” and “we guide”, and most tutorial sessions follow a similar “you talk, we guide” approach. See LEARN for details.
Freeman, Scott , Herron, Jon C; Evolutionary analysis ; 5th edition; Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
The peer-reviewed literature will also be used. This material will be available on LEARN. It is highly recommended that you read this additional literature. Evidence of extra reading will enhance your test and exam grades.
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FEEDBACK FROM COURSE SURVEYSStudent ratings: 20171. Course materials helped me understand what was required to succeed 4.12. Course organization helped me learn 4.13. Course workload appropriate 4.24. Course assessments appropriate 3.95. Where I sought feedback on my assessments, I found it helpful 3.7We routinely raise the following issues in the online course survey completed by students atthe end of the course. The responses are collated by the course coordinator and discussed bythe teaching team.Which aspects of this course were most positive?Team Based Learning in lectures/tutorials. For example:“TBL sessions, when we discuss why certain answers are wrong and others are correct.”“The TBL sessions reinforced learning weekly which makes it easier now to study for exams”“team based learning allowed a strong understanding of important concepts”“The team based learning activities really helped me understand the concepts talked about inlectures and the wikis gave a good opportunity to practice writing”“TBL sessions were good to learn from peers”How could this course be enhanced to assist your learning?The wikis. Although student feedback includes statements like “The wikis helped withreinforcing the topics covered in lectures” there is persistent feedback that the group wikis area challenge to write. As a response, we have provided a detailed template for each of the twowikis, and introduced a requirement for each student to introduce at least one additionalreference per wiki so students are better able to provide non-redundant examples.
Domestic fee $978.00
International fee $4,988.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see School of Biological Sciences .