Syllabus

Fish 475, Spring 2009
Marine Mammalogy

Syllabus

Course Description:

The 2009 marine mammalogy course will be a conceptual, natural historical, and biopolitical examination of the biology of the marine mammals, including the following taxa: whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, fur seals, walruses, sea otters, polar bears, manatees, dugongs, and sea cows.

The course will focus primarily (but not exclusively) on ecological issues and interactions. Specific conceptual topics will include taxonomy, evolution, biogeography, aquatic specializations, diving behavior and physiology, population assessment and dynamics, trophic and community ecology, reproduction, acoustic biology, and convservation biology.

The course will provide 5 UW credits upon successful completion. Lectures will meet three times weekly (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) 11:30 am -12:20 pm, in a location to be announced. Laboratories will meet once per week. There are two laboratory sections. Lab section AA meets Mondays, 2:00-4:50 pm, in rm 107 FSH. Lab section AB meets Thursdays, 2:00-4:50 pm, also in rm 107 FSH. As noted below, labs often will meet in locations other than the assigned room.

Lab sessions will involve field trips, sessions in the FSH computer laboratories (rooms 136 or 207), or sessions in the assigned classroom. Most of the field trips will occur within the scheduled laboratory periods. There are two exceptions. On Saturday 11 April 2009, the two lab sections will combine for a field trip to the Pt. Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. On Sunday 17 May 2009, the two sections will combine again for a field trip to Friday Harbor to observe wild killer whales and other marine mammals in the vicinity of the San Juan Islands. Both weekend field trips will be required. Transportation will be provided for enrolled students on all field trips.

A laboratory fee of $50 will be charged to all students enrolling in the course. The fee is assessed at registration. The fee partially offsets some of the costs associated with lab sessions and field trips. The remainder of costs for the field trips is paid by the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

The course is designed for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students. Enrolled students should have had previous university-level coursework in basic biology, the essentials of ecology and evolution, and at least one course in statistics or quantitative analysis. Additional background in marine biology or the biological and physical aspects of oceanography or limnology will be helpful.

Grading Policy and Protocol

Course grades are determined on the basis of total points accumulated during the term. The available point total is 1000. Point availability is apportioned across the components of the course as follows:

Laboratory attendance: 100 pts (10% of the total points possible):

[Attendance at each lab session provides 10 points toward the total for the course, up to a maximum of 100 pts. One lab session can be missed without deduction of points. If a second lab session is missed, a make-up exercise can be done to restore 10 points to the course total. There is a limit of one make-up exercise per student during the course.]

Midterm examination: 100 pts (10%)

Research proposal assignment: 340 pts (34%)

Critiques of published papers in the lab (two @ 40 pts each): 80 pts (8%)

"Low-stakes" writing exercises in lecture (four @ 10 pts each]: 40 pts (4%)

Final examination: 340 pts (34%)

Computation of grades: Grading is done "on the curve", and is based primarily on the point total described above. The curve is applied to point totals of 500 or above, and is defined by the following protocols. Point totals below 500 are assigned a failing grade (0.0).

Highest score is assigned a grade of 4.0;

Median score is assigned a grade of 3.0;

Lowest score (greater than 500) is assigned a grade of 2.0.

Other grades are determined by position on the curve. For example, a point total midway between the median score and the highest score would receive a grade of 3.5.

Instructors reserve the right to make minimal departures form the curve in grade assignment. This is usually done when a student displays unusual effort or under other special circumstances.