Courses Taught >> Course Descriptions
Course Descriptions
Teaching Responsibilities
While at the University of Calgary my teaching has contributed to the core of the Ecology Program (ECOL 413 [Field Course], ECOL 429 [Ecology of Individuals], ECOL 417 [Aquatic Communities and Ecosystems] and ECOL 501 [Ecological and Evolutionary Applications] and a major service course for the university community (BIOL 307 [Ecology and Human Affairs - ~300 students]). In addition to regularly scheduled lecture courses I regularly supervise undergraduate thesis projects or graduate level independent studies course. I regularly participate in ECOL 601, a required seminar course for our graduate students, and I have participated in ECOL 677, a graduate level course in advanced population ecology. I offer ECOL 607 - Advanced Limnology and Oceanography, every second year.
A feature of the Ecology Program at the University of Calgary is that most courses are team taught. This allows individuals to teach to their strengths, and provides students with a variety of lecturing styles. The proportion of a course that I typically teach is indicated in parentheses after the course title, yet varies between years to accommodate sabbaticals. If no fraction is noted, I am responsible for the entire course.
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BIOLOGY 307 :: Ecology and Human Affairs (1/2)
This is a service course offered by the Department of Biological Sciences to non-science majors of the campus community. I have developed and deliver 12, 75 minute lectures on community and ecosystem ecology, and human impacts on natural systems. I believe this is an important course to foster an appreciation for ecological issues among students who otherwise would not likely receive any formal training in ecology. My goal is to create an interest and literacy for ecological issues so students can be sufficiently informed to participate in public debate on environmental issues that affect society. Although the class is very large (~ 250-300 students), I encourage interaction with the students by posing questions that encourage them to apply the principles learned to consider real world problems. I typically begin each lecture with an overhead that presents a current news headline relevant to the day's lecture topic.
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ECOLOGY 429 :: Ecology of Individuals (1/3)
I have developed and offered 12 lectures on the physiological ecology of plants. The material concentrates on the physiological adaptations of plants that allow them to exist over a range of environments. I use allometry to describe patterns in the scaling of physiological rates to plant morphology. I have also created a laboratory on the -3/2 self-thinning rule that requires students to measure individual aspen trees, pool data, and calculate the scaling exponent. This is typically the first lab of the fall semester, and provides an opportunity for students to see and measure individual variation in field-based populations, an exercise that not only gives the students variety in their laboratory projects, but also places data collection on individuals in the context of natural communities and ecosystems and the lecture material.
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ECOLOGY 417 :: Aquatic Communities and Ecosystems (2/3)
In 24 lectures I present the physical, chemical and biological building blocks that are conceptually assembled to give students an understanding of contemporary issues in aquatic community ecology. This sets the stage for the last third of the course that covers food web theory and dynamics, material cycling, and aquatic ecosystem management. We run a field sampling weekend at the Kananaskis Barrier Lake field station to allow students to be exposed to sampling techniques and data collection. I also believe it's important for students to have the opportunity to interact with faculty in the less formal setting of the field, and in small groups. In years when my co-instructor is been on sabbatical I teach the entire course.
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ECOLOGY 439 :: Population Ecology(1/2)
In 18 lectures I first derive models for density-independent and density-dependent population growth. Once the basic models have been dervied and contrasted, they are further divided into discrete and continuous growth forms. Environmental and demographic stochastiscity are added to density-indepedent models, as is density-dependent birth and death rates. Additional modifications to the models include adding time lags and variation between individuals. A second block of lectures covers time series analysis and finally life tables and Leslie matrices are used to explore age- and stage-structured models. Laboratories are designed to reinforce the concepts covered in the lectures and allow students to explore model behaviour with simulations and analyses of provided data. The lectures provide a foundation to explore sustainability, conservation and harvest scenarios for populations that are covered in the second half of the course.
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ECOLOGY 501 :: Ecological and Evolutionary Applications (1/2)
Faculty participate in this course by offering a half semester project. I have used the opportunity to expose students to ecological modeling by giving them an briefintroduction to the range of models used for a variety of ecological problems. We then used a model of PCB fluxes in Great Lakes food webs to allow them to play with model parameters and salmonid stocking scenarios in a large simulation model (one general class of models used in ecology to simulate portions of ecosystems). Students may provide their own end goal (eg, salmonid numbers, size, PCB concentration) or use one I provide. Because the class is restricted to ecology majors, the class is small enough to allow oral presentations of what was done and the outcome.
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ECOLOGY 507, 528, 530, and 607 :: Independent Studies Courses
Independent studies courses provide students with important hands on research experiences that range from advanced literature searches to the collection and publishing of original data. Supervising these projects is a major time commitment, yet I feel such research experiences are an important part of a student's education because there are few opportunities for students to experience the scientific process from idea to publication. Ecology 507 and 607 courses run for one semester while Ecology 528 and 530 courses run the full year, and typically involve field work during the summer prior to the student enrolling in the course. To date I have supervised 10 Ecology 507s and 16 Ecology 528/530s. I have also supervised 8 Biology 607s, the graduate level version of Ecology 507.
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ECOLOGY 607 :: Advanced Limnology & Oceanography
This is a graduate course that changes with each offering. I survey students to determine a common area of interest and develop a course around that conceptual area. In 2015 I and 6 students explored the use of molecular tools to understand conservation in freshwater and marine systems that included coral reefs, marine protected areas, ecotoxicology applications, and, environmental drivers of blue-green algal nitrogen limitation and toxin production. As a class we reviewed existing and emerging tools available to molecular ecologists, the tools' strenghts and weaknesses, and their application to various ecological problems. Students then identified a success story from their area of interest that illustrated how the use of molecular tools allowed an understanding of ecological processes or phenomena that wouldn't have otherwise been possible. Students gave two presentations and wrote a term paper summarizing their findings and proposed promising areas of future research for their chosen area of interest with an emphasis on conservation.
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BIOLOGY 607 :: Current Topics in Antimicrobial Resistance
This graduate course encompasses current areas of focus regarding antimicrobial resistance. Students choose an area of their interest, then give presentations on readings that summarize the current state of knowledge, data/knowlege gaps and relevance to related areas of AMR research. In 2023, we explored topics that were at the interface of wastewater disinfection, AMR evolution in biological nutrient removal processes, presence of surviving bacteria in receiving environments and co-development of antibiotic and silver resistance. Students identified the data gaps they considered most urgent to fill.
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