Syllabus

Syllabus

Textbook readings from Evolution by Bergstrom and Dugatkin.

Date Week Topic Due Slides Reading
1/6/2020 1 Student lightning talks, RP & VO vision of course -- -- "Beak of the Finch", Dobzhansky 1976
1/7/2020 Lab Crafting the history of life on Earth -- --
1/8/2020 1 What is evolution? The facts. The theory (RP) -- --
1/13/2020 2 Darwin the geobiologist. Reading the rock record (VO) -- PDF Chapter 4
1/14/2020 Lab Which came first, the chicken or the finch? Part I -- --
1/15/2020 2 Species concept and phylogeny (VO) HW 1 PDF
1/22/2020 3 Holiday - no class -- --
1/21/2020 Lab Which came first, the chicken or the finch? Part II -- --
1/22/2020 3 Whales as a success story for illustrating evolution (RP) HW 2 --
1/27/2020 4 Mechanisms of speciation (VO) -- -- Chapter 14
1/28/2020 Lab Population genetics computational exploration -- --
1/29/2020 4 Convergent evolution (RP) HW 3 --
2/3/2020 5 Population genetics: Introduction (RP) -- --
2/4/2020 Lab Luria-Delbruck part I -- -- Chapter 6, pg 204-207
2/5/2020 5 Population genetics: Drift and the Wright-Fisher model (RP) -- --
2/10/2020 6 Population genetics: Analogies to Einstein’s diffusion equation (RP) -- --
2/11/2020 Lab Luria-Delbruck part II -- --
2/12/2020 6 Major transitions in evolution (VO) HW 4 --
2/17/2020 7 Holiday - no class -- --
2/18/2020 Lab Debate Prep -- --
2/19/2020 7 In class debate on the origin of eukaryotes HW 5 --
2/24/2020 8 Super-logarithms (RP) -- --
2/25/2020 Lab Evolving promoters part I -- --
2/25/2020 8 Human evolution (RP) -- --
3/2/2020 9 Co-evolution (VO) -- -- Chapter 18
3/3/2020 Lab Visit bird lab at Occidental College -- --
3/4/2020 9 Mutualistic and antagonistic interactions (VO) HW 6 -- Chapter 18, continued
3/9/2020 10 Guest lecture from Shana Goffredi on animal-microbe symbioses -- --
3/10/2020 Lab Evolving promoters part II -- --
3/11/2020 10 Guest lecture from Joe Parker -- --