I would greatly appreciate people's opinion on 6 or so key/core concepts that you think should be the foundation of an introductory undergraduate Ecology & Evolution course. Most the students are first-years at a US institution, and this is the gateway course to the Biology major, but is also taken by students that have no intention in majoring in Biology.
Give this to Mr Google: "ecology and evolution course syllabus" to spy on what others are doing!
I guess one necessary concept to be taught is biological fitness, absolute and relative.
Best,
Daniel.
I had to come up with this same course last term. I reviewed several textbooks and looked at other people's course outlines, which I found online as suggested by Ian Kennedy.
For me it came down to:
1) Climate
2) Aquatic and terrestrial environments /biomes
3) Organismal adaptations to the environment (behavioral ecology, morphological adaptations, physiological adaptations, intro to genes)
4) Evolution (natural selection, Hardy-Weinberg, speciation and hybridization)
5) Ecology at different scales: population, community, and ecosystem
6) Conservation and restoration
Good luck!
under 4) I would exolicitly add botlenecks and genetic drift, because that is what most students don't understand at first
@John, briefly for now:
Definition of terms in ecology,
Natural selection, artificial selection, and
Speciation, formation of new species.
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to me all must starts understanding the concept of "complex adaptive systems", this lead to understand the rules that operate at all biological organization levels, from cells to biosphere to built life against the thermodynamics second low. From here you can understand the meaning of trophic webs and ecosystems complexity, the need to find gradients and energy fluxes to maintain life, the unavailability or pollution and how we can manage this problem, how life (evolution) and ecosystems (susscession) evolves and develop to increase their complexity for controlling the energy fluxes and became more independent from the environment...
For this course, I suggest you also include:
Ecosystem concept, Energy flow through ecosystem, Biogeochemical cycles, Conservation and management, Population ecology (besides Selection and Speciation).
The factors involved in formation of new species (isolation, genetic drift, hybridization, and adaptive radiation) always catch students' attention. Especially the Galapagos finches and their beaks :)
J. M. Cherrett (1989, in Ecological Concepts, Blackwell Dcientific Publications) listed the most important fifty concepts in Ecology. The top six at that time were 'Ecosystem', 'Succession', 'Energy flow', 'Conservation of resources', 'Competition' and 'Niche' out of 645 topic chosen. I presume these aspects could also be placed in an evolutionary framework. If Cherret would have been an evolutionary biologist the top six would probably have been different (e.g. Adapation, selection, etc...). Those that focus on evolutionary-based concept will also be able to place them in a functional/ecological framework.
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