Courses at Washington University
Artist Credit: Deborah Kaspari.
Community Ecology (Bio 419) – Syllabus & Course Schedule (Spring 2019)
Community ecology is an interdisciplinary field that bridges concepts in biodiversity science, biogeography, evolution and conservation. This course provides an introduction to the study of pattern and process in ecological communities with an emphasis on theoretical, experimental and quantitative approaches. Topics include: ecological and evolutionary processes that create, maintain or modify patterns of biodiversity; biodiversity and ecosystem function; island biogeography; metacommunity dynamics; niche and neutral theory; species interactions (competition, predation, food webs) and species coexistence; and effects of human-mediated environmental change (climate change, habitat alteration, invasive species) on biodiversity. The class format includes lectures, discussions, and hands-on simulations using the R language for statistical computing and graphics.
Prerequisites: Principles of Biology II (Bio 2970) required, Introduction to Ecology (Bio 381) recommended, or permission of instructor.
R Workshop in Biology (Bio 3100) – Syllabus & Course Schedule (Fall 2018)
Biologists in all areas increasingly find that they have the need and opportunity to work with large data sets. The goal of this 1-credit course is to provide students with an opportunity to gain skills in data analysis and presentation using R, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics (http://www.r-project.org). Topics include an introduction to basic programming in R, data types and manipulation, graphics, hypothesis testing and statistics, and applications to various fields of biology ranging from ecology to genomics. The course format will consist of ten, two-hour workshops that include a brief introduction to key concepts in R and applications in biology, followed by interactive, hands-on tutorials.
Prerequisites: Concurrent or prior course in statistics (Math 2200 or Math 3200 recommended) or permission of instructor.