From my standpoint as lecturer, the principal advantage of the website is that the lecture outline for the course, as well as  illustrations and material not in the regular text, are available before & after as well as during lecture. This allows all of us to focus on concepts during lecture, knowing that details are available afterward. The website material is updated, added to, and clarified frequently during the course. The latest version  is always available on-line: for this reason, I do not maintain paper copies in the library.

    The website  includes my complete lecture notes, lab & homework assignments, along with illustrations from the text and extensive supplemental material. Key terms are in red.  All linked figures shown as underlined text: access links by clicking on them. All illustrations are copyrighted and should not be printed.

(1) I expect you to know the equations on the main pages:derivations are deliberately moved to the background so as not to clutter the flow of ideas. I do not expect you to be able to derive the equations from scratch. Many students appreciate the equations more if they see where they come from. None of the derivations require anything beyond high-school algebra. While I expect that students should be able to follow the derivations, this is not a course in mathematical population genetics. Problem-solving questions on exams will be of the same nature as those on the homework assignments. A page of the equations for which you are responsbile is on the web page, and will be supplied to you on the midterm & final exams.

(2) I make extensive use of specific examples to illustrate evolutionary phenomena; many (most) of these are not in the textbook. Unless otherwise specified, the phenomena are important, not the details of the specific examples. For instance, Aristelliger lizards are used to illustrate stabilizing selection: you would be expected to understand that stabilizing selection reduces trait variance, not that lamellar scale counts in Aristelliger age classes change from X to Y with increasing age. Some examples are presented in more detail as case studies or because they are classic examples: polytene chromosome variation in Drosophila, industrial melanism in Cepaea, and sympatric speciation in Rhagoletis are in this category. In these cases, you should be familiar with details of the examples so as to be able to discuss how the phenomena work.

    Different students will use the website in different ways.  A key question to ask yourself is whether you take in information better by hearing it or reading it.  Some of your options are:

    1. Take lecture notes as usual; review web material before & after lecture. [This is what I would do. When I was an undergrad I found that taking written notes during a lecture focussed my attention. Because the material has grown from a short topic list to a more complete sentence outline, you may get bogged down if you try to make an exact copy. If you are trying to copy everything on the screen and not listening to the lecture, you will want to review your methods of note-taking, and/or try another approach].

    2. Print out web material before lecture; annotate these notes during lecture. [This seems to have become the most common way of using the site. Bear in mind that I often make final, extensive, revisions immediately prior to lecture, that I improvise during lecture, and that I correct any mistakes I catch after lecture.  If you decide to print them, do not use department printers: the department cannot afford the paper and ink, and it interferes with legitimate uses].

     3. Attend lectures, without taking notes; review and/or copy web material after lecture [Some students tell me they find in easier to focus on main concepts this way. I can't see this myself. This requires experience in active listening and won't work if you simply listen passively.  I become nervous if no-one is taking notes]

    4. Skip lectures; review web material for course content just before the midterm & final exams. [NOT RECOMMENDED. The lecture notes are just that, notes, not a complete course in themselves, not a substitute for lectures. Many (most) of the concepts are complex and the notes are intended as an outline].

Species & Speciation                                                              Chapter 12
            Species concepts
                    Speciation: The Origin of Species
                     Genetics of speciation
            Rates of speciation
 
Phylogeny & Systematics                                                      Chapter 13
            Classification, Identification, & Nomenclature
            Traditional & cladistic systematics:
                     Reconstructing phylogeny
            Using phylogenies to answer evolutionary questions
            Molecular systematics
 
Macroevolution                                                                          Chapters 14, 15, 16
    Patterns in the fossil record
    Evolution above the level of species

Weeks of
March 05 & 12:  Lab #4, Reconstructing Phylogeny
March 19 & 26:  Lab #5, Molecular Systematics

Grading Policy

Midterm              25%
Laboratory        35% [5 x 7% @]
Final Exam        40%
TOTAL              100%

Marks are not rounded up.