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Course Syllabus

BIOL 2220 General Ecology for Life Science Majors

  • Division: Natural Science and Math
  • Department: Biology
  • Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0
  • Prerequisites: BIOL 1610 or permission of instructor
  • Corequisites: BIOL 2225
  • Semesters Offered: Spring
  • Semester Approved: Fall 2022
  • Five-Year Review Semester: Fall 2027
  • End Semester: Summer 2028
  • Optimum Class Size: 24
  • Maximum Class Size: 24

Course Description

Study of the interrelationships among organisms and their abiotic environments, addressing where and how organisms live. Adaptation, population growth, species interactions, biodiversity, and ecosystem function are explored for a wide variety of organisms and ecosystems.

Justification

General Ecology for Life Science Majors is a basic ecology course for life science majors. This course is now a state requirement of all sophomore biology and natural resource majors. This course closely matches the 2000 and 3000 level ecology courses at Utah State University, University of Utah, Weber State University, Southern Utah University, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University and Dixie State University.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Students will understand how actions, reactions and coactions relate to the individual organism as well as how they affect the structure and function of an ecosystem.
  2. Students will understand how ecosystems are structured and what affects diversity within the community.
  3. Students will understand how energy and important chemicals move through an ecosystem and their effects on ecosystems and individuals.
  4. Students will understand the factors that cause biome formation and persistence throughout the world.
  5. Students will be able to conduct research on an ecological topic and write an appropriate scientific research paper.

Course Content

Students will learn the following concepts through lectures, current scientific literature readings, and use of case studies: Ecology as a science; Ecology of individual organisms; Abiotic Factors; Population Growth and Regulation; Community Organization and Evolution; Herbivory and Predation; Competition; Amensalism and Allelopathy; Mutualism; Community Structure and Diversity; Energy; Reactions and Biogeochemistry; Community Change; Biomes; Temperate Deciduous Forest; Southern Evergreen Forest; Biomes of High Latitudes and Elevations; Grasslands; Deserts; Tropical Biomes; Aquatic Ecosystems; Writing of scientific research papers.

In this course students are introduced to a number of ecological issues and how they relate to environmental law and ethics. With each of these topics, students are taught to separate science from the political and ethical issues. Current scientific literature on the topic is reviewed as well as a variety of different interpretations of law and ethical viewpoints. Students then discuss how legal and ethical viewpoints fit with the current scientific knowledge on the topic.