SYLLABUS: Bio 312, fall 2015

BASICS
This course is Bio 312 Evolutionary Biology, a course designed for upper level biology students. The course
meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 4:45 in AS (next to the library) room 244. Course begins August
24, last class meeting is December 9, the final exam is Wednesday, December 16 from 2:45pm - 4:45pm.
The instructor for this course is Dr. Ashley Carter: (MICR 010, [email protected]).
Office hours will be provided in class and this site will be updated at that time.
The course catalog describes this course as: "A general survey of the various areas of evolutionary biology
including but not limited to population genetics, speciation, origin of life, and phylogenetic analysis. Main
emphasis is on evolutionary mechanisms and methods of analysis with some emphasis on specific details of the
evolutionary history of life."

BEACHBOARD?
The specific functions of CSULB Beachboard will be little used for this course (just Dropbox), all documents
and materials will be distributed via the course website:
www.csulb.edu/~acarter3/course-evolution
This website is directly accessible within Beachboard from the course page as well as just by the address as a
regular website. The one time when you are required to use Beachboard is when you submit your assignment
essays and homework assignments via the DropBox (TurnItIn) system.

TEXTBOOK
The text for this course is:

Freeman, S. & J. C. Herron. 2013. Evolutionary analysis. Fifth Edition. Prentice Hall.
Class activities may include questions and material from the text.

COURSE FORMAT
This course is being taught in a "Flipped" format in which the lectures are posted online and class time is used
for activities, including group work. This method has been shown to increase test scores and learning (e.g.,
campustechnology.com/articles/2014/05/21/missouri-state-u-improves-learning-outcomes-with-flippedclassroom.aspx and www.emergingedtech.com/2013/03/gathering-evidence-that-flipping-the-classroom-canenhance-learning-outcomes/) and proved popular when used in the past for this course. A preliminary
comparison of exam scores also showed a non-significant increase in the flipped semester compared to the
traditional lecture/homework format.
All lectures are available online on YouTube. Each Monday (except for exam days) will have a short quiz on
the videos assigned for that week to ensure that students are watching the videos and coming to class prepared.
Obviously you can watch videos further ahead if you want more time to prepare for exams.

GRADING
Only traditional grading (A, B, C, D, F) is available.
There are four exams, the first 3 each count for 15% of the final grade and the final is cumulative in scope and
is worth 31% of the final grade. There are four essay assignments which count for 3% of the final grade each.
Quizzes taken at the beginning of 12 class periods account for the remaining 12%. Note that attendance is also
required (see below).
The final grade will be determined using a 90-80-70-60 scale. The instructor may reduce the final required score
needed to earn course grades at his discretion (I.e., "curve up"), but this is not guaranteed.
Individual exams may be "curved." In the event that the class mean for an exam is below 80% and the instructor
determines that rescaling the scores is appropriate, individual grades will be rescaled by adding points sufficient
to move the mean score to 80%.
Details of the format and style of the exams and essay assignments are described in more detail on the
appropriate pages on the course website.
Exams should be completed in pen. Exams completed in pencil may not be submitted for regrading. Student
may not leave during the exam to use the restroom, leaving the room requires exam submission.
Attendance is part of the course. Since the in-class activities replace take-home assignments, missing class is
equivalent to failing to turn in assignments. No excuses for missing class will be accepted; you will have 1%
deducted from your overall grade for each class absence (a single absence will be excused, additional ones will
not). Several class periods begin with short quizzes on the posted lectures, missing these also would count
against you.

SCHEDULE OF TOPICS
The course is divided into essentially three sections, each corresponding to several chapters in the book.
Lectures will not necessarily strictly follow the order of topics in the chapters within each section, but will
cover much of the material while adding additional material not in the text. You should read all the chapters for
each section as soon as you can when we begin that section.

Section 1
Chapters: 2, 3, 4, 17, 18
Topics covered: why we study evolution, history of evolutionary theory, evidence for evolution, origins
of life, geological periods, the Cambrian explosion, intro to phylogenetics, systematics and evolutionary
relationships.
Essay due Sep 16
Exam Sep 21
Section 2
Chapters: 10, 11, 12, 13, 16
Topics covered: adaptations, constraints, natural selection, sexual selection, kin selection, game theory,
speciation.
Essay due Oct 14
Exam Oct 19

Section 3
Chapters: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Topics covered: population genetic models (including selection, mutation, migration, drift, non-random
mating, linkage and applications to understanding human evolution), quantitative genetics, molecular
evolution.
Essay due Nov 16
Exam Nov 18

Section 4
Chapters: 19, 20, all
Topics covered: Evolutionary psychology, human evolution.
Essay due Dec 9
Final Exam Wednesday, Dec 16 2:45-4:45

TECHNICAL STUFF
LATE ESSAY POLICY
Essays are only accepted for full credit if they are submitted physically to the instructor in class and to the
DropBox system by midnight on the day they are due. If either of these is late, the entire essay is late. A single
late essay may be turned in by the end of the semester for 50% credit (submission to DropBox by this time is
also required). Additional late essays will not be accepted for credit for any reason.

MAKEUP EXAM POLICY

There is no makeup exam for this course; the grade for your missed exam will be the lowest score from the two
other exams. If a written excuse (describing the situation in detail, accompanied by supporting documentation)
is provided the scaled score will be used; if no written excuse and documentation is provided the raw unscaled
score will be used. A maximum of one exam can be replaced with the grade from another; a second missed
exam will be scored as a zero. The final exam cannot be missed, missing this exam generally results in a failing
grade for the course.

SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS
In certain cases students require special accommodations regarding exams or other activities.

Religious issues: religious holidays and constraints are valid excuses as far as scheduling activities is
concerned and special accommodation may be made for these. However, religious are knowable
beforehand, special accommodation for such issues will only be made if the instructor is notified in
advance. Religious excuses after the fact are not acceptable.
Emergencies: by their nature emergencies are not knowable beforehand; however genuine emergencies
are documentable in written form (e.g., police report, mechanic's bill, obituary notice, medical papers,
legal records). Special accommodation for such issues will only be made if written documentation of the
emergency is provided as soon as possible.
Learning disabilities: if you have a genuine learning disability special accommodation may be made. It
is the student's responsibility to provide written proof of the status and research the options available at
CSULB regarding this issue. Additionally, the student must notify the instructor in advance if they plan
to request special accommodations due to a learning disability. Information on the CSULB resources
available for learning disabled students is available at:
www.csulb.edu/divisions/students/dss/programs/stephen_benson_program

In all cases the burden of arranging for the accommodations lies with the student.

DISHONESTY AND CHEATING

Cheating fundamentally harms the fairness of the educational process and will not be tolerated in this course.

WARNING: This instructor has given failing course grades to students who have cheated on tests
and plagiarized on assignments/essays in the past. He also follows up on this by writing letters to
academic affairs recommending the expulsion of these students from CSULB. Heed the following
information carefully.
The essay portion of the assignments should be completed independently be each student. Students that
work together should still write their papers on their own and the papers should therefore be very
different. All papers must be submitted in hard copy in class and via the DropBox (TurnItIn) system on
Beachboard (TurnItIn compares each paper to a huge database and all the other papers submitted to
detect plagiarism).
To minimize the potential for cheating, the following policies apply to exam periods.
o You may not use your own calculator, one will be provided to you.
o You may not use any notes during exams, all exams are closed-note, closed-book.
o You may not leave the room during the exam (even to use the restroom), if you leave you must
submit your exam for grading. Plan ahead and don't drink too much before the exam.
CSULB has a written policy on cheating and plagiarism. This information includes definitions of
cheating and plagiarism, the rights and responsibilities of students and instructors in courses, and the
procedures for conflicts arising from enforcement of these policies. I strongly advise all students to read
this information, available at:
http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/research/compliance/conduct/cheating/

WITHDRAWAL AND DROP DATES

Due dates for drops and withdrawals are posted at:
http://www.csulb.edu/depts/enrollment/dates/
It is your responsibility to make yourself aware of these dates.

CNSM REQUIRED TEXT AND CAMPUS SAFETY INFORMATION

The Dean of the college of CNSM has requested that the following text be included on all syllabi:

No instructor or office staff can add or change a class for you. Only YOU, THE STUDENT, can add or
change classes in YOUR schedule. You may either add classes on-line through your MyCSULB account
or in person at Enrollment Services during the registration period.
Each student is responsible to check their MyCSULB account weekly to be certain that the Class
Schedule listed accurately reflects the courses s/he is enrolled in for the current semester. Students
should also check for any notices the University has sent to them.

The Dean of the college of CNSM would also like you to be aware of the safety information described in the
PDF below. I strongly recommend reading through it, but the most important single piece of information is that
calling "911" on your cell phone will connect you somewhere far off-campus. You should call "562-985-4101"
instead for campus police. You should program this into your cell phone.
http://web.csulb.edu/~acarter3/course-evolution/files/CNSM-Emergency-Info.pdf