An introduction to mathematical and
statistical methods that are most useful to
biologists, this course provides skills that are
useful in organizing and summarizing data, graphic
methods of data presentation, and testing
hypotheses based on experimental results. Key
mathematical methods for describing biological
phenomena are included, along with basic techniques
for identifying differences among groups and
relationships among variables. This course
may be used by biology majors to fulfill part of
their mathematics requirement; alternatively, it
may be counted among the required ten biology
courses for the major.
(painting by W.J. Fauvel)
Co-taught with Pr. Deborah Robertson, this
course emphasizes methods for analyzing features of
marine populations, adaptations to physical
conditions, and interactions among marine
intertidal organisms. The course takes field
trips to rocky shoreline habitat in New England,
and a week-long trip to Bermuda. Ecology
(216) or Marine Biology (109) are highly
recommended. A laboratory fee to cover the
costs of transportation and lodging in Bermuda is
required. For our most recent trip, this cost
was $1500.
Course web site
The primary emphasis is on efforts to explain
and predict the distribution and abundance of
organisms, how ecological communities are composed,
and why they vary in time and space. Prerequisites:
one or more courses from organismal biology group
and one college-level math course. Offered every
year.
Explores the relationship between infectious
disease agents and their hosts, and how that
interaction can effect changes in the abundance of
host and pathogen populations. Factors that
promote and maintain epidemics, the evolution of
virulence and transmission, and strategies for
controlling epidemics are considered using
theoretical approaches and case studies of diseases
affecting humans and other hosts.
Course web site with
samples of group projects
Examines the properties that exist only at
the population level, including schedules for birth
and death, population growth patterns, spatial
variation in abundance, genetic variation, and the
factors that modify these features over time.
This course considers the factors that affect
the success or failure of organisms that transmit
diseases from host to host, as well as the factors
that make them effective disease vectors.
Emphasis is on invasions of mosquitoes in
North America and Bermuda, and includes a week long
field trip to Bermuda. Lab fee for travel
expenses is required. The cost for 2009 is
$1500.
More information and pictures from previous courses
are provided
here
