Bulletin Board: Half of the bulletin board between my office and the MacLab (SC 132) will be used for this course. I will be posting, among other things, interesting web sites and news articles. Take a break once in a while and check it out. There's a lot going on in the world.

Goals: In this course there are five specific goals. Upon successfully completing Conservation Biology you will:

• be aware of the extent to which species are being eliminated from our planet.
• have a good understanding of the value of conservation genetics in helping endangered species.
• be able to collect, preserve, and do a diversity of molecular analyses on a variety of samples.
• be prepared to make the most of on-line databases and software relevant to conservation genetics and evolutionary biology.
• have further developed an appreciation for biodiversity and conservation genetics participating in the biodiversity expedition in the Poconos and by visiting the the National Zoological Park and Cheetah Station in Washington, DC.

• Laboratory Notebook* - 100 pts.
  
• Midterm Examination - 100 pts.
  
• Attendance: National Zoological Park and Cheetah Station (weekend) - 50 pts.
  
• Attendance: Biodiversity Expedition in the Poconos (weekend) - 50 pts.
  
• Presentation - 50 pts.
  
• Final Examination - 100 pts.
  

Laboratory Notebook:Your lab notebook should become, for you, an irreplacable document. Some of you are planning to go to graduate school, others are planning to work in industry or for a government or private agency. All of you fit somewhere along the molecular-ecological spectrum with respect to your chosen field of study. In all cases, if you want to be a productive practitioner within the sciences, you must keep a thorough record of your laboratory and field work. To do otherwise, wastes time and discoveries. Information within your notebook should reflect your thoughts, your analyses, your work, and your conclusions.

Midterm Examination:This examination will be purely written and will include material covered in lecture AND laboratory, as well as outside readings.

Weekend Trips:Some learning is best accomplished outside the walls of a classroom. Cedar Crest is a beautiful campus, but we normally do not see cheetahs hunting rabbits behind Hartzel or pandas feeding on the ginkgo outside the Administration Building. The proposed times for the weekend road trips will be discussed during the first class. By the end of the first week we should all agree on a time so I can make arrangements for transportation and special tours. If, for a special reason, you cannot make the field trip, please let me know at that time (1st week); we can set up an "equivalent" assignment. Otherwise, short of an emergency, your absence will be graded accordingly.

Presentations:There has been interest in using some of the lecture time for student presentations of articles in the primary literature. The focus of these articles will be, as one would expect, on conservation genetics. I have complete sets of the journals, Molecular Ecology and Conservation Biology. You're welcome to look through these for a paper to present to the class. An on-literature search is also a reasonable approach. If students prefer, I could provide a list of appropriate papers. Presentations should be 25 minutes in length ([+-]2 minutes) with an additional 5 minutes for questions. Deviations from this prescribed length will affect one's grade, therefore a well-prepared presentation is in order. Presentation times are are up to you. Choose a Monday (lab) or Tuesday (lecture) during which you'd like to present your paper, and then place your name (at that session) on the syllabus posted outside the MacLab. Only one person should sign up for any given day. Characteristics of a good presentation are well described in the Bio 121/122 lab manual, feel free to take another look.

Final Examination:The final will be in practicum format. Each student will receive a packet of questions which will require her to pull together her understanding of concepts, laboratory techniques and computer analyses. Time will be spent in the new bioinformatics computer center, in the conservation genetics laboratory, and, if you prefer, in a tree outside the Science Center. It should be fun.

Computer Use Policy and Honor Code: The Biology Department supports the CCC Computer Use Policy and the Honor Code as described in the Customs Book.

Valuable Web Sites: I think you will find these sites useful in this course and in others. Enjoy!

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