Introduction to Research in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The goal of this course is to develop an understanding of how to conduct biological research, using a topic in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Plant Biology as a practical example. This includes the complete scientific process: assessing background literature, generating testable hypotheses, learning techniques for field- and lab-based data collection, analyzing data using appropriate statistical methods, and, finally, writing and sharing your results. To build these skills, this course will focus on nectar microbes at Stanford's nearby Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Students, working in teams, will develop novel research hypotheses and execute the necessary experiments and measurements to test these hypotheses. The capstone of the course is an oral presentation of student teams' research findings, as well as a research paper written in the style of a peer-reviewed journal article. Labs will be completed both on campus and at Jasper Ridge. Although there are no pre-requisites to enroll in the class, it will be helpful if you have already taken BIO 81 or HUMBIO 2A. IMPORTANT NOTE: Satisfies WIM requirement in Biology but must be taken for a letter grade.