Grad Core Schedule v1.0

            Grad Core – Ecology (Bio 516)

Fall 2015 – Schedule v1.0

1	Aug 18 Aug 20	Organizational meeting and warm-up
2	Aug 25 Aug 27	Section 1: Foundational Papers Dunbar, Eric, Martina
3	Sept 1 Sept 3
4	Sept 8 Sept 10	Section 2: Theoretical Advances Chris, Matthew L.
5	Sept 15 Sept 17
6	Sept 22 Sept 24	Section 3: Theses, anti-theses and syntheses  Kat, Kristen
7	Sept 29 Oct 1
8	Oct 6 Oct 8	(Status of Research Review) Fall Break
9	Oct 13 Oct 15	Section 4: Methodological Advances Julie, Melyssa, Noah
10	Oct 20 Oct 22
11	Oct 27 Oct 29	Section 6: Experimental manipulations in lab/field Carlos, Sami, Schuyler
12	Nov 3 Nov 5
13	Nov 10 Nov 12	Section 5: Case Studies in Natural Systems Ali, Matt S.
14	Nov 17 Nov 19
15	Nov 24 Nov 16	Thanksgiving – no class
16	Dec 1 Dec 3	PRESENTATIONS

Notes:

1. Logistics: "Foundations of Ecology" is divided into 6 sections. 2-3 students will lead discussions for each section over a 2-week period; they will provide a context for the discussion by reviewing the section introduction, figuring out something about the authors and doing a brief literature search to see where the field has gone using key words they identify. These ‘resident experts’ will then summarize their findings for the rest of us and lead the discussion of the papers within their section. They will post this information prior to class on the course blog (unmecology.blogspot.com). And, the blog is where you will post comments as well. Doing so will help the discussion leaders since they can direct their comments towards issues multiple students had. The resident experts should post their summary by 9pm Sunday evening (for papers to be discussed in the coming week), everyone else should make comments on the post by 10am Tuesday morning. 
2. Advice for the readings (including the introductions to each section): we don’t expect you to understand everything within each paper – identify what you don’t ‘get’, and bring it up for general discussion. Identifying at least one question for each paper will really help the group have lively and fruitful discussions. Ask yourself why this paper was chosen for the volume.