Dr. Ouida Meier

Biology 475-004, Spring 2005

Green sea turtle, San Salvador Island, Bahamas. Photo by

O. Meier.

Marine Biology

This course will provide an overview of the marine environment and its variations, marine organisms and their adaptations, and a survey of marine ecosystems. Student-led discussions will focus on additional topics of interest.

 

In addition to online access to the class syllabus and journal articles to be presented, materials for this course are available for review in three places: in the library at the reserve desk, in the biology department office (TCNW 201), and in Dr. Meier’s office (EBS 3112; folder is in the conference room section).

 

Journal article presentations:

Every student will present a peer-reviewed journal article on a marine biology topic to the class; plan on 15 minutes total. The paper should be approved by Dr. Meier at least 8 days prior to the presentation date. Students may photocopy their 1-page summary handout in the biology department office at no charge (TCNW 201); make 34 copies. PowerPoint presentations may be prepared on a floppy disk, a zip drive (100 Mb or less only), a CD-ROM, or made available on the internet and should be loaded onto the computer desktop in the classroom 10 minutes prior to class to avoid delay. Recommended sources for appropriate article searches are: (1) http://www.jstor.org (most easily accessed from campus computers; off-campus access is possible with a login: see http://www.wku.edu/Library/deansoffice/online.htm ), and (2) http://scholar.google.com (remember – peer-reviewed journal articles only).

 

Movie nights:

Biology movie nights featuring The Blue Planet series follow lecture times. Attendance is not required, but will count for extra credit. Movies are free, and attendance is open to all and sundry.

 

Special topics:

Tsunami, 26 December 2004: Wall Street Journal article, Malaysian newspaper article, Coral-List discussion of damage assessment, PowerPoint of images

 

Jan. 11	Introduction, welcome. Tsunami event.
Jan. 18	The ocean as habitat.
Jan. 25	Ecological and biological background for marine systems.
Feb. 1	Organisms: Primary producers.
Feb. 8	Exam 1.  Guest lecture: Fish ecomorphology.
Feb. 15	Organisms: Marine invertebrates.
Feb. 22	Organisms: Marine vertebrates.
Mar. 1	Intertidal ecosystems.
Mar. 8	Estuaries, Marshes, and mangroves.
Mar. 15	Exam 2.
Mar. 22	Spring Break.
Mar. 29	Coral reef ecosystems.
Apr. 5	Open ocean habitats.
Apr. 12	Deep-sea ecosystems.
Apr. 19	Exam 3.
Apr. 26	Stability and change in marine communities.
May 3	Comprehensive Final exam, 4:00 pm.

 

This schedule is approximate and may be modified.

 

 

Syllabus

 

Journal articles presented by students

 

Special topics:

Tsunami, 26 December 2004: Wall Street Journal article, Malaysian newspaper article, Coral-List discussion of damage assessment, PowerPoint of images

 

Movie nights:

Biology movie nights featuring The Blue Planet series follow lecture times. Attendance is not required, but will count for extra credit. Movies are free, and attendance is open to all and sundry.

 

Journal article presentations:

Every student will present a peer-reviewed journal article on a marine biology topic to the class. The paper should be approved by Dr. Meier 8 days prior to the presentation date. Students may photocopy their 1-page handout summary in the biology department office at no charge (TCNW 201). PowerPoint presentations may be prepared on a floppy disk, a zip drive (100 Mb or less only), or a CD-ROM, and should be loaded onto the computer desktop in the classroom 15 minutes prior to class to avoid delay. Recommended sources for appropriate article searches are: (1) http://www.jstor.org (most easily accessed from campus computers; off-campus access is possible with a login: see http://www.wku.edu/Library/deansoffice/online.htm ), and

 (2) http://scholar.google.com (remember – peer-reviewed journal articles only).

These pages are best viewed with Internet Explorer.

 

 

To access PowerPoint slides from lectures or look at sample test questions or test study guides, click on active links in the schedule.