BIOSYSTEMATICS 425/525
Fall 2013
Dr. Strait, Office S274, Phone 696-2425, email straitho@marshall.edu
Monday 5:00-7:30 S166
Office Hours: S274 Tuesday & Thursday 8:30-9:30, 10:45-12:00 (other by appointment)
Readings:
Describing Species (J. Winston)
The Complete Cladist (E.O. Wiley, D. Siegel-Causey, D.R. Brooks, and V.A. Funk)
Supplemental readings to be assigned in class throughout the semester
All readings will be available in pdf file format on MUOnline
Course Description : Biosystematics is a unifying discipline that combines taxonomy (the science of collecting, describing, and naming organisms), phylogenetics (the study of evolutionary relationships among species), and classification (the organization of taxa into groups which ultimately reflect evolutionary relationship). A working knowledge of systematics is essential for any professional biologist no matter what their specialization may be.
Biodiversity, the study of organism distribution in time and space is a central concern in many areas of specialization. For the environmentally oriented biologist systematics knowledge provides critical information for the conservation and management of biodiversity; for the cellular/molecular biologist systematics knowledge provides a context for relating data to the living organisms from which they are derived.
Prerequisites: BSC 121 with a C or better.
Style: The course will be conducted in the form of lectures, in-class exercises, homework problems, and a service learning project. Reading, home and activity assignments will be made each week for the next class session, either by handout or on MUOnline.
Course Objectives:
1. To understand how all biological studies relate to, are guided by, and are meaningful only in the context of systematics and classification.
2. To gain a working understanding and use of biological classification and nomenclature
3. To understand the background and approaches to taxonomy
4. To be able to use cladistic methods for studying systematic relationships among taxa.
5. To be able to navigate, evaluate, and use the scientific literature and databases pertaining to systematics.
6. To encourage scientifically based civic engagement.
Attendance Policy : Attendance is expected. If you have (or expect to have) an unavoidable absence please email me, preferably in advance. Paperwork for excused absences needs to go through the Office of Student Affairs. University policy governs excused absences (refer to MU
Undergraduate Catalog) for illness, death in the family or institutional activities and will be strictly enforced with regard to missed exams. In-class exercises cannot be made up without a
University excused absence from the Office of Student Affairs.

Academic dishonesty: Academic dishonesty in any form will not be tolerated. Unless assigned as a group activity, all written assignments and exams are to be independent efforts of each student.
Electronic Devices : All electronic devices that make noise must be silenced during class. No texting or playing Words – I can’t so you can’t either.
Grading :
Course grades for will be based on exams (30%), homework assignments and in class exercises and discussions (35%), class service project (35%).
The scale is: 90 -100 %, A; 80 - 90%, B; 70 - 80%, C; 60 - 70%, D.
Homework assignments:
All homework must be typed, double spaced, 10-12 point font, and be 2-3 pages in length
(unless otherwise announced). All homework assignments due within one week of their announcement (so if the assignment was made on a Monday it is due on the following Monday).
All in-class assignments must be completed (and typed unless otherwise stated) (late papers will incur a 5 point deduction per day).
In-class assignments:
Although this class has no formal lab time, it is necessary to do lab-related activities to properly learn the material. Therefore, some class periods will be devoted to hands-on exercises.
Although most of the assignments should be completed in-class further work on them may be required. All in-class assignments must be completed (and typed) and turned in prior to the following class meeting.
Class projects – Service Learning:
This class has a service learning component (35% of your grade) – you will be designing a
“teaching kit” which in this case is a biology-based activity to be used by local pre-school and K-
12 teachers. You will work with a teacher/class room developing this activity. As senior biology students you should start thinking about how you can contribute to your community through the scientist knowledge you have acquired in college – this exercise will help develop this and hopefully you will find it fun. You can work solo, in pairs or even threesomes. If you work in groups you can develop the projects together just target different teachers/classrooms so you each will have a unique experience.
1) Look up the science standard for your target age group/grade. Summarize these (1 page, typed, double spaced) and hand them in 9/9. (2.5%)
2) Contact a local science teacher of your assigned age group (if you want help with this just ask). If you are not familiar with children and their learning levels it might be a good idea to ask to volunteer in the classroom for a few hours early in the semester – talk to the kids/teacher and most importantly observe. This is strongly encouraged. Find out about the average class size so that if multiple copies of the kits are necessary that is known. Have the teacher you are working with send me a note or email stating their interest in working with you by 9/23. (2.5%)

3) Make arrangements to test your project out on your teacher’s real class and then write a reflection of this experience (2 pages, typed, double spaced). This reflection is due 11/11
– this is essentially a self-critic of the first draft of your project. Your reflection should include a discussion of how the children liked and learned from your activity and what you will do to modify it to make it perfect! (10%)
4) Develop and then present your teaching kits to our class during our last class meeting.
Your teaching kit should be an inquiry-based hands-on activity. It could be a game, an experiment, or anything that teaches without worksheets and such – most of all make it fun so pick a biological topic that you are passionate about and share it. You can design things that can be used by individuals or groups – just make sure you have enough for everyone in a typical class (plus a few). After completion, these kits will be made available for check out by local teachers for use in their classrooms. They should include full instructions and background for the teacher so they can us and also respond to typical student questions, a kit supply list so when it is checked out the kits completeness can be easily assessed, and a description of how this project meets your target age state science standards. Make sure to cite sources if you used books or websites to develop your project. These kits will be stored in “treasure chests” that the classes can decorate. Also include a one page personal reflection of this experience
(this will not be included in the kit). For example, how do you feel about what you have done, was this a rewarding experience, is this something that you might want to do again, what was difficult, what was fun, and suggestions for other students doing these projects in the future. Many projects will need expendable supplies and some funds are available for that. Also whenever possible share pictures taken during this project via email. (20%)
Exams:
(1) Two unit exams over class material (lectures, reading, homework, etc...) will be given. These exams will include a combination short answer questions, multiple choice, fill-in the blank, definitions, true/false, and/or problems. Review sheets will be provided. The first exam is on biodiversity and taxonomy and the second on cladistics.

Date: Topic:
8/26 BIODIVERSITY
Lecture #1: Biodiversity and taxonomy
Homework assignment #1 – New species
Service Learning Introduction
9/2 No class – Labor Day
9/9 NOMENCLATURE
Reading:
Winston Ch. 1
Lecture #2: Biological nomenclature
Homework assignment – Names can be fun
In-class exercise - Taxonomy and nomenclature of office supplies
Lecture #3: Species, subspecies, and their discovery
9/16 TAXONOMY
Scorpion Taxonomy (Dr. Victor Fet)
In-class exercise - Scorpion taxonomy
9/23 MUSEUMS AND KEYS
Winston Ch. 2
Winston Ch. 3
Fet, 2002
Lecture #5: Taxonomic literature and museum collections Winston Ch. 4-5
Homework assignment – Internet museum search
Lecture #6: Taxonomic keys Winston Ch. 17, 19; Futuyma, 1998 Ch. 9 (253-263)
In-class exercise
– Taxonomic keys
9/30 NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS
Museum and herbarium tours (date subject to change)
10/7 SPECIES DESCRIPTIONS
Lecture #6: Species Descriptions Winston Ch. 6-9 (skim)
Winston Ch. 10-15 (skim) Lecture #7: Species Descriptions
In-class exercise - Species descriptions
10/14 Exam 1
10/21 HISTORY OF PHYLOGENETIC STUDIES
Review Exams
Lecture #9: History of Systematics Futuyma, 1998 Ch. 5 (87-108)p
In-class exercise – Monophyly, polyphyly, paraphyly
Lecture #10: Cladistics Intro Part 1
Lecture #11: Cladistics Intro Part 2
Wiley et al. Ch. 1
Wiley et al. Ch. 2

10/28 CLADISTICS 1
Lecture #12: Cladistics
In-class exercise – Monophyly and cladogram characters
Lecture #13: Cladistics (Basic Techniques)
In-class exercise – Inclusion/exclusion rule
Lecture #15 Cladistics (Coding characters)
In-class exercise - Caminculues
11/11 CLADISTICS 3
In-class exercise – Tree length and CI
Wiley et al. Ch. 3
11/4 CLADTSITICS 2
Lecture #14: Cladistics (Resolving Conflict and Tree length)
In-class exercise – tree length
Wiley et al. Ch. 4
Lecture #16 Cladistics (Character Polarity)
In-class exercise – Polarity exercise
11/18 CLADISTICS 4
Wiley et al., Ch. 5
Lecture #17: Cladistics (Reversals)
Lecture #18: Cladistics (Parsimony algorithms and Consensus Trees)
In-class – Consensus trees
11/25 No class Fall Break
12/2 Student 10 minute presentations of service projects
12/9 Final Exam (same time and same place as regular class)