Schedule of Graded Assignments
Schedule: Because this term begins on a Tuesday, each week ends on a Monday,
when weekly assignments (graded questions on the readings, and graded lab questions
or worksheets) are due.
Readings: Most of your time will be spent reading your textbook, and it is important to
keep up. At your textbook’s website, http://wps.prenhall.com/esm_freeman_evol_4/,
there are Chapter Study Questions, Activities, End of Chapter Questions, and Web
Links for each chapter in your book. You will be turning in your answers to the Chapter
Study Questions after you have completed reading each chapter. Fill in your answers
online at the publisher’s website, click the “submit answers for grading button” (at the
bottom of the page). You will then receive your graded questions on a page entitled,
“Your Results for: “Chapter Study Questions.”" At the bottom of this page is a form for
you to email your graded answers to your TAs. All Chapter Study Questions are due
at the end of the week for which those chapters were assigned (Mondays).
In addition to these graded questions, you may find the Activities and End of Chapter
Questions helpful in your understanding the material. The activities include several free
computer simulations, and we will be doing one of these, Bugsville (Chapter 9), as a
virtual lab during week 3.
Virtual Labs: These are your hands-on, inquiry-based, active-learning exercises for the
course. We will do one virtual lab per week, and each virtual lab includes a graded
questions form online, or a graded worksheet that you email to me when you are done.
These virtual labs each take several hours to complete, so start them early in the week
to allow you enough time to complete them by week’s end (Mondays). Four of these
virtual labs are on SimBio’s EvoBeaker website, and for each EvoBeaker Lab, do all the
exercises in the workbook. When you are done with the exercises, do the Graded
Questions. SimBio will send me your scores. For the Bugsville and Conch Phylogeny
Labs, email me your worksheets. All graded lab questions or worksheets are due at
the end of each week (Mondays).
Exams: There are two one hour exams, May 28th and June 18th. You may take your
exam any time you wish within a 24 hour period, but once you begin the exam, you
must turn it in within one hour. These exams will be administered on Blackboard. These
exams will focus on your textbook and supplementary materials.
Online Discussion: There will be a discussion room / chat room set up in Blackboard
for daily online discussion of readings, virtual labs, and supplementary materials. I will
be there live for 2 hours per day for those of you who want to engage in synchronous
discussion, and the board will remain open the rest of the day and overnight for those of
you who want to engage in asynchronous discussion. Your participation points for this
course come from you logging in and contributing to these discussions on a regular
basis. Note: this discussion forum will be closed entirely on the days of exams.
Supplementary Materials: These include videos, slideshows, links to published
papers, and are provided to enrich your learning experience. Their content will appear
on your exams.
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Week One: May 8-14
o Readings: Chapters 1-3
o Virtual Lab: Darwinian Snails
o Videos
 Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (PBS: 1 hour 56 min)
 Demo of Darwinian Snails Lab (SimBio: 3.5 min)
Week Two: May 15-21
o Readings: Chapters 4-6
o Virtual Lab: Flowers and Trees
o Videos and Interactive Websites
 The Tree of Life Web Project
 Tree of Life (Wellcome Trust)
Week Three: May 22-28
o Readings: Chapters 7, 9, 10
o Virtual Lab: Bugsville (be sure to download and install the “zipped”
simulation file, and tutorial and worksheet pdf files)
o Exam 1: May 28th
Week Four: May 29-June 4
o Readings: Chapters 13
o Interactive SimBio Chapters: Life History, Evolution for Ecology
o Virtual Lab: Domesticating Dogs
Week Five: June 5-11
o Readings: Chapters 15-18
o Virtual Lab: Conch Phlyogeny
o Videos
 What Darwin Never Knew (NOVA: 1 hour 52 min)
 The Shape of Life: The Survival Game (PBS: 54 min)
Week Six June 11-19
o Readings: Chapters, 19, 14, 20
o Virtual Lab: Sickle-Cell Alleles
o Videos
 Demo of Sickle-Cell Alleles Lab (SimBio: 3.5 min)
o Final Exam: June 18th