[Mr.Prodigy]

Life Sci 2F03/Bio 2F03 - Fundamental and Applied Ecology

Summary:

Took this course in January 2010. Dr. Chow-Fraser was the instructor, and Dr. Marvin Gunderman the course coordinator. This course name is pretty self-explanatory, you learn about ecological principles/concepts, environmental problems, organisms, ecosystems, populations. You learn about biodiversity, its loss and possible solutions. In the beginning of the course, there is a mandatory 3 hour field trip to Cootes Paradise sanctuary where you record the scientific and common names of plants, animals, and insects, as well as their functional role in their habitat. There is also an optional weekend field trip to Ruthven Birdbanding Station. In tutorials, you basically discuss current biodiversity issues and possible solutions. There are also three presentations: Six Degrees of Seperation (e.g. how textbooks are connected to Salmon), Biological Invasions (issue of invasive species), Conservation Ecology (picking sides - industrialists vs environmentalists debate). There is also a fun Biodiversity game which I didn't quite understand. (It was kind of like Risk, where you invade for natural resources...or something). There were two tests, and an exam. All multiple choice. Also, Dr. Gunderman's jokes are hilarious when he does his lecture on insects.

Course Breakdown:

Participation in group discussions: 10%
Leading lab discussions: 15%
Assignments: 15%
2 term tests: 30%
Comprehensive final exam: 30%

how big is the class size? is it like first year where u have 300 students packed in a hall?

For next year it's scheduled in BSB 147. That lecture hall fits around ~350 students. Not sure if it'll be THAT full, but I would say the class size will be around there since it's scheduled in that lecture hall.

oh, thanks

how important is the textbook in this course?
im debating on whether to purchase one or not,
but if its not needed, im not gonna bother.
my prof is lyndsay smith~

Compare it to Biology 1M03? Is it on the same level?

I thought this was the easiest science course I have taken at Mac by far.

whats the final exam like?

Four Group Discussions 30% (7.5% each)
Field Trip Assignment 10%
Midterm 25%
Exam 35%

I thought this course was going to be fun and interesting but it turned out to be kinda boring and tedious.

The notes from the textbook chapters were straightforward, but the prof’s lectures on her research on Cootes Paradise and the Guest Lectures were more challenging to understand/study.

Don’t buy the textbook. Out of all the textbooks I ever had to buy, I used this one this one the least.

The tutorials were kinda hard because you had to co-ordinate with a big group of 7-8 people. But the tutorials were interesting and I felt I learned more from tutorials than lectures. Another good thing was that 5% of the 7.5% for the tutorial was dependent on your group members. So for not even trying, you could get 67% if your group members give you 100%, which most of them do cus no one wants to be mean.

The midterm was okay but what I didn’t like is that the questions were irrelevant and a lot of them did NOT test concepts. It's not because they tested random details; they would just ask random questions about ecology. Like I couldn’t figure out what the questions had to do with the material we learned...Maybe that was just me. One awesome thing was that Chow-Fraser gives you a practice midterm and she reuses a lot of questions from it for the real midterm. I would recommend memorizing the answers to every question on the practice midterm. She even reused some on the exam!

Topics Covered
Ecological Energetics, Nutrient Cycling, Population Ecology, Life Histories, Physiological Ecology, Behavioural Ecology, Biomes, Community Ecology, Disturbances, Successions, Conservation Ecology, Resource Ecology

Overall, I would recommend not taking this course, because the tutorials took way too much time to prepare and they sucked time away from other things, like say if you had an orgo midterm the next day. I think there are better/more interesting electives out there.