syllabus.html

Syllabus

Students will study the basic phytoplankton processes including photosynthesis, nutrient uptake, growth, optimization, competition and succession. They will then focus these to address the problems related to algae in freshwater such as hyper-eutrophication, cyanobacterial blooms, or toxic cyanobacteria.

Assignments

Reading - Chapters our of Reynolds will be assigned. Several additional readings will be supplied (as pdfs) In class discussion is a crucial piece of the course design because that is where we will uncover the background concepts that are necessary.

Excel and Simulations - These short assignments will work through creating a model for optimization model for algal physiology.

Reference sets- Students will find three articles from the current (2000 to 2005) literature that pertain to the two assignments (one on photosynthesis and the other on nutrient uptake or limitation). Students will bring in a copy of each article and a short description of how it relates to their expected term project for the class.

Term project and presentations - Throughout the term, students will each work on a particular problem of their choice. This project will have several parts:

the references - as discussed above

a draft paper

(for graduate students) a short presentation on how this information could be used to understand or control cyanobacterial blooms

a final version of the paper

Grading

Please see the table on the home page for the points for each assignment.

Undergraduate and graduate participants will be graded against my set of expectations. There are too few students in this class to have any sort of curve.

Graduate students will be expected to perform at a consistently high level during the class. They will also be expected to take lead roles in the discussion. Graduate students will have two distinct assignments:

1. Graduate students will choose their own term paper topic (where as undergraduates can work from a short list of selected topics with beginning references provided).

2. Graduate students will make a short (5 min) presentation on their term paper in the last week, answer questions and lead a short discussion.