Syllabus

This is a survey course of modern evolutionary theory, including: its historical development, the empirical and experimental evidence for evolution from a variety of scientific disciplines, historical patterns, the theoretical foundation of evolutionary biology, controversies and current issues in evolutionary theory, and natural selection as an evolutionary mechanism.

Please review the FIU's Policies webpage. The policies webpage contains essential information regarding guidelines relevant to all courses at FIU, as well as additional information about acceptable netiquette for online courses.

Academic Integrity
“Florida International University is a community dedicated to generating and imparting knowledge through excellent teaching and research, the rigorous and respectful exchange of ideas, and community service. All students should respect the right of others to have an equitable opportunity to learn and to honestly demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students are expected to adhere to a standard of academic conduct, which demonstrates respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational mission of the University. All students are deemed by the University to understand that if they are found responsible for academic misconduct, they will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and sanctions, as outlined in the Student Handbook.”

The “Student Handbook” will be STRICTLY ENFORCED regarding cheating. Procedures for both formal and informal procedures can be found under the section “Academic Misconduct” in the “Conduct & Policies” chapter. Anyone caught cheating will be asked to leave the class, will be given an “F” for the whole course and a petition will be sent to Academic Affairs.

One of the greatest barriers to taking an online course is a lack of basic computer literacy. By computer literacy we mean being able to manage and organize computer files efficiently, and learning to use your computer's operating system and software quickly and easily. Keep in mind that this is not a computer literacy course; but students enrolled in online courses are expected to have moderate proficiency using a computer. Please go to the "What's Required" webpage to find out more information on this subject.

Please visit our Technical Requirements webpage for additional information.

1. Respondus LockDown Browser Instructions 

The Disability Resource Center collaborates with students, faculty, staff, and community members to create diverse learning environments that are usable, equitable, inclusive and sustainable. The DRC provides FIU students with disabilities the necessary support to successfully complete their education and participate in activities available to all students. If you have a diagnosed disability and plan to utilize academic accommodations, please contact the Center at 305-348-3532 or visit them at the Graham Center GC 190.

Please visit our ADA Compliance webpage for information about accessibility involving the tools used in this course.

Please visit Blackboard's Commitment Accessibility webpage for more information. 

For additional assistance please contact FIU's Disability Resource Center.

The prerequisites for this course are: PCB 3043, Ecology, and PCB 3063, Genetics, completed with a satisfactory grade (C or better).

This is an online course, which means most (if not all) of the course work will be conducted online. Expectations for performance in an online course are the same for a traditional course. In fact, online courses require a degree of self-motivation, self-discipline, and technology skills which can make these courses more demanding for some students.

Communication in this course will take place via Email.

The Email feature is an external communication tool that allows users to send emails to users enrolled within the course. Emails are sent to the students’ FIU email on record. The Email tool is located on the Course Menu, on the left side of the course webpage.

Office Hours: Mondays 11-3PM AHC1, Room 319C
I will be available for questions and help outside of office hours. However, if you need to meet outside office hours PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL IN ADVANCE TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT (I may be reached by phone or email. Please identify yourself by name as your e-mail name may not clearly identify who you are (I will not know who "#1Dolfan" is). Please include the following in the email subject:  "Evolution, (add your LAST NAME, FIRST NAME)".

Important announcements regarding the progress and organization of the course will be posted in Blackboard. This notifications will be sent to YOUR FIU EMAIL ACCOUNT associated with Blackboard. Please check regularly for important messages (in case you don't check your FIU email account that often, YOU MUST MAKE SURE that you have it linked to your main email account).

Please note that questions about exam content will NOT be answered on the day of the exam. Issues regarding the course will be DISCUSSED between the Professor and the student; third parties (such as relatives, spouses, friends, class-mates) CANNOT be involved in any discussions concerning any particular issue that the student may have during this course. These issues include but are not limited to grades, class performance, etc.

Keep in mind that your discussion forum postings will likely be seen by other members of the course. Care should be taken when determining what to post.

In order to mitigate any issues with your computer and online assessments, it is very important that you take the "Practice Quiz" from each computer you will be using to take your graded quizzes and exams. It is your responsibility to make sure your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements.

Assessments in this course are not compatible with mobile devices and should not be taken through a mobile phone or a tablet. If you need further assistance please contact FIU Online Support Services.

Test Banks
Self-evaluation tests with multiple choice questions (and their corresponding answers) will be available in Blackboard after each session (2 tests consisting of 5 questions/each per session). Results from these tests WILL NOT be taken into account for the final grade, on the contrary, these tests will give students a hint on which topics are more relevant, types of questions in the exams, etc.

Exams and Grades
There will be THREE exams (two miderm exams and a final exam). The exams will consist of 100 multiple choice test questions (only one correct answer possible). SOME OF THESE QUESTIONS (no more than 50%) will be extracted from the TEST BANKS, the rest of the exam will consist of questions that will be DIRECTLY related to the content in the online modules.

• Three exams (please check the course schedule below for due dates)
• Exams will be available on Thursday, start of day at 12:00am until Friday, end of day at 11:59pm (for the two full days of Thursday and Friday) of the week they are scheduled.
• Students will have 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete each exam.
• The Respondus LockDown Browser will be required in order to take the exams.

Exams will be graded on the basis of the number of correct answers). The FINAL GRADE will be the sum of the grades obtained in the MIDTERMS and the FINAL exams.

• Review the Respondus LockDown Browser Instructions on how to install, access your assessments and view your grades.

There will be four lab assignments:

• Finches and Evolution Lab
• Flowers and Trees Lab
• Mendelian Pigs Lab
• Genetic Drift and Bottlenecked Ferrets Lab

Please see course weekly schedule for due dates.