Dear EEB folks,
I've been meaning to draw your attention to a Modeling course I am teaching next term. A summary of the course is below, and I have attached a draft of the syllabus. Please e-mail me if you have any questions about the class, or just to let me know that you are thinking about taking it. You are also welcome to stop by to take a look at the textbook.
If you are interested, please sign up ASAP, as the course is limited to 20, and there are already several undergrads and a few grads signed up.
I am really looking forward to teaching the class again. Last year, it was so exciting seeing students apply the skills they had gained in their modeling projects at the end of the term, and they all seemed quite excited about it too!
There will be a few differences over last year's course. A key one is that there will be separate lab sessions to give more time for practice problems, so that homework assignments are easier for students to tackle.
Annette
______________________________
Annette Ostling
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Michigan
University of Michigan
EEB 401: Modeling for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Winter 2013
Course meeting time and place:
Lecture: T 10am – 12pm, 2135 NQ
Lab: Th 10am-12pm, 2135 NQ
Course Motivation and Overall Goals:
The ability to translate between qualitative hypotheses and their more exact expression in the form of mathematical equations, and to analyze these equations to determine behavior under those hypotheses, are becoming essential skills for all biologists. Biology students do not always have the time to take the multitude of math courses needed to gain modeling skills, and there is value to learning at least basic modeling skills directly in the context motivating the biology student. The key goals of this course are to teach students how to
1) understand and develop basic mathematical models of ecological and evolutionary phenomena, and
2) analyze those mathematical models using a combination of “pencil and paper” and computational approaches.
The course will assume only a background in calculus and at least one advanced class in ecology and evolutionary biology or related fields.
Winter 2013
Course meeting time and place:
Lecture: T 10am – 12pm, 2135 NQ
Lab: Th 10am-12pm, 2135 NQ
Course Motivation and Overall Goals:
The ability to translate between qualitative hypotheses and their more exact expression in the form of mathematical equations, and to analyze these equations to determine behavior under those hypotheses, are becoming essential skills for all biologists. Biology students do not always have the time to take the multitude of math courses needed to gain modeling skills, and there is value to learning at least basic modeling skills directly in the context motivating the biology student. The key goals of this course are to teach students how to
1) understand and develop basic mathematical models of ecological and evolutionary phenomena, and
2) analyze those mathematical models using a combination of “pencil and paper” and computational approaches.
The course will assume only a background in calculus and at least one advanced class in ecology and evolutionary biology or related fields.
More specifically, the course will teach students to read, derive and analyze simple continuous and discrete time models of biological systems (especially ordinary differential equations and simple recursion relations), and help students gain a basic understanding of assumptions behind some more complex model formulations. It will focus on models that encapsulate central concepts in ecology and evolutionary biology, in particular models of the ecological dynamics of single and interacting populations, models of mass balance and resource uptake in ecosystems, and models of natural selection and genetic drift. The course cannot cover all of these topics in ecology and evolutionary biology in depth, but instead will draw from this range of topics in selecting simple example models to work through, letting the interests of student's registered in a given year help guide selection of some of the models. In addition, the course will teach students some basic skills in Mathematica for analyzing and simulating the models discussed in the class. It will also supply information on how to simulate the models using R, but the use of R will be optional.
Textbooks/Software:
1) Otto, SP and Day, T “A Biologist’s Guide to Mathematical Modeling” (Required)
2) Student version of Mathematica (Required—we’ll be using during class on your laptops, available at Computer Showcase, but wait until January to buy because I am trying to work out a deal)
3) R, freely available for download. (Optional)
Audience: Advanced
Textbooks/Software:
1) Otto, SP and Day, T “A Biologist’s Guide to Mathematical Modeling” (Required)
2) Student version of Mathematica (Required—we’ll be using during class on your laptops, available at Computer Showcase, but wait until January to buy because I am trying to work out a deal)
3) R, freely available for download. (Optional)
Audience: Advanced
