BIOL 2005 - Doing Science: The Biology of Variation

An introduction to biology through the practice of research in quantitative genetics. Working in small teams, students will study continuously varying traits of many kinds in natural populations of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and experimental populations of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana). How do such traits vary, and how do genetic and environmental factors contribute to this variation? Each team will design its own programs of data collection, analyze its data using the statistical computing language R, and report its finds in writing and in verbal presentations to the whole class. By engaging both in the social and the technical aspects of scientific practice, students will prepare themselves to learn more easily and more deeply from their subsequent courses.