Archived Site | NEW SITE: wyethlab.ca


At StFX: Diversity of Life | Invertebrate Zoology | Animal Behaviour
Elsewhere: Marine Invertebrate Zoology | Neuroethology of Marine Invertebrates

Courses at StFX

Biology 112: Diversity of Life

Taught: Winter Term
Description: This course emphasizes the interrelationships of living systems and their roles in the global ecosystem.  Students explore evolution and the origins of life, organismic diversity, adaptations, and ecology.  Human interactions with the diversity of life are considered throughout the course. Basic skills that underpin success as an undergraduate student are also emphasized. Required for all students continuing in biology, but also designed for non-biologists. Three credits and lab.

Biology 342: Invertebrate Zoology

Taught: Fall Term
Description: A comparative study of the diversity of invertebrate animals and their adaptations, including their morphology, behaviour, physiology, ecology and evolution.  Students will learn in both lecture and lab the remarkable diversity of both form and function in these animals.  At the same time, students will be taught how to refine their powers of observation, improve their ability to ask and answer critical questions about organisms, and design experiments that will lead to further insight into invertebrate zoology. Prerequisite: BIOL 201. Three credits and lab.

Biology 385: Animal Behaviour

Taught: Fall Term
Description: An introduction to the principles of ethology drawing on examples from all animal phyla, with an emphasis on vertebrates. Students learn both the physiological and evolutionary bases of behaviour. Topics covered span simple reflexes through complex social behaviours, including survival, predation, habitat selection, communication, and mating behaviours. Participation in field trips is required. Prerequisite: BIOL 201 or PSYC 230. Three credits and lab.

Courses Elsewhere

Marine Invertebrate Zoology

Co-taught at Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre with Dr. Marjorie Wonham
Taught: Summers 2006, 2007.
Offered every summer (Dr. Wyeth will not be instructing, but it's still worth taking!)
Description: We will survey 20+ phyla of marine invertebrates, with a natural historical focus. The course will be organized around a suite of field trips, taking advantage of the fantastic diversity of organisms and habitats available near Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. We will explore the ecology, behaviours and functional morphology of the animals in their natural habitat. Laboratories will allow greater exploration of the amazing adaptations these animals have evolved. The focus will be on intertidal communities, but subtidal organisms will also be covered. The course design is deliberately modular, allowing the students and their observations to guide the path of instruction. Independent projects will provide an opportunity for students to experience the full scientific method first hand: observing nature, posing biological questions, formulating hypotheses, designing experiments, testing the hypotheses, and synthesizing conclusions with existing knowledge. Six credits.

Neuroethology of Marine Invertebrates

Potentially Taught at Friday Harbor Laboratories or Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre
Description: Neuroethology is an integrative approach to understanding the neural control of behaviour by studying environmental stimuli, sensory systems, nervous system structure and function, motor systems, and behaviour.  This course will (in 3 short weeks) provide an introduction to invertebrate neuroethology and some of the neurobiological and behavioural methods used by researchers.  Lectures topics will cover neural conduction, synaptic transmission, neural circuitry, sensory and motor systems, and behaviour.   The bulk of the class will be in the laboratory, working with marine invertebrates to learn several techniques: behavioural analysis, neuroanatomy (microscopy), extracellular recordings and intracellular recordings.   Students, whether senior undergraduates or beginning graduates, will gain both knowledge and technical expertise useful to pursuing their own neuroethological research questions.  Prerequisite: animal physiology or neurobiology or permission of the instructors. Three credits.