Biology 307
FIELD SCHOOL!
2015
Welcome to the
St. Francis Xavier University
Biology Department's home page for FIELD SCHOOL, Biology 307.
Field School is a very popular intersession course offered May 3 - 16, 2015. A normal course spans 13 weeks; this course is 13 days. This means you will be doing a week's worth of work every day. No bones about it (ok, there may be some bones in the course...), this is an intense course. There are very few classes. You will have at least three field trips each week in which you will collect, measure and count organisms using a variety of methods. Assignments will be based on these outings and will form some of the method by which you'll be graded. Additionally, you will be required to write a formal report on some aspect of field school. The report's due date will be announced at the first meeting, but is normally set about two weeks after the last day of field school. |
You can register for the course on-line. CRN = 14020; note that you must have the proper prerequisites completed to register for the course. If you don't, an over-ride may be possible, depending on the circumstances.
This is a field course. An athletic physique is not required, but sadly, we cannot accommodate people with mobility restrictions. We do a lot of walking on trails, through streams and other non-paved areas.
View our promo presentation; this one is from a previous year, the instructors may be different this year.
Field books are available in the bookstore, which is not open on the
weekends, and we will be gone earlier than the bookstore's opening time on
Monday morning. See below for more details.
Prerequisites:
The departmental policy is that to take any 300-level course, you must
have the biology core of courses, i.e. 201, 202, 203 and 204. ISAR students can
also take this course. If you do
not have the entire core, talk to
Mr. R. Lauff. Required: A field notebook, available in the bookstore. Have this prior to the first evening. The cost varies from a few dollars to $20, depending on what makes you happy. The more expensive ones can be waterproof, and have numeric tables or graph pages in them. Think simply. However, a clipboard is not acceptable. Your field book should be able to fit into a large pocket. |
Location:
Based in Antigonish, with local field trips every day. Unless otherwise notified,
meet in room 228, 8:00 each day.
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Personnel and Topics - tentative!
Mark Pulsifer. My segment of field school will focus on applied ecological and technical techniques. Students will learn use of map and compass skills, GPS, and radio telemetry applications. Organisms of interest include Freshwater Mussels and Wood Turtles. | |
Randy Lauff. Entomology! The amazing diversity of bugs will be open to you to explore. We will investigate multiple methods for catching insects, as well as identifying them and analyzing the data. Almost every year, Field Biology students find insects of significance. Some have even been deposited at the Canadian National Collection, Ottawa. |
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Rain suit Including pants and a jacket are essential. Even if it doesn't rain while we're out, wet vegetation can drench your pants. The rain pants also act as great splash guards while we're on the coast. Rain suits come in different qualities, typically thicker is better for keeping you dry and warm (as a wind barrier), but thicker suits don't scrunch up as well in your day pack. Avoid the cheapest ones...many are designed so poorly as to be deemed "single use only".
Happy, DRY students (and therefore a happy instructor, too).
Hat The sun can be your friend or your enemy. A ball cap is minimum, but doesn't offer the all round protection that sun hats do. Cheap sun hats can be had for a few dollars; more durable ones will cost more.
Shirts Button shirts are more flexible than t-shirts. Most of my field shirts are from used clothing stores (a few bucks each) or from my father (I still get hand-me-downs). Shirts can have the sleeves rolled up or down, the buttons done up or not, and have a sometimes-critical pocket, all things t-shirts can't offer. I find them more comfortable overall.
Optional Stuff: We have compasses, but you may wish to use your own. A calculator will be useful. Chocolate cheesecake as gifts for your teachers never hurts. Cameras can be useful, binoculars are also handy. We no longer have a computer lab in the building; bringing your own laptop may be useful. We lock the lab when we're gone.
Safety Gear Although we will
always have first aid kits with us, you may want to bring a small kit as
well. At the very least, a few bandages and alcohol wipes should be tucked
in your daypack somewhere. Sunscreen could be useful, even in early May.
In 1999, we had temperatures in the high 20's which made for some discomfort
among participants. You may want to bring some insect repellent, biting
flies aren't usually too bad though (we have had years when black flies popped
out early).
Department of Biology St. Francis Xavier University Antigonish, NS Canada B2G 2W5 |