Esteban Fernández-Juricic

GRADES

Meeting point: Language Arts Building, room 126 (LAB - 126)

Meeting time: Mondays 3:00-4:50 PM.

Course Website (please, bookmark it): http://www.csulb.edu/~efernand/visualecol/

Instructor: Esteban Fernández-Juricic

Phone: 562-985-7597 (but you can reach me faster by e-mail)

E-mail: efernand@csulb.edu

Instructor's website: http://www.csulb.edu/~efernand/

Office: PH1-226

Office hours: Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 PM.

Seminar goals and description:

The goals of this seminar are (a) to learn basic concepts on visual physiology, (b) to understand how animals use their peripheral visual system to gather information relevant to fitness, and (c) to analyze how different types of eyes have evolved in relation to environmental conditions.

Students will be required to critically read several scientific papers related to visual ecology, and present their main results orally. Students will also be encouraged to discuss the experimental design of these papers and come up with new ideas for the field. 

 

My expectations of students:

• attend classes consistently,
• be prepared for class meetings (read the papers that are assigned for each class),
• participate actively in class discussions and group activities,
• be respectful of your peers (including myself), and
• take advantage of this course as an opportunity to learn and think!

What students can expect from the Instructor:

• strive to create a positive learning environment in the classroom,
• encourage you to be actively engaged in your learning,
• bring enthusiasm about visual ecology,
• be respectful and supportive,
• try to challenge you in positive and constructive ways to improve your learning experience, and
• show up to each class on time and well-prepared. 

Evaluation:

1- Attendance to classes (20 points)

2- Questions/topics for discussion (20 points)

3- Involvement in class discussions (80 points)

4- Random dataset preparation (20 points)

5- Random class assignments (20 points)

5- Leading discussions (100 points)

6- Picking papers (10 points)

TOTAL: 270 points.

Grading system:

Slight adjustments may be made at the end of the semester according to the class curve.

Absences

Excused absences include: (a) illness or injury to the student, (b) death, injury, or serious illness of an immediate family member, (c) religious reasons, (d) jury duty or government obligation, and (e) University sanctioned or approved activities. The instructor should be informed about excused absences within 48 hours.

For more information, please read the CSULB attendance policy carefully at: http.://www.csulb.edu/~senate/Policies/01-01.html 

Make up exams

Make-up exams will ONLY be allowed for justified absences. I must be informed within 24 hours of missing the exam due date. Make-up exams may be oral exams.

Late work

Students will be penalized for late work by deducting 7% per day of the total point load of that activity for three days. Afterwards, the work will not be graded, and students will not earn credits for that activity (= 0 points).  

Policy on Withdrawals

It is the student’s responsibility to withdraw from classes.  Instructors have no obligation to withdraw students who do not attend courses, and may choose not to do so. 

Accommodation

It is the student’s responsibility to notify the instructor in advance of the need for accommodation of a disability.

Cheating and Plagiarism 

Written work that you hand in is assumed to be original unless your source material is documented appropriately. Using the ideas or words of another person, even a peer, or a web site, as if it were your own, is plagiarism.

Cheating and plagiarism are serious academic offenses. Students should read the section on cheating and plagiarism in the CSULB catalog.  

Furthermore, students should be aware that Faculty members have a range of academic actions available to them in cases of cheating and plagiarism from arranging a conference, to failing a student on that particular work, to failing a student in a course, to referring the case to judicial affairs.

Regular instructor-student communication out of class: Announcements and messages to the class may come by e-mail through BeachBoard. If you do not check your CSULB e-mail account regularly, but use another account instead, please set your CSULB account so that it will forward messages to your other account.

Computer Help! The CSULB Technology Help Desk is now available for students. You may check the Help Desk at: http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/academic_technology/thd/ or call 985-4959.

Theoretical framework:

There are many books out there on animal vision. This is my recommendation if you would like to buy one, but this book is NOT required for this seminar:

Land, M.F. & D.-E. Nilsson. 2002. Animal Eyes. Oxford Animal Biology Series, Oxford University Press.

General Guidelines:

1- The reading material will be available for you to photocopy from the Bookstore or to download from this website. I will let you know in advance.

2- I will choose the reading material for the classes to make sure that most of the relevant topics are covered. However, I will be happy to accept suggestions.

3- EVERYBODY is expected to read ALL the papers and participate in ALL the discussions. Please, notice that a big portion of the grade is for discussions.

Questions/topics for discussion

Each week, you will be expected to hand a bulleted outline of three critical questions or topics for discussion in class based on the articles assigned for that class. This assignment is due at the beginning of the discussion section of each class. These questions may focus on the rationale of the paper, analyses used, assumptions made, limitations of the study, appropriateness of conclusions, etc. 

Random dataset preparation

As part of your paper presentation, you will be expected to come up with a random dataset based on the experimental design described in the paper. You can produce this in Excel, print it out, and turn it in at the end of the class you are presenting.

Random class assignments

To be announced by the Instructor.

Picking papers

Your peers and I will grade you on your ability to select good papers for discussion. In other words, papers that will allow you to answer the questions posed in the Reading papers and Leading discussions sections below. If you have questions while picking your papers, please, do not hesitate to ask the Instructor, who could help you in the process.

Reading papers

While reading papers for class discussions or presentations, focus on how the paper solves a problem / answers a question / tests a hypothesis.  

General assessment of a paper:

• Identify the novelty of the paper.

• Identify the hypothesis/es and prediction/s.

• Identify a flaw in its design or in the analyses or in the interpretation of data.

• Identify the relevance of the study to other areas.

 Some specific questions you are expected to ask/answer:

Leading discussions

Once you have presented your paper/s, you are expected to lead the discussion until the end of the class. I strongly encourage you to read any of these excellent guides to lead discussions:

http://www.hrea.org/pubs/tips-discussion.html

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/leaddisc.htm

http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/~parashar/Classes/04-05/ece572/lead.html

Assessment criteria for leading discussions

I will assess whether or not you (a) encourage questions from all students, (b) facilitate the discussion of questions with the rest of the class (encourage participation), (c) come up with novel questions to maintain the class interested, (d) integrate the concepts from the different papers (synthesis), and (e) establish take-home messages from the discussion. 

Assessment criteria for your involvement in the class discussions

In class, you are expected to ask (at least) one well-thought question relative to the paper and to make (at least) one well-thought comment about the paper.

Selection of papers (primary literature)

You should select papers from primary literature (try to balance classic and recent papers). Many journals include ecological articles. You can search for these papers in databases (MY RECOMMENDATION: Web of Science).

IMPORTANT: If you do not find a copy of a paper at the Library, you could request it from the Library (free service for CSULB students, but it takes about 10 days to get the papers) or directly from the author through e-mail (stop by my office, and I will explain how to do it). 

Spring 2008: Class schedule

Please, note that occasionally adjustments in the course schedule or the course assignments may be necessary. Students will be notified about changes, if any, and, whenever possible, students will be consulted in advance about any changes.