GEL335/BIO335 Extinction

Lecture: TR 1:30 - 2:45 Room 117 Hudson Hall

Instructor: Dr. Tom Wolosz

Office: Rm 118 Hudson/323 Hudson

Phone: 564-4031 or 3157 E-mail: thomas.wolosz@plattsburgh.edu

Office Hours: W 9 – 12 or by appointment.

WEB PAGE: /faculty.plattsburgh.edu/thomas.wolosz

Text: Raup, David M., 1991, Extinction, Bad Genes or Bad Luck?, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 210p.

Class Notes: Class notes are available for downloading from the Extinction Web Page.

<Extinction Notes Directory>

Attendance Policy: Students are expected to attend all lectures and are responsible for all material covered in class. It is the responsibility of the student to make up any material missed due to absence.

Exams and Grading: The final grade for the course will be based on 2 exams, a term paper, 4 short essays, and a class presentation. Please note that the deadlines listed below are absolute.

Exams: The midterm (October 9^th) and the final exam (week of December 8^th, exact date TBA) will each count for 20%.

Term paper: The term paper will count for 40% of the final grade. The term paper will be based on a minimum of six (6) PRINT ARTICLES plus other sources - term papers based entirely on internet sources are NOT ACCEPTABLE. The term paper will be submitted in three (3) drafts with the following schedule: topic submitted (September 4^th), draft 1 (October 2^th), draft 2 (October 30^th), draft 3 (November 18^th). Each draft will be returned to the student with an Informational Grade Comment Sheet (see attached) with suggestions for improvement and an Informational Grade (i.e., if this were the final draft, your grade would be). Only the grade on the final draft will be counted. NOTE: Failure to submit a draft, or simply resubmitting a prior draft with no improvements or corrections will result in a loss of 13% of grade. Plagiarism will result in a 0 for the term paper.

Short essays: These will count for a total of 10% and will be assigned randomly throughout the semester.

Class presentation: The class presentation will be based on the term paper and count for 10% of the final grade. The student is expected to present the findings of their paper and to respond to questions posed by the other students in the class. Students whose term papers share common themes may wish to work together to present a group discussion. Class presentations will be held on November 20^th and 25^th and December 2^nd and 4^th.