FRS 004 — Sec. 009 — (2 units) — CRN 73093 — F 3:10-5:00 pm — 2403 Storer
Intellectual Quiz

Instructor: Sergey Nuzhdin, Department of Evolution & Ecology, College of Biological Sciences

Description: The goal of the class will be to enable students to ask biologically driven questions, explore available information to answer them, and convince each other in question’s validity. We want students to actively explore their curiosity about the world and its apparently complex patterns. The questions volunteered by students might initially be very simple, focusing on ecological and evolutionary situations relevant to our daily lives. Why do men generally prefer to drive “power” cars? Why do women seem to take fewer risks? Why did yeast evolve the ability to ferment sugar to alcohol? Has this ability co-evolved with humans? We will draw students in by beginning with questions that they choose, regardless of whether or not they fit within the realm of our professional experience. As the questions become more complex, we will lead students through an exploration, directing them towards relevant literature.

Format: The seminar will meet for two hours each week for ten weeks. The scheme of instructor-student interactions will vary between weeks. The first week, students will have the opportunity to independently think about and research questions they find intriguing. They will then introduce these ideas to one another in a “speed brainstorming” session. This session will function not only to circulate ideas, but also to promote an open atmosphere of inquiry in the classroom. The next week, students will be paired up for a deeper exchange of ideas. Pairs will research topics of interest with each individual working to refine their ideas and convince the other that his or her research question is worth investigating. The third week, the pair must eventually converge on a single question they deem to be most exciting. The following weeks, pairs will come together to form foursomes and the same processes of research, discussion, refinement and consensus will be repeated in this larger group. Once the group has converged on a question they must work to convince the class as a whole that their question represents an exciting avenue of potential research. They will do so by working together to prepare a presentation to their classmates who will then rank their support for each proposed question. Grading: We will evaluate contribution and intellectual involvement of individual students with topic quizzes. As an added incentive, at each stage a student can gain points toward their grade if their ideas are chosen to be explored by students for further group work. The class will be graded as P/F.

About the Instructor: The class will be co-taught by Sergey Nuzhdin – Prof. of Evolution and Ecology and Julia Svoboda – a Graduate Student specializing in education technology. Sergey’s program is broad and includes population and quantitative genetics, genomics, and systems biology. He has taught large upper division Evolution classes, and small classes in Molecular Evolution and Quantitative Genetics for graduate and undergraduate students.