Darwin & Dinosaurs

Joann Hochstein
,
hochstej@cf.edu

Central FLorida Community College
a
Two Year College
.

Summary

non-major general science

Course URL:
Course Size:

31-70

Course Context:

This ia an introductory course no pre-requisites and does not serve as a prerequiste for other courses. 100% of the students take this course to meet their biologica/physical science requirements.

Course Goals:

Students should be able to:
1. Expalin how scientific information is obtained and how the scientific process works, and distinguish among hypotheses, theories, and laws.
2. Evaluate Darwins observations and link them to his theory of evolution
3. Analyze a simple cladogram
4. Evaluate various fossils & sedimentary rocks determine how they formed and make intpretations about the paleoenvironment
5. Analysize radiometric data and calcute absolute dates
6. Interpret the relative geologic ages from a sequence of rocks
7.Interpret evidence for the evolution of dinosaurs.
8. Synthesize information about anatomy of dinosaurs and biomechanics, eating habits, and etc.
9. predict the location of the continents throughout the mesozoic given a starting and end point and plate tectonic rates
10. Evalute the theories of thermoregualtion of dinosaurs
11.Evalute the theories of bird evolution and formulate new questions
12.Analyze the information on the extinction of dinosaurs and determine a hypothesis


How course activities and course structure help students achieve these goals:

The general goal of this course is to make students aware of the various groups of dinosaurs and their evolutionary success. Other goals are to dispel some misconcewptions about dinosaurs and introduce students to current theories of dinosaur plaeontology. Throughout the course, activies specific to some of the goals listed above are completed in class. Also I use einstruction remotes during lectures. Every lecture has embedded concept questions that are asked throughout the lecture.

Assessment

Use of inlcass questions with einstruction clicker remotes. In class activities and 5 multiple choice exams taken on the einstruction remotes.

Syllabus:

Darwin & Dinosaurs Syllabus Summer B (Acrobat (PDF) 348kB Jun4 09)