Teaching

Online course content is available on Moodle to registered students.

In addition to the courses listed below, I also supervise Applied Studies (Biology 2890, 3890, 4890), Independent Studies (Biology 1990, 2990, 3990, 4990), Undergraduate Theses (Biology 4995), Research Intership Concentration (RIC), and graduate students. Please see the Join us! tab for details for potential research students.

The following is a list of all the courses I have taught at the University of Lethbridge:

Biology 1020 - Diversity of Life - Comparative examination of the major lineages of eukaryotic organisms from an evolutionary perspective.

Biology 2150 - Biostatistics - Introduction to statistics and experimental design in the biological sciences. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualization, experimental design, goodness-of-fit tests, contingency analysis, two-sample and multi-sample comparisons, correlation, and regression. Includes practical instruction using the statistics program R.

Biology 3710 - Population Biology - Introduction to population biology, focusing on population genetics (covering genotype and allele frequencies, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, selection, and quantitative genetics) and population ecology (covering density-independent and -dependent population growth, population regulation, demography and life tables, life-history evolution, and species interactions).

Biology 3810 - Experimental Design and Analysis - Introduction to statistics and experimental design in the biological sciences. Topics covered include descriptive statistics, data visualization, experimental design, goodness-of-fit tests, contingency analysis, two-sample and multi-sample comparisons, correlation, and regression.  The course includes practical instruction using the statistics program R. This course is no longer offered, having been replaced with Biology 2150 and Biology 4810.

Biology 4710 - Evolutionary and Ecological Modelling - Introduction to analytical and simulation modeling in ecology and evolution. This course is at least as much about learning to understand published models, and common techniques in modeling, as it is about the underlying biology. Topics will include: population growth, selection, models of disease, the evolution of cooperation, and the evolution of aging, among others. The course is composed of complementary lectures and labs. In the lectures we will discuss modelling techniques and previously published models.  The lab will typically involve a short period of instruction followed by hands-on practice building and analyzing simple biologically inspired models using Microsoft Excel and Matlab.

Biology 4850 - Advanced Biostatistics - Advanced statistics and experimental design in the biological sciences. Topics covered include probability theory, the theoretical foundations and applications of general linear models and generalized linear models, model selection, survival analysis, and other advanced topics. The course includes practical instruction using the statistics program R.

Biology 5500/7500 - Graduate Seminar Series: Current Topics in Biological Sciences - A scientific literature-based course in which students will critically examine recent developments in a range of biological sciences, including cellular/molecular biology, organismal biology, and evolution/ecology. Seminar-style format including oral presentations, group discussions of assigned readings and scientific writing.