Prerequisites: Completion of BIOL 150 & 151 OR equivalent introductory biology OR consent of instructor.

Co-Requisites: 2-3 credits of independent study (e.g. ENT 394 or BIOL 394) with a faculty mentor. It is crucial that you find a research mentor who will help you with your individual research project as soon as possible. We will help pair students and mentors beginning in the first class and together we will all work together to develop an appropriate project that you will carry out throughout the semester. You will register for these additional credits after meeting with your mentor.

Meeting times: 1:00-2:40 Thursdays in 272 Hultz Hall

Textbook/manual (required): How to Do Ecology, by Karban and Huntzinger (ISBN-10: 0691125775, ISBN-13: 978-0691125770). This is a short and sweet little book that we'll read for a general overview. You will likely find yourself returning to specific sections throughout our course. Do not be fooled by the title, this book is broadly relevant to research in applied and basic biological sciences.

Bulletin description
A hands-on introduction to the entire scientific research process including developing a question, performing experiments, and presenting results. Students will learn how to do research and apply that knowledge to an independent research project they will conduct concurrently with a research mentor on campus.

Introduction to the course
The purpose of ENT 299 is to teach you how scientific information is generated by helping you complete a mentored research project of your own. On the first day of class we will help pair you with a research mentor on campus. These mentors will welcome you into their labs so that you can perform your own project during the course of the semester. They will only assist you in becoming familiar with a biological system and give you some ideas of what projects you could do in their lab; the project, however, is completely your responsibility to create, carry out, and communicate. During class meeting times, we will focus on helping each other have the best projects possible. This includes some lectures and activities related to the different steps of the research process, sharing the progress of your projects, and reporting on their completion. There are many aspects of the scientific process that are broadly applicable across all disciplines (scholarly reading, writing, public speaking, etc.), but since we are relying heavily on group interactions the topic of everyone's project should be relevant to the applied or basic biological sciences. That way everyone will have some level of common knowledge and expertise.

Course objectives
1. Most generally, you will learn how scientific research is performed and reported (i.e. think and act like a scientist).
2. Specifically, you will identify what makes a good, testable scientific question and be able to evaluate experiments to answer that question.
3. You will be able to describe data from experiments using qualitative and quantitative statistics.
4. You will be able to locate and evaluate relevant scholarly and popular sources of scientific information related to your research topic.
5. You will understand how the results of your own research project relate to previously collected scientific information and to larger scientific questions.
6. You will be able to effectively communicate your entire project including its basic question and its results in a variety of formats.
7. You will have fun as you discover the joy of research and being part of the scientific community.

Course grading:
This is not your usual course. It is designed to help you with an individual research project that is being conducted outside of class as opposed to teaching you specific information and testing your mastery of it. There are no quizzes or tests in this class; your mastery of the materials presented and discussed in the course will be demonstrated in the quality of your project and your presentation of its results. It will be critical to remember that science is a process without right or wrong answers and that many scientific investigations do not turn out the way we plan. The important thing is to learn how the process operates and to experience it for yourself. Your participation and effort in all the steps of process will ultimately be what determines your grade, not what happens in your experiments. To support your progress and improve the quality of your project there will be a number of small to medium assignments throughout the course (see schedule of events), but the majority of points for the class will come from the final presentations of your project which you will do as a written paper, oral communication, and a poster display.

In addition to the listed assignments, 30 points will be given at the end of the course based on your attendance and participation in class. Assignments will be marked down 10% per week until they are turned in. This does not include any oral presentations, the final individual project paper, or the poster presentation; these assignments will not be accepted late unless expressed consent has been received from the instructor before the assignment is due.

General Grading Breakdown (see class schedule for individual assignments)
Class Assignments/Activities; 60 Points (20% of final grade)
Project Progress (proposal, updates, etc.); 60 Points (20% of final grade)
Written Peer Reviews of Other Projects; 30 Points (10% of final grade)
Final Project (presentation, paper, etc.); 120 Points (40% of final grade)
Class Participation (attendance, engagement, etc.); 30 Points (10% of final grade)

As a starting point, I anticipate grading on the following scale:
A range > 87% of total possible points (261-300 points)
B range > 75% of total possible points (225-260 points)
C range > 65% of total possible points (195-224 points)
D range > 50% of total possible points (150-194 points)
If I revise this grading scale, it will only be in your favor.

Remember that this is only the grading for ENT 250. You will also receive a separate grade for the independent research you registered for. This grade will be given by your individual mentor. I strongly suggest you talk with your mentor about his/her specific expectations at the beginning of the semester. However, you can start with the general expectation that you will work at least 9 hours/week in the mentor's lab in exchange for the 3 credits of independent research.