Molecular ecology utilizes the spatial and temporal distribution of molecular genetic markers to ask questions about the ecology, evolution, behavior, and conservation of organisms. This science may utilize genetic variation to understand individuals, populations, and species as a whole ("How does habitat fragmentation affect connectedness among populations?" "From where do particular groups originate?").

Microorganisms are ubiquitous components of food from farm to fork. As public interest in probiotics and fermented foods grows, as well as concerns over food safety and quality mount, the potential effects of food microbiology on human health and wellbeing are profound. Ensuring the future of food safety and quality will require critical thinking, innovative research approaches, and healthy skepticism.

In this laboratory-based microbiology course students will develop the skills necessary to conduct a meaningful research project from start to finish. Students will gain hands-on experience with media formulation, culturing techniques, and phylogenetic analysis. In the process, students will discover a vast microbial community and possibly previously unknown species.

This course is an introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics with examples drawn primarily from the fields of medicine, public health, and ecology. The approach is applied and hands-on; students are expected to complete two problem sets each week, collect and analyze data as a class, and design and carry out their own examples of each analysis in four review exercises. We cover description, estimation and hypothesis testing (z-scores, t-tests, chi-square, correlation, regression, and analysis of variance).

Biochemistry is the study of the molecules and chemical reactions of life. Considering the vast diversity of living organisms, one might also expect them to be composed of significantly different biomolecules, and to use unique mechanisms for obtaining energy and communicating different biological information. To the contrary, the principles and language of biochemistry are common to all life: in general, the same chemical compounds and the same metabolic processes found in bacteria exist in organisms as distantly related as whales.

The structures and processes inside human cells determine how we function (or dysfunction) in the world, and yet they were only discovered in the last few hundred years. We will discover what is known about how they work through primary literature, group work, and laboratory exercises. We will also discuss what is still not known and how scientists work to find the answers. This course is designed with an active learning approach, so students should come prepared to learn a lot of the content through independent activities rather than lectures or textbooks.

With humans as our primary model system, we will cover cellular and general tissue physiology and the endocrine, nervous, muscular, cardiovascular, reproductive, respiratory, and renal organ systems. Primary emphasis is on functional processes in these systems. A focus will be on cellular and molecular mechanisms common across systems. Students will engage in class problems, lectures, and reading of textbook literature. Basic knowledge of and comfort with biology, chemistry and math is necessary.

This course will explore the bridge between music and ecology drawing from the fields of ecological sound art, eco-musicology, acoustic ecology and soundscape ecology. Using primary literature, mixed media and deep listening, we will address the ways that sound functions in the ecological environment, and the ways sound and music can be used to represent ecological and conservation issues.

This course is an introduction to the structure, properties, reactivity, and spectroscopy of organic molecules, as well as their significance in our daily lives. We will first lay down the groundwork for the course, covering bonding, physical properties of organic compounds, stereochemistry, and kinetics and thermodynamics of organic reactions. We will then move on to the reactions of alkanes, alkyl halides, alcohols and ethers, alkenes, and alkynes, emphasizing the molecular mechanisms that allow us to predict and understand chemical behavior.

Fundamental forces of electricity and magnetism govern the interactions of atoms and molecules, and consequently most of macroscopic processes, from biological to astrophysical. Practical applications of electromagnetic theory include electric motors, generators, communication systems, telescopes, and medical diagnostic tools, such as EKG and MRI. Physics II is a calculus-based introductory course on electromagnetic theory and covers topics such as electromagnetic induction, electric circuits, and basic optics, both physical and geometric.