Ecological genetics lies at the interface of ecology, evolution, and genetics. This discipline concerns the genetics of ecologically important traits (those traits that relate to fitness and adaptation) and primarily focuses on phenotypic variation and evolution. This course will provide a foundation for how and why traits such as cryptic coloration in butterflies persist and what variations in mice populations allow some individuals to survive the winter.

This fermentation science course is designed to familiarize students with the current topics and procedures in brewing science. This upper-level course requires previous course and laboratory work in chemistry and microbiology. The course will focus on the study of the fundamental and applied sciences related to the use of microorganisms as production and processing agents. Specifically, we will examine the technological and biochemical aspects of the brewing process, including raw materials, malting, mashing, fermentation and maturation.

Rivers and streams wind through the landscape moving water, sediment and other materials and provide habitat for a variety of organisms. In this class we will discuss the main processes that occur in rivers and the means for observing them. We will learn to interpret the morphology (shape) of rivers and fluvial landscapes. We will use both field measurements (i.e., get our feet wet in the stream) and computer models to analyze local river systems from both a hydrological and ecological perspective.

This course will be an introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics, with examples drawn from the fields of ecology, agriculture, public health, and clinical medicine. The approach will mainly be applied and hands-on; students will complete a workbook of statistical problems, collect and analyze data as a class, design and carry out small individual projects, do weekly problem sets plus revisions, and read and interpret data from the literature. We will learn to use common computer packages for statistical analysis: Excel and Minitab.

The function of the brain can hardly be examined without considering the influence of the endocrine system. The social, nutritional and sensory environment of an organism can dramatically affect the expression of specific hormones. Those hormones, in turn, can determine the development, degree of plasticity and output of the nervous system. Thus, the behavior an organism can have is sometimes determined by the endocrine constraints on the nervous system.

Are we what we eat? We eat foods for social and cultural reasons, and we eat foods because they contain nutrients that fuel our cells and allow us to function -- grow, think, and live. The quest for food is a major evolutionary theme and continues to profoundly shape ecological, social, and human biological systems.

Not long ago, in the mid-1800s, the landscape of New England was primarily rolling farmland. Stands of trees covered less than 20% of Massachusetts. Now the reverse is true, and over 80% of the land is covered with young woods. The same kinds of trees are back, but the forests are substantially different and the impacts of human activity remain. Yet hidden within our second and third growth forests are patches of trees that were never clear-cut and in some cases were not cut at all.

The science of Ecology investigates the distribution and abundance of organisms and their interactions with biotic and abiotic environments. This course will serve as an introduction to major areas of ecological study: population, community, and ecosystem ecology. Topics will include how populations are distributed in and limited by their environments, how organisms interact, how niches are determined, how ecosystems are structured, and how energy and nutrients flow through the biotic environment. A basic text in ecology as well as primary literature will guide lectures and discussions.

The beginning of a three-semester sequence in Physics, this course will concentrate mainly on mechanics with applications to astronomy. Topics will include kinematics and dynamics in one and two dimensions, planetary motion, conservation of energy and momentum, rigid bodies and rotation, and relativity. The course is calculus-based and makes heavy use of computer modeling to develop realistic examples. It is highly recommended that students take calculus in the same semester that they begin this course. Weekly laboratory/field work is required. The labs are grouped into three major projects.

In this course we will learn the fundamental chemical concepts of composition and stoichiometry, properties of matter, the gas laws, atomic structure, bonding and molecular structure, chemical reactions, and energy changes in chemical reactions. Considerable time will be devoted to learning the use of the periodic table as a way of predicting the chemical properties of elements. We will also emphasize application of those chemical principles to environmental, biological, industrial and day-to-day life situations.