Courses Taught
THE LIVING WORLD (BIOL 1001): A non-majors’ course covering basic scientific and
biological principles with an emphasis on the structure and processes of organisms. The
course also includes a survey of the major types of living organisms.
PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY II (BIOL 1022): A majors’ course dealing with natural
selection, population genetics, speciation, adaptation, phylogeny, co-evolution,
extinction, ecological interactions, human evolution and its ecological impact.
PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY II LABORATORY (BIOL 1023): A laboratory designed to
accompany Biology 1022.
ECONOMIC BOTANY (BIOL 2050): The history and applied uses of plants as food, fibers, lumber, drugs, and related commodities.
ECOLOGICAL METHODS (BIOL 4004): I have revised this course, incorporating recent
advents in the subject, including a general understanding of the computational/modelling
aspects in ecology.
PLANT COMMUNITY ECOLOGY (BIOL 4044): This course essentially deals with the
study of plant populations and communities and their habitat with emphasis on the
communities of the south central US. I will be creating a special section in the syllabus
that talks about the importance of wetland plant communities and their importance in
maintaining the high-level of biodiversity seen in the south western US.
ECOSYSTEM AND COMMUNITIES (BIOL 4113): This is a university capstone course. I have developed this course and am teaching it once every two years (Spring 2010 and Spring 2012). The major emphasis of this course is to tie the concepts of human mediated ecosystem changes globally.
RESEARCH METHODS (BIOL 5005): Principles underlying biological research. Emphasis on the scientific method, statistical analysis and their application in biological investigation. Prerequisite: Credit or registration in 5006
GRADUATE SEMINAR (BIOL 5007): I redesigned this course as a two-part process.
During the first part, students make a speech presentation on a topic of their choice and are peer
evaluated. In the second part, they are required to talk on a topic relevant to general
biology. Students were also asked to critique two scientific papers.
PLANT SYSTEMATICS (BIOL 5034): I developed and taught this course in the Fall of
2008. The main components of taxonomy: description, identification, nomenclature,
and classification were discussed, including in-depth evaluation of 10 plant orders.
