Course Requirements & Policies

Now you can recycle your paper syllabi. This post will be your reference for how I will assess your learning in this course.

Attendance & Participation (10%). This should be obvious: you should come to every class meeting (especially for a one-a-week class). After one missed class, each further unexcused absence will reduce your final grade by three percentage points; more than four unexcused absences will mean an automatic failure (you can’t miss a whole quarter of the course and expect to pass — this is not a “skills course”). If you must miss a class (and I’ll be the judge of ‘must’), you should contact me before the class in question (unless circumstances make this impossible for some strange reason — I’ll be the judge of ‘impossible’ as well); missed presentations will be scored a zero and will not be dropped (see below). Earning an ‘A’ for this section of the course will require being an involved and helpful participant (raising questions and engaging in the discussion without dominating it) in the vast majority of our meetings. Simply attending and at looking attentive will get you at most a ‘C’ for participation.

Weekly Assignments (15%). Each week, you will write one sheet in response to a question (or a series of questions) concerning the reading. These will be due at the beginning of class and be evaluated on a 0–4 scale (0=“not done”/“wildly insufficient”, 1=“needs improvement”, 2=“acceptable”, 3=“good”, 4=“excellent!”). While no extensions will be granted for any reason (“legitimate” or otherwise), I will drop your lowest three marks. At the end of the course, I will sum your remaining scores and curve the result so that an average of ‘3’ comes out to a B+.

Impromptu Presentations (20%). Unless you are giving a formal presentation in a certain class (see below), you will be on call to give a short, “impromptu” presentation on a topic of my choosing (generally selected from the study questions I make available on the website or from the weekly reaction paper topic). These will be random. I have a 20-sided die, you’ll each get a number. If your number gets rolled, you’ll speak to us for five or so minutes. I’ll let you punt twice (i.e., you can say, “um, I’d rather not do one of these now” without penalty — but only if you’re there to say it!). These will be scored on that 0–4 scale; I’ll drop the worst non-zero score, and average together the rest and curve the result around a B+.

Short Essay (15%). A short essay (1,500–2,000 words for undergraduates, 2,000–3,000 words for graduates) is due by March 11th at 3:30PM. I will not assign paper topics (though I can give you some suggestions if you’re stuck). Instead, I invite you to write on (subject to my approval) whatever you’re finding most interesting in the course and turn it in whenever you have the opportunity. What’s more, you may submit multiple essays (up to one per week, including at most one rewrite of the same essay) and only your best will count toward this grade category. Since you have all the time in the world to adjust your schedules, late essays will be dealt with rather harshly: late essays will be docked five percentage points per partial day late — e.g., you get a 82% on an essay submitted one hour late; it receives a 77%).

Formal Presentation (10%) & Response (5%). Toward the second half of the term, we will start doing formal in-class presentations of the sort that one would see in a professional academic conference. You will be presenting an original research paper on a topic in the neighborhood of the topic scheduled for class that day. These presentations will run from 10–15 minutes and will be based on a 1,500–2,000 word essay. Each presentation will be assigned a commentator who will offer a five minute commentary after which the speaker will be permitted a brief reply. At this point, we will open up the discussion to the group. You should start thinking early about when you’d like to present and when you’d be willing to comment. Commentators and I should receive the paper by the weekend before the presentation is scheduled.

Final Essay (25%). Your final essay (2,000–3,000 words for undergraduates, 3,000–5,000 words for graduates) will be based on your presentation and should incorporate the feedback you receive on that occasion. These will be due by May 11th at 3:30PM.

I have high expectations of you: that you read everything carefully, that you actively engage with the discussion, that you stringently observe a no-bullshit-policy, and that you complete work on time. But you should have high expectations of me as well. I am very often available outside of class to help you understand course material. I’m happy to read drafts, discuss questions/issues, and help you sort out your thoughts as best I can. If I’m in my office and distractable (as I often am), I’ll try to set my IM status to “Available” (my IM handle is ‘mslater@uidaho.edu’)

Texts:
Sober (Ed.), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, 3rd Ed. (MIT, 2006)
Lewontin, The Triple Helix (Harvard, 2000)

Other articles provided in PDF format on the Blackboard website.
The interests of trees and our learning sometimes conflict. Please do what you can to minimize paper waste (use recycled paper, reclaimed paper, &c.; printing the articles two-up, double-sided in Acrobat is usually possible), but please bring copies of the relevant articles to our meetings (on a laptop is fine), as we will often need to read them closely together.

Optional Text: Griffiths and Sterelny, Sex and Death (UChicago, 1999)
This book (referred to as ‘S&D’ in the schedule) is a fairly comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of biology. Several of its chapters provide useful background to the issues we’ll be dealing with; many chapters take on different topics that we won’t get to. If you’re interested in reading more in the philosophy of biology, it’s a great book to have on your shelf.