ZOOL 4023 – Biodiversity Collections Research

Spring 2007

GARETH DYKE, JULIA SIGWART and NIGEL MONAGHAN

Introduction

Every scientist who studies living organisms will at some point interact with archive collections. This course offers hands-on experience in zoological collections of fossil and recent material, in collaboration with research staff of the National Museum of Ireland, Division of Natural History (NMINH). You can refer to the project website (http://www.ucd.ie/zoology/museum/) for more information about this collaboration. The course will provide an opportunity to become familiar with the taxonomy and diversity of a particular group of animals from an archival point-of-view. Topics covered will include biodiversity from an historical perspective; taxonomy; aspects of long-term specimen care; modern methods and techniques in specimen collection and preparation; and practical experience in specimen handling, identification and curation. Above all this course aims to teach students effective research skills in using the resources available in natural history collections.

There will be no formal written examination for this unit. Because there is no examination, the course will run for seven (7) weeks including a series of ten (10) lectures as well as four (4) workshops and assigned library time. There are a total of 22 hours of schedule course time, including 4 hours of assigned library time. Workshops focus on the development of an intensive short research project based in UCD lab space in the scientific collections of NMINH. Attendance at workshops, as with practicals in earlier years, is mandatory and will impact your mark.

Attendance at lectures will be monitored, and part of your mark is based on attendance and participation. You will also demonstrate your productive use of assigned reading/ library time through the work of your assignments. There is no textbook for this course, but reference materials are available from the instructors and (at your initiative) from the UCD library.

Assignments are always due on the Sunday after they are assigned (i.e. you can submit them over the weekend). Assignments must be submitted electronically as an e-mail attachment to Julia Sigwart <

An outline for the assessment of this unit is given at the end of this document.

Class hours:

Tuesday 2:00 – 3:00 pm [lecture]

Wednesday 2:00 – 3:00 pm [lecture]

4:30 – 6:30 pm [workshop]

Please note that there are only 4 workshop sessions, and that some Wednesday afternoon lecture sessions are replaced by assigned library time.


Course Schedule

Week 1. Introduction and Concepts (Tues 30 Jan)

Tues. Lecture 1. Introduction & Logistics; lecture: What museums are For

Wed. Lecture 2. Life after death

Workshop1: Orientation to Beggars Bush (NMI off-site store)

Week 2. Constructing Collections (Tues 6 Feb)

Tues. Lecture 3. Specimen Preservation

Wed. Lecture 4. Keeping what we have

Assignment 1: [team] given a list of potential projects to chose from, turn in names of people in your team (2-3 students), project choice, and 2nd choice.

Week 3. Space and Time (Tues 13 Feb)

Tues. Lecture 5. Tracking species distributions

Wed. LIBRARY TIME: Find and check out / photocopy articles and books about your project group

Workshop2: Documentation

Assignment 2: [team] create an original catalogue of the material in your project collection. Format according to standard style (provided). This will provide the basis for your biodiversity analysis.

Week 4. Phylogenetics (Tues 20 Feb)

Tues. Lecture 7. Types & nomenclature – how to name a species

Wed. Lecture 8. Molecules and Morphology

Assignment 3: [team] Biodiversity worksheet (past, present, and represented diversity) and Distribution maps (past, present, and represented ranges)

Week 5. Curation and Modern Museums (Tues 27 Feb)

Tues. Lecture 9. Modern Museums and Exploration

Wed. LIBRARY TIME: use to complete assignments

Workshop3: materials testing

Assignment 4: [team] Methods and Results sections for your final report (based on Assignments AND additional written work in the style of a technical paper.)

Week 6. (Tues 6 March)

Tues. Lecture 10. [to be announced]

Wed. LIBRARY / READING TIME

Workshop 4: Optional additional workshop if needed to complete Assignments 6 and 7

Assignment 5: [individual] Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion sections for your final report.
COMPLETE FINAL DRAFT DUE: 11 MARCH

Final Week. Conclusions (Tues 3 April)

Tues. Lecture 12. Writing tutorial / Your questions

Wed. LIBRARY / READING TIME

COMPLETE FINAL REPORT DUE: 6 MAY


Deadlines

All assignment must be submitted as e-mail attachments to Julia Sigwart <> by the Sunday they are due (i.e. they must be in Julia’s inbox by the time she checks her e-mail Monday morning.)

Team Assignments are submitted by one member on behalf of your group [team]

Individual Assignments you can work with your group, but submit your own work [ind.]

[team] Sunday 11 February Assignment 1 (project & group selections)

[team] Sunday 18 February Assignment 2 (specimen documentation)

[ind.] Sunday 25 February Assignment 3 (biodiversity workshop & distribution

mapping)

[team] Sunday 4 March Assignment 4 (Results and Methods sections of final paper)

[ind.] Sunday 11 March Assignment 5 (Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion)

Deadline for complete DRAFT of final report

(your group-written Methods and Results sections,
plus your individually-written Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion)

[ind.] Sunday 6 May Deadline for FINAL version of your report


Assessment

There is no formal examination for ZOOL 4023. Intensive practicals and report writing are considered assessment criteria in lieu of an exam. The breakdown of marks is as follows:

15% Formal assignments (Assignment 1 – Assignment 5)

Marks assigned vary between the Assignments. Assignments are always due at 5.00pm on the Friday of the week they are assigned (see course schedule), and must be submitted electronically to the course convenor <>. Late assignments will lose marks.

65% Final Report

Each student will submit an individually written report (i.e. Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion) reporting on curation project procedure and results, justification for work and discussion about value of collection (in particular project and in general), and an Appendix which includes a complete catalogue of the group.

Materials and Methods and Results sections, and the catalogue Appendix, will be written collaboratively between student team members as assignments during the seven-weeks of the course (20% of course mark).

Introduction, Discussion, and Abstract sections will be written individually (40% of course mark).

10% Quality of project work

(curatorial precision, attention to detail, good specimen handling, etc.)

10% Participation

(particularly instructor’s assessment of student contribution to group work)

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