BILD 3 — Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

This accelerated five-week course introduces students to evolution and ecology while connecting processes at the level of genes and populations to the diversity and distribution of life. The course also considers how human activity affects climate, habitats, and extinction risk, and how evolutionary and ecological knowledge can inform conservation.

Major topics include:

• evolutionary history, evidence for evolution, natural selection, and sexual selection;
• mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, population genetics, and speciation;
• phylogenetic reasoning, the history of life, and human evolution;
• the diversity and evolutionary relationships of bacteria, archaea, plants, fungi, and animals;
• population growth and species interactions within ecological communities; and
• ecosystem processes, global climate change, and conservation.

Lectures are paired with active-learning questions and discussion activities. Students practice applying evolutionary models, interpreting phylogenetic trees, reasoning about biodiversity, and connecting ecological processes across populations, communities, and ecosystems.