In this course I hope to accomplish three things: I want you to have a working knowledge of the different designs (or "bauplans") of animals, I want you to begin to develop an ability to critically think about the way these different evolutionary lineages are related, and finally I want you to increase your capacity for observation and appreciation of what you see. The following schedule and requirements have been designed to foster these goals.

Picking a text for this course has not been an easy thing to do - the choice has been whether to go for the dense, almost encyclopedic reference that will last you for decades at the cost of sometimes having too much detail and difficult reading or to choose a more digestible text that will have only limited use over the long run. The advice that I got from you after registration indicated no clear preference , therefore, I decided to choose for you the book that I would rather own if I were in your place, Invertebrate Zoology by Edward E. Ruppert and Robert D. Barnes. I think you will need some sort of reference and so I urge you to acquire a copy. I will also place on reserve some alternate texts that you may find useful. For the most part I will not assign readings from the text, but rather expect you to use it to complete your own understanding and as a guide in many of the laboratories.

I will assign papers from the original literature each week. These will be found on reserve in folders in Cornell. In class on Fridays we will discuss these papers and in rotation you will be responsible for helping to lead discussion.

Your grade in this course will come from a variety of sources as described below.

1. Weekly Quizzes - Each Friday, the class will begin with a quiz. There may be up to three potential parts to any quiz - (1) on alternate weeks, you will prepare a question and answer about the material that will be ready to hand in at the beginning of class, (2) you will be presented with "practical-type" questions from slides for which you may use your lab notebook, (3) you will have 1 or 2 short answer questions for which you may not use your notes (in some cases these questions may have been taken from students' questions from the previous week, or may include information from the weekly readings). The majority of these questions will focus on recent material, however, I reserve the right to draw on information from the larger context where I think there are important or interesting points to be made. (Approximately 10 quizzes at 20 points. apiece = 200 points.)

2. Insect or Protozoan Collection - Each student will be required to make a collection of insects or protozoans or to identify to family a set of insects as assigned. The purpose of this exercise is two-fold - to teach you to begin to see organisms that co-habit this planet and to give you the experience of independently categorizing a group of unknown animals. The specifics about the collection will be given in lab and will be graded on a contractual system (e.g. for an insect collection, 13 orders, 50 species = A, 10 orders, 40 species = B, 8 orders, 30 species = C). The collections are due Monday October 7, not later than 5 pm (100 points)

3. Literature Review Paper - Each student will prepare a research review paper on any area of invertebrate zoology that they find interesting. These double-spaced papers will be a maximum of 10 pages in length and have a minimum of 5 recent references (published within the last 10 years). You are required to hand in a reference list on your topic shortly before fall break (Oct. 11). Each student will give a short (10) min talk on their topic during class, lab time or at a brunch at my home Sunday Nov. 10. The papers are due at the beginning of class Wednesday, November 20. There will be no late papers. (100 points)

4. Final Project - In place of a traditional final exam, I will ask you to construct and compare different phylogenies of the invertebrates using a computer program, McClade. We will go over the details of this final event in class. This exercise will be due anytime during finals week up until, but not later than, 5 pm, Dec. 19, l996. (50 points)

5. Class Participation - This grade will come from the weekly discussion sessions, attendance on field trips and laboratory performance. (50 points)

Field Trips - Participation in field trips is important, and usually enjoyable. I expect each of you to attend at least 3 of the 4 off campus trips, and would, of course, welcome you if you wanted to attend all 4.

1. Fresh water field trip on Sunday September 15. Departure time to be specified anon.

2. Trip to the New Jersey Coast, Sunday September 29, l996. Leave Martin parking lot at 8:30 am. sharp. Time, the tide, and these vans wait for no one. We should return in time for dinner.

3. Fossil collection trip, Sunday October 27. Departure time to be specified anon.

4. Trip to Baltimore Aquarium, Friday December 6. Leave Martin parking lot 3:30 pm. We should return by about 11 pm.

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