Hello All,
My name is LaRoy Brandt and I am the instructor for the Rainforest Ecology course at the LaSuerte Biological Field Station in Costa Rica. I would like to extend an invitation to students (undergraduate or graduate) who may be interested in studying tropical forest ecology. I am an entomologist by training but I have considerable field experience in many areas of ecology and various groups of animals. Currently, I am revising my syllabus from a course that was focused on insect ecology to a more general course with emphasis on overall rainforest ecology and conservation. I would be glad to customize course requirements to meet any special research interests or help provide onsite supervision of specific research projects. What to expect: During the first week of your stay, we will do quite a bit of hiking with some informal outdoor lectures/discussions about the area in which we will be studying and working. We will also have some reading assignments of classic published literature on Tropical Forest Ecology. Articles from EO Wilson, Bates, and Dobzhansky just to name a few. We will have some classroom time on basic biogeography, plate tectonics, ecological succession, and other ecological topics important to studying in a lowland, wet forest of Costa Rica. Some of this will also be geared at learning to recognize some of the local fauna and flora. In the second week, we will begin coursework on ecological sampling and statistics, especially as it relates to projects evaluating various measures of population and community ecology. This will include but wont be limited to sampling for insects, studying primates, sampling vegetation, bird surveys, sampling for reptiles, and hopefully some small mammal sampling. Essentially, this course will be a field ecology and natural history course focused on a tropical rainforest. The last two weeks of the course will be focused on original field projects developed and conducted by the students. These projects will culminate in an on-site presentation to your classmates. I will be glad to send a formal advertisement flier (.pdf format) to anyone who is interested in this course offering. For additional information, feel free to contact me at [email protected] LaRoy Brandt ****************************************************** LaRoy Brandt, PhD Professor of Biology State Fair Community College 3201 W 16th Sedalia, MO 65351 www.sfccmo.edu <http://www.sfccmo.edu> ****************************************************** Barracuda 410 vers 3.5.12 Checked - Virus Free
